I am trying to locate the name of a major league player from the
1950's who's name was Dickens. I think his first name, or nickname,
was either Gibb, Gib, or Dib.

Syn5 --

There's only one player with a name even close and that is Paul
Dicken, who played for the Cleveland Indians in 1964-1966.  Here's one
of two authoritative baseball site, baseball-reference.com, with the
relevant pages for players whose surname starts with D:
"Players with Last Names Between Di and Dy"
http://www.baseball-reference.com/d/di-dy.shtml

The other authoritative site for baseball data is Baseball Almanac. 
Here I reversed the search, using first name.  We find only Gib
Williams, who played for the Phillies in the 1930s:
http://www.baseball-almanac.com/players/player.php?p=willidi01

In the case of Baseball Almanac, you'll want to use their search
function, as they don't list players alphabetically like
baseball-reference.com

Best regards,

Omnivorous-GA

---

Clarification of Answer by omnivorous-ga on 08 Nov 2004 08:43 PST

Syn5 --

I think that the player that you're seeking is Bob Gibson, also
referred to as Hoot Gibson or "Gibby".  He was signed by the St. Louis
Cardinals in 1957 and started playing in the Major Leagues in 1959.

"Gibby" is a Hall-of-Famer:
http://www.baseball-reference.com/g/gibsobo01.shtml

Sometimes these answers just pop into our heads after sleeping on them . . .

Best regards,

Omnivorous-GA

I found the answers as ambiguous as I anticipated, but they had the
information I needed. Thanks.