Dizzy Dean

Born on January 16, 1910, in Lucas, Arkansas, Dean attended public school only through second grade. He earned his nickname in 1929 in San Antonio, Texas, while in the U.S. Army and pitching for the Fort Sam Houston baseball team. The 19-year-old Dean was on the mound as they took on the MLB's Chicago White Sox. As Dean worked his way through the Sox lineup, an exasperated Chicago manager reportedly yelled "Knock that dizzy kid out the box!" He proceeded to call him "dizzy kid" through the rest of the game, and the moniker stuck.[8]

He made his professional debut in 1930 and worked his way up to the major leagues that same year, throwing a complete game three-hitter for the Cardinals.[9]

Dean was best known for winning 30 games in 1934 while leading the "Gashouse Gang" Cardinals to the National League pennant and the World Series win over the Detroit Tigers. He had a 30–7 record with a 2.66 ERA during the regular season. His brother, Paul, was also on the team, with a record of 19–11, and was nicknamed "Daffy", although this was usually only done for press consumption. Though "Diz" sometimes called his brother "Daf", he typically referred to himself and his brother as "Me an' Paul." Continuing the theme, the team included Dazzy Vance and Joe "Ducky" Medwick.

St. Louis was the southernmost and westernmost city in the major leagues at the time, and the Gashouse Gang became a de facto "America's Team." Team members, particularly Southerners such as the Dean brothers and Pepper Martin, became folk heroes in the Depression-ravaged United States. Americans saw in these players a spirit of hard work and perseverance, as opposed to the haughty, highly paid New York Giants, whom the Cardinals chased for the National League pennant.

Much like later sports legends Joe Namath and Muhammad Ali, Dean liked to brag about his prowess and make public predictions. In 1934, Dean predicted, "Me an' Paul are gonna win 45 games."[6] On September 21, Dean pitched no-hit ball for eight innings against the Brooklyn Dodgers, finishing with a three-hit shutout in the first game of a doubleheader, his 27th win of the season. Paul then threw a no-hitter in the nightcap to win his 18th, matching the 45 that Dean had predicted. "Gee, Paul," Dean was heard to say in the locker room afterward, "if I'd a-known you was gonna throw a no-hitter, I'd a-throw'ed one too!" On May 5, 1937, he bet he could strike out Vince DiMaggio four times in the game. He struck him out his first three at-bats, but when DiMaggio hit a popup behind the plate at his fourth, Dean screamed at his catcher, "Drop it!, Drop it!" The catcher did and Dean fanned DiMaggio, winning the bet. Few in the press now doubted Dean's boast, as he was also fond of saying, "If ya done it, it ain't braggin'." Dean finished with 30 wins, the only NL pitcher to do so in the post-1920 live-ball era, and Paul finished with 19, for a total of 49. The Cards needed them all to edge the Giants for the pennant, setting up a matchup with the American League champion Detroit Tigers. After the season, Dean was awarded the National League's Most Valuable Player Award.

Dean was known for antics which inspired his nickname. In time, perception became reality. In Game 4 of the 1934 World Series against Detroit, Dean was sent to first base as a pinch runner. The next batter hit a potential double play ground ball. Intent on avoiding the double play, Dean threw himself in front of the throw to first. The ball struck him on the head, and Dean was knocked unconscious and taken to a hospital. The storied (and possibly apocryphal) sports-section headline the next day said, "X-ray of Dean's head reveals nothing."[10] The St. Louis Post-Dispatch and the Detroit Free Press merely stated that the X-rays "revealed no lasting injury." However, Dean was reported saying his head was too hard for a baseball to hurt it.

Although the Tigers went on to win the game 10–4, Dean recovered in time to pitch in Game 5, which he lost. After the Cardinals won Game 6, Dean came back and pitched a complete game shutout in Game 7 to win the game and the Series for the Cardinals. The Dean brothers accounted for all four wins, with two each.[11]

Dizzy Dean 1933 Goudey baseball card.

While pitching for the NL in the 1937 All-Star Game, Dean faced Earl Averill of the American League Cleveland Indians. Averill hit a line drive back at the mound, hitting Dean on the foot. Told that his big toe was fractured, Dean responded, "Fractured, hell, the damn thing's broken!" Coming back too soon from the injury, Dean changed his pitching motion to avoid landing as hard on his sore toe enough to affect his mechanics. As a result, he hurt his arm, losing his great fastball. At the time Dean was injured he sported a 12–7 record. He finished the season 13–10.[12]

By 1938, Dean's arm was largely gone. Nonetheless, Chicago Cubs scout Clarence "Pants" Rowland was given the unenviable job of obeying owner P. K. Wrigley's order to buy the washed-up Dizzy Dean's contract at any cost. Rowland signed the ragged righty for $185,000, one of the most expensive loss-leader contracts in baseball history. Dean helped the Cubs win the 1938 National League pennant. The Cubs had been in third place, six games behind the first place Pittsburgh Pirates.[13] By September 27, with one week left in the season, the Cubs had battled back to within a game and a half of the Pirates in the National League standings as the two teams met for a crucial three-game series.[13]

Dean pitched the opening game of the series and with an ailing arm, relied more on his experience and grit to defeat the Pirates by a score of 2–1.[12] Dean would later call it the greatest outing of his career.[12] The victory cut the Pirates' lead to a half game and, set the stage for one of baseball's most memorable moments when in the next game of the series, Cubs player-manager, Gabby Hartnett, hit his famous "Homer in the Gloamin'" to put the Cubs into first place.[14] The Cubs clinched the pennant three days later.[13] Dean pitched gamely in Game 2 of the 1938 World Series before losing to the New York Yankees in what became known as "Ol' Diz's Last Stand".

Dean made a one-game comeback on September 28, 1947. After retiring as a player, the still-popular Dean was hired as a broadcaster by the perennially cash-poor Browns to drum up some badly needed publicity. After broadcasting several poor pitching performances in a row, he grew frustrated, saying on the air, "Doggone it, I can pitch better than nine out of the ten guys on this staff!" The wives of the Browns pitchers complained, and management, needing to sell tickets somehow, took him up on his offer and had him pitch the last game of the season versus the Chicago White Sox. At age 37, Dean pitched four innings, allowing no runs, and rapped a single in his only at-bat. Rounding first base, he pulled his hamstring. Returning to the broadcast booth at the end of the game, he said, "I said I can pitch better than nine of the ten guys on the staff, and I can. But I'm done. Talking's my game now, and I'm just glad that muscle I pulled wasn't in my throat."

In the 1950s, he appeared in guest roles on Faye Emerson's Wonderful Town on CBS and on The Guy Mitchell Show on ABC.

Following his playing career, Dean became a well-known radio and television sportscaster, calling baseball for the Cardinals (1941–1946), Browns (1941–1948), Yankees (1950–1951), and Atlanta Braves (1966–1968) and nationally with Mutual (1952), ABC (1953–1954), and CBS (1955–1965), where he teamed first with Buddy Blattner then with Pee Wee Reese. As a broadcaster, Dean was famous for his wit and his often-colorful butchering of the English language. Much like football star-turned-sportscaster Terry Bradshaw years later, he chose to build on, rather than counter, his image as a not-too-bright country boy, as a way of entertaining fans: "The Good Lord was good to me. He gave me a strong right arm, a good body, and a weak mind." He once saw Browns outfielder Al Zarilla slide into a base, and said, "Zarilla slud into third!" "Slud" instead of "slid" became a frequently-used Dean expression. Thanks to baseball fan Charles Schulz, another Dean expression found its way into a Peanuts strip, as Lucy commented on a batter who swung at a pitch outside the strike zone: "He shouldn't hadn't ought-a swang!"

While doing a game on CBS, Dean once said, over the open mic, "I don't know why they're calling this the Game of the Week. There's a much better game, Dodgers and Giants, over on NBC." Every so often, he would sign off by saying, "Don't fail to miss tomorrow's game!" During rain delays, he was famous for off-key renditions of the "Wabash Cannonball". These manglings of the language only endeared Dean to fans, being a precursor of such beloved ballplayers-turned-broadcasters as Ralph Kiner, Herb Score, and Jerry Coleman.

An English teacher once wrote to him, complaining that he shouldn't use the word "ain't" on the air, as it was a bad example to children. On the air, Dean said, "A lot of folks who ain't sayin' 'ain't,' ain't eatin'. So, Teach, you learn 'em English, and I'll learn 'em baseball."

Dizzy Dean's number 17 was retired by the St. Louis Cardinals in 1974.

• Four time All-Star selection (1934, 1935, 1936, 1937)
• Four consecutive strikeout titles (1934–1937)
• Led National League in complete games four consecutive years (1934–1937)
• World Series champion (1934) – starter and winner of two games
• Three time 20-game winner; won 30 games in 1934
• Elected to the Baseball Hall of Fame in 1953
• MVP in 1934
• Inducted into the St. Louis Walk of Fame[15]
• Despite having what amounted to only half a career, in 1999, he ranked Number 85 on "The Sporting News list of the 100 Greatest Baseball Players",[16] and was nominated as a finalist for the Major League Baseball All-Century Team.
• St. Louis Cardinals retired his number 17 on Sunday September 22, 1974, 67 days after his death.
• In January, 2014, the Cardinals announced Dean among 22 former players and personnel to be inducted into the St. Louis Cardinals Hall of Fame Museum for the inaugural class of 2014.[17]
• Dean was inducted into the Baseball Reliquary's Shrine of the Eternals in 2014.[18]

In October 1961, Dean announced that a company with which he was associated as vice-president, Dizzy Dean Enterprises, would construct a $350,000 charcoal briquette plant in Pachuta, Mississippi shortly after the beginning of 1962.[19] The plant was anticipated to use $200,000 worth of low-quality hardwood scraps each year in the production of 10,000 tons of briquets annually when fully on line.[19]

After leaving sportscasting in the late 1960s, Dean retired with his wife, Patricia, to her hometown of Bond, Mississippi.[20] Dean died July 17, 1974, at age 64 in Reno, Nevada, of a heart attack, and was buried in the Bond Cemetery.[21] Dean's home in Bond was named Deanash, a combination of his name and his wife's maiden name (Nash); it was willed by Dean's wife to the Mississippi Baptist Convention, which operates foster homes for children in a rural setting.[22]

Dizzy Dean's plaque at the National Baseball Hall of Fame and Museum

The Pride of St. Louis, a motion picture loosely based on Dean's career, was released in 1952. Dan Dailey portrayed Dean. Chet Huntley, who would later gain fame as an NBC News anchorman, played an uncredited role in the movie as Dean's radio announcing sidekick.

A Dizzy Dean Museum was established at 1152 Lakeland Drive in Jackson, Mississippi. The Dean exhibit is now part of the Mississippi Sports Hall of Fame & Museum, located adjacent to Smith-Wills Stadium, a former minor-league baseball park.[23]

In the 1971 sci-fi movie The Resurrection of Zachary Wheeler, Leslie Nielsen answers incorrectly "Dizzy Dean, 1935" when asked in which season did a pitcher win 30 games before Denny McLain.

Dean was mentioned in the 1949 poem "Line-Up for Yesterday" by Ogden Nash:

Dean was referenced in the classic TV sitcom The Honeymooners by the character Ed Norton, who justified mooching a second dinner off of Ralph Kramden by saying, "Look, let's face it, Ralph. Dizzy Dean warms up in the bullpen before the game, but he still pitches." Later in the scene, when tensions rise, Kramden quips "Shut up, Dizzy Dean, and eat your spaghetti!"

Dean was parodied in the 1936 Merrie Melodies cartoon Boulevardier from the Bronx with a character named Dizzy Dan.

Dean was also referenced in the 1939 Laurel and Hardy film A Chump at Oxford, when Oliver Hardy unknowingly called the character of the actual dean at the famous Oxford University a "dizzy dean".

Dean is also featured prominently in some versions of Abbott and Costello's "Who's on First?" comedy sketch. In the sketch, Abbott is explaining to Costello that many ballplayers have unusual nicknames including Dizzy Dean, his brother Daffy Dean, and their "French cousin Goofé Dean" ("goofy" pronounced with a French accent).

Actor Ben Jones wrote and performed a one-man play about Dean, entitled Ol' Diz.

The United States Congress designated the U.S. Post Office in Wiggins, Mississippi as the "Jay Hanna 'Dizzy' Dean Post Office" in 2000 by Public Law 106–236.[25] On October 22, 2007, a rest area on U.S. Route 49 in Wiggins, Mississippi, 5 miles (8.0 km) south of Dean's home in Bond, was named "Dizzy Dean Rest Area" after Dean.[26] In Morrison Bluff, Arkansas; about 2 miles (3.2 km) south of Clarksville; there is a restaurant, Porky's, with Dizzy Dean memorabilia.

In 2015, author Carolyn E. Mueller and illustrator Ed Koehler published an animated book titled Dizzy Dean and the Gashouse Gang (ISBN 978-1-68106-002-6). The book showcases the antics of Dizzy and his brother Paul Dean, Joe Medwick, Pepper Martin, player/manager Frankie Frisch, and the 1934 St. Louis Cardinals season in their quest to win their third World Series.

Dizzy Dean in one of the characters of Mr. Vértigo, the novel written by the American author Paul Auster in 1994.

[1]

Dean was an effective hitting pitcher. He posted a .225 batting average (161-for-717) with 76 runs, 8 home runs, 76 RBI and 5 stolen bases. In five World Series pitching appearances (he was also used in one game as a pinch runner), he hit .333 (5-for-15) with 3 runs, 2 doubles and 1 RBI. Defensively, he was about average, recording a .960 fielding percentage which was one point higher than the league average at his position.[1]

• List of St. Louis Cardinals team records
• List of Major League Baseball annual saves leaders
• List of Major League Baseball annual strikeout leaders
• List of Major League Baseball annual wins leaders
• Major League Baseball titles leaders

• Gregory, Robert. (1992). Diz: The Story of Dizzy Dean and Baseball During the Great Depression. New York: Viking Press. ISBN 978-0-670-82141-9.
• Heidenry, John. (2007). The Gashouse Gang: How Dizzy Dean, Leo Durocher, Branch Rickey, Pepper Martin, and Their Colorful, Come-From-Behind Ball Club Won the World Series – and America's Heart – During the Great Depression. New York: PublicAffairs. ISBN 978-1-586-48419-4.
• Shapiro, Milton J. (1963). The Dizzy Dean Story. New York: Julian Messner.
• Smith, Curt. (1978). America's Dizzy Dean. St. Louis: Chalice Press. ISBN 978-0-827-20014-2.
• Staten, Vince. (1992). Ol' Diz: A Biography of Dizzy Dean. New York: HarperCollins. ISBN 978-0-060-16514-7.

Wikimedia Commons has media related to Dizzy Dean.

• Dizzy Dean at the Baseball Hall of Fame

• Career statistics and player information from MLB, or ESPN, or Baseball-Reference, or Fangraphs, or Baseball-Reference (Minors), or Retrosheet
• Dizzy Dean at SABR (Baseball BioProject)
• Dizzy Dean Baseball, Inc.
• Pride of St. Louis Film info at IMDB.com
• Dizzy Dean at Find a Grave
• Dizzy Dean at The Deadball Era