“Don’t fail to miss tomorrow’s game”

American baseball pitcher and broadcaster Dizzy Dean (1910-1974) was known for his colorful use of language. He sometimes ended his shows with:
 
“Fans, don’t fail to miss tomorrow’s game!”
 
Dean meant “don’t miss tomorrow’s game,” but adding the word “fail” conveys the opposite of that. “Don’t fail to miss tomorrow’s game” was cited in print in 1946.
 
     
Wikipedia: Dizzy Dean
Jay Hanna “Dizzy” Dean (January 16, 1910 – July 17, 1974), also known as Jerome Herman Dean, was an American professional baseball player. He played in Major League Baseball as a pitcher for the St. Louis Cardinals, Chicago Cubs and the St. Louis Browns. A brash and colorful personality, Dean was the last National League pitcher to win 30 games in one season. After his playing career, he became a popular television sports commentator. Dean was elected to the Baseball Hall of Fame in 1953. When the Cardinals reopened the team Hall of Fame in 2014, Dean was inducted among the inaugural class.
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Every so often, he would sign off by saying, “Don’t fail to miss tomorrow’s game!”
 
21 July 1946, The Idaho Sunday Statesman (Boise, ID), “Teachers Suffer as Dizzy Broadcasts” (AP), pg. 11, col. 5:
Dizzy is taking the barrage of publicity calmly. He continued his graphic, if not grammatical expressions, such as:
(...)
Don’t fail to miss tomorrow’s game.
 
Google Books
How to Talk Baseball
By Mike Whiteford
New York, NY: Sterling Publishing Company Incorporated
1996
Pg. 48:
“Don’t fail to miss tomorrow’s game,” he (Dizzy Dean—ed.) told the fans, and he repeatedly said “ain’t.”
     
Google Books
776 Stupidest Things Ever Said
By Ross Petras and Kathryn Petras
New York, NY: Broadway Books
2001
Pg. 96:
Fans, don’t fail to miss tomorrow’s game.
Dizzy Dean
 
Google Books
Sportscasters/Sportscasting:
Principles and Practices
By Linda K. Fuller
New York, NY: Routledge
2008
Pg. 7:
Dizzy Dean: “Fans, don’t fail to miss tomorrow’s game.”
   
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“Fans, don’t fail to miss tomorrow’s game.”
Dizzy Dean, d 37y ago today
4:20 PM - 17 Jul 2011