Jay Hanna "Dizzy" Dean (January 16, 1910 – July 17, 1974), also known as Jerome Herman Dean (both the 1910 and the 1920 Censuses show his name as "Jay"), was an American professional baseball pitcher. During his Major League Baseball (MLB) career, he played for the St. Louis Cardinals, Chicago Cubs, and St. Louis Browns.
A brash and colorful personality, Dean is the last National League (NL) pitcher to win 30 games in one season (1934). After his playing career, Dean 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, he was inducted in the inaugural class.
Jay Hanna "Dizzy" Dean was born on January 16, 1910, in Lucas, Arkansas, and 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 it 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.
St. Louis Cardinals (1930, 1932–1937)
Dean 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.
Dean made his major league debut on September 28, 1930, the final day of the 1930 regular season. The 20 year-old earned a complete game win against the Pittsburgh Pirates, allowing only three hits and one run. He did not pitch in the major leagues the following year. Dean pitched his first full season in 1932 and turned in a stellar rookie campaign, leading the major leagues with 191 strikeouts and four shutouts. He improved again the following year, when he pitched a 3.04 ERA and again led the league with 199 strikeouts. Perhaps his finest game of the 1933 season came on July 30, when he set a modern-era record by striking out 17 batters in the first game of a doubleheader against the Chicago Cubs.
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." 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, Bruce Ogrodowski, "Drop it!, Drop it!" Ogrodowski 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. Dean later told reporters, "They X-rayed my head and found nothing". The St. Louis Post-Dispatch and the Detroit Free Press merely stated that the X-rays "revealed no lasting injury."
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.
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.
By 1938, Dean's arm had not recovered. Hopeful it would, Chicago Cubs owner Philip K. Wrigley ordered scout Clarence "Pants" Rowland to buy Dean's contract at any cost. On April 16, Rowland obtained Dean in a trade for three players (pitchers Clyde Shoun and Curt Davis and outfielder Tuck Stainback) plus $185,000 in cash—an enormous sum then. In limited use Dean proved exceptional—going 7–1 and posting a 1.81 ERA, by far the best of his career—helping the Cubs win the 1938 National League pennant. The Cubs had been in third place, six games behind the first place Pittsburgh Pirates. 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.
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. Dean would later call it the greatest outing of his career. 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. The Cubs clinched the pennant three days later. 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".
Returning to the Cubs in 1939, Dean made 19 appearances (13 starts) resulting in a 6–4 record with 7 complete games, 2 shutouts, and a still well above league average 3.36 ERA. The team finished fourth in the NL. Beginning to fail badly, he was limited to just 10 games (nine starts) in 1940 and posted a 3–3 record with a 5.17 ERA, as the Cubs finished fifth in the league. He appeared in a single game during the 1941 season, pitching just one inning while allowing three runs. In mid-May, he announced his retirement as a player.