Baseball Hall of Famer Dizzy Dean was born on this day in 1910. He was born Jay Hanna Dean..or was it Jerome Herman Dean? Dean gave both names in stories.? Dean was a shooting star. He had 4 1/2 brilliant years before an injury basically ruined his career. Dean pitched for the St.Louis Cardinals 1930, 1932-37, Chicago Cubs 1938-41, he came back and pitched one game in 1947 with the St. Louis Browns.

Dizzy’s first 4 seasons 1932-35 he lead the National League in strikeouts each season. He is records the first five years were 18-15/ 20-18/ 30-7 /28-12 and 24-13. In 1937 he was 13-10. In the 1937 All-Star Game he was hit on the foot with a line drive off of the bat of Earl Averill. His big toe was fractured. When told that his toe was fractured the Diz replied “Fractured, hell the damn things broken.” Diz came back too soon and changed his delivery to avoid landing on the toe. He changed his delivery and that led to an arm injury that basically ended his career, he had lost his great fastball.

Dizzy’s brother Paul aka Daffy Dean also pitched for the Cardinals. Before the 1934 season Dizzy predicted that the “Me n Paul will win 45 games” That was the year Dizzy won 30 and Paul won 19. Dizzy Dean is the last National League pitcher to win 30 games in a season. Only Denny McLain has won 30 since with Detroit in 1968. We will never see 30 wins by a pitcher again. At least not as the  game is played now.

Dean was a very colorful player on a very colorful team the 1930’s St. Louis Cardinals “Gas House Gang.”  Dean was known for his bragging. He was the Muhammad Ali of his day. On September 21st 1934 Dizzy and Paul Dean pitched games in a doubleheader. Dizzy pitched the first game- a 3 hit shutout. In the second game Paul pitched a no-hitter. Diz told Paul afterwards ” Gee Paul, if I’d a known you were gonna throw a no-hitter, I’d a throw’ed one too”

In the 1934 World Series in Game 4 he was put in the game as a pinch-runner. A ground ball was hit and Dean going into second base threw himself in front of the throw. The ball hit him in the head knocking him unconscious. He was taken to the hospital and his head was X-rayed. The headline in the paper the next day was “X-Rays of Dean’s head reveals nothing” Dean recovered in time to win games 5 and 7 for the Cardinals.

After his baseball career was over he was worked as a baseball announcer for years. He was known for his colorful and fractured english like “He slud into second” He would often sign off with “Don’t fail to miss tomorrow’s game”  When an English teacher complained that he shouldn’t use “ain’t’ on the radio Dean responded by saying “A lot of people who don’t say ain’t, ain’t eatin’ so teach you teach them English and I will teach them baseball.”

Dean was elected into the Baseball Hall of Fame in 1953. He won 150 games in his short career. His career was basically over at 27. You have to wonder what numbers he would have put up had he not been hit on that toe with the line drive in the All-Star Game.

My memory of Dizzy Dean is -in the early 1970’s one season on the Game of the Week they would have an old announcer as a guest announcer. They had Dizzy a couple times and he was fun to listen to. He would also sing “The Wabash Cannonball” when he was on.

Dizzy Dean died of a heart attack in 1974 at age 64.

below is a link to an audio of the great Diz singing “The Wabash Cannonball”

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