Dizzy Dean

Played For
St. Louis Cardinals (1930-1937)
Chicago Cubs (1938-1941)
St. Louis Browns (1947)

All-Time Rankings
Dizzy Dean ranks #19 among the Top 50 all-time at SP. Rankings ⇒

Best Season: 1934
In addition to all of the pitching stats he put up, Dean batted .246 with two homers and a .339 slugging percentage. Taking into account his regular season pitching performance, the fact that he pitched almost every big game for the team down the stretch, and his World Series performance, it was one of the best seasons ever by a pitcher.

On the Air
In 1950 Dean began working on the Game of The Week, a job in which he proved perfectly suited and extremely popular. He lasted as a television and radio broadcaster for two decades. He was often controversial or downright frank. One story has it that Dean saw a young couple "necking" in the bleachers during a game. He was reported to have said (on air), "that young feller is kissing her on the strikes and she's kissing him on the balls."

Fightin' Diz
A New York Times article titled "Medwick Pops Off, Dean the Target," from April 28, 1938, reads:

Joe Medwick was hardly in camp an hour, before he fell into Gas House Gang character yesterday in Cincinnati with a blast at Jerome Herman Dean. It seems that Dizzy, in a chapter of his life story, recently published in a New York paper, said that Medwick was the Cardinal who started that row with Jack Miley and Irv Kupcinet a year ago this spring in a Tampa hotel. In the same story, Dizzy said he wasn't in the fight at all."'He's right in one respect,' Medwick wrote to Chicago newspapers. 'He wasn't in the fight after fists started to fly. He usually does a crawfish act about that time. He starts a fight and then somebody else had to protect him. That's what we did at Tampa, and it's true he was running away. The same thing in the fight with the Giants. He tried to bean somebody and when the Giants rushed him, he ran and let us fight his battles. Dean was about to be taken apart in that Tampa hotel when I entered the lobby and saved his life. That Kupcinet was too much for Dizzy. In fact, any man-sized boy is too much for Dizzy. You notice any time he throws a bean ball it's at some little fellow. If he ever gets into trouble while with the Cubs, watch him hide behind Hartnett. The trouble with Dizzy that he can't take it, and he got to thinking maybe Kupcinet, who lives in Chicago, might look him up and take him apart.'" The Cardinals felt good to hear somebody talk in Gas House Gang terms. Perhaps Medwick was just what they needed in more ways than one.

Description
This anecdote is from Leo Durocher's autobiography, Nice Guys Finish Last:

The setting was before the first game of the 1934 World Series, which Dizzy Dean was scheduled to start. The Tigers were on the field taking batting practice when Dean and his teammates arrived on the scene. He (Dean) walked down to the field in his regular street clothes and jumped into the batting cage in front of Hank Greenberg, the big gun for the Tigers. 'I'll show you how to hit the ball, Mo,' he said. There was never anything vicious about Diz, though. Greenberg just laughed at him. Diz hit a couple of good drives, and then Greenberg stepped in and hit one a ton and a half. 'That's the way to hit the ball, Mo,' Dean said. [Dean was] outrageous, but never vicious.

Where He Played
Starting pitcher/relief pitcher.

Born
Jay Hanna Dean was born on January 16, 1910, in Lucas, AR.

Died
July 17, 1974, Reno, NV

Batted:  Right
Threw:  Right

Primary Position:  P

Primary Team:  SLN

Major League Debut
September 28, 1930

Nine Other Players Who Debuted in 1930
Luke Appling
Joe Kuhel
Pinky Higgins
Ben Chapman
Hank Greenberg
Lon Warneke
Tommy Bridges
Lefty Gomez
Dizzy Dean

Nicknames
Ol' Diz

Uniform Numbers
#17 (1932-1937), #22 (1938-1941), #31 (1947)

Family Tree
Paul Dean and Dizzy are the only brothers to combine for 40 wins as teammates in a single season. In 1934, Dizzy won 30 and Paul "Daffy" Dean won 19 for the World Champion Cardinals.

Similar Players
None really, though Don Newcombe scores well on stats alone. Satchel Paige and Pedro Martinez compare to Dean in bravado and showmanship.

Related Players
Earl Averill hit the ball off Dean's toe that ended up short-circuiting the pitchers' career... Paul Derringer beat out Dean for the final roster spot on the 1931 Cardinals.

Hall of Fame Voting Year Election Votes Pct 1936 BBWAA 1 .4% 1945 BBWAA 17 6.9% 1946 BBWAA 45 17.1% 1946 Nominating Vote 40 19.8% 1947 BBWAA 88 54.7% 1948 BBWAA 40 33.1% 1949 BBWAA 88 57.5% 1949 Run Off 81 43.3% 1950 BBWAA 85 50.6% 1951 BBWAA 145 64.2% 1952 BBWAA 152 65.0% 1953 BBWAA 209 79.2%

Post-Season Appearances
1934 World Series
1938 World Series

The Pitches He Threw
Fastball, change of pace, curveball

Awards and Honors
1934 NL MVP

Pitching Feats

• July 30, 1933: ... Dean set the modern record in striking out seventeen Cubs in the first game of a double header at Sportsmans Park on July 30, 1933. The previous record of sixteen was held by Noodles Hahn, Christy Mathewson, Nap Rucker, and Rube Waddell. (Thanks to SABR researcher Rod Nelson)

Transactions
April 16, 1938: Traded by the St. Louis Cardinals to the Chicago Cubs for Curt Davis, Clyde Shoun, Tuck Stainback, and $185000 cash.

All-Star Selections
1934 NL
1935 NL
1936 NL
1937 NL

Replaced
Burleigh Grimes, who was traded to the Cubs for Hack Wilson and another player.

Replaced By
Injuries ended his stellar career.

Best Strength as a Player
His fastball

Largest Weakness as a Player
Conditioning. Dean relied on his remarkable raw talent, and on more than one occassion, he let loose a fast one without properly warming up his celebrated right arm.

Learn More about Dizzy Dean
Search Amazon.com for Books about Dizzy Dean ⇒
Search for Dizzy Dean at Google ⇒
View a map of his hometown at Mapquest ⇒

Sources used for the Dizzy Dean Player Page:
Thanks to SABR member Bill Hickman for the excerpt from Durocher's Nice Guys Finish Last.