Dizzy Dean

Baseball Player

• Born: January 16, 1910
• Birthplace: Lucas, Arkansas
• Died: July 17, 1974
• Place of death: Reno, Nevada

Sport: Baseball

Early Life

Jay Hanna Dean was born on January 16, 1911, in Lucas, Arkansas, but spent much of his early years on the move, following his father, Albert Dean, a professional cotton picker. Jay and his two brothers, Elmer and Paul, were raised by their father after their mother, Alma Dean, passed away. When the boys were old enough to pick their weight in cotton, they earned two dollars a day working alongside their father. Albert Dean had played semiprofessional baseball and taught his sons the game.

The Road to Excellence

Jay really learned to play baseball in the U.S. Army. Even though the tall, husky youngster was too young to join the service legally at sixteen, he convinced the recruiting sergeant that he was eighteen. Jay soon became the ace pitcher for the Twelfth Field Artillery at Fort Sam Houston in San Antonio, Texas. Realizing that he had a future in baseball, he tried to get out of his four-year commitment to the service. At that time, soldiers could purchase their release; therefore, Jay convinced his father to give him $120 to buy his discharge from the service.

After pitching semiprofessional ball in San Antonio, his reputation as a hard-throwing right-hander spread. In 1930, Don Curtis, a bird-dog scout for the St. Louis Cardinals, saw Jay pitch a few times in a San Antonio industrial league and quickly signed him to a contract. The nineteen-year-old hurler received a salary of three hundred dollars a month, a princely sum during the heart of the Depression. Jay created a stir in the minor leagues, carousing on and off the field, all the while pitching sensationally. Here, Jay acquired his nickname, “Dizzy,” as he got in scrapes with his teammates, opposing players, and the law.

Dizzy pitched so well in his first year in the minors that he earned a shot with the parent club in September. Although Dizzy did not pitch for the Cardinals until late September, after the ball club had clinched the pennant, he impressed management when he held the hard-hitting Pittsburgh Pirates to only three hits.

Charging expenses to the club without permission and addressing his superiors by first name did not endear Dizzy to the Cardinals front office. Even though Dizzy was clearly ready to pitch in the majors during the 1931 season, the Cardinals management felt that he was too brash and sent him down to the minors—a clear message that his antics were not appreciated. Dizzy had another excellent season in the minors in 1931, winning twenty-six games while posting an impressive earned run average of 1.53. Dizzy married Patricia Nash that summer.

The Emerging Champion

After that great season, the Cardinals could not keep Dizzy in the minors any longer, and he immediately became one of the most valuable members on the team. The ball club was nicknamed the “Gashouse Gang” for its outrageous antics on and off the field, and Dizzy reflected the team’s character. Dizzy and teammate Pepper Martin regularly played practical jokes in dugouts and hotels. Between the white lines, Dizzy won eighteen games in his first full year in the big leagues, 1932, aided by his fastball, a fast curve he called his “crooky,” and pinpoint control. During one five-day stretch in August, he won three games. During the 1933 season, Dizzy won twenty games, striking out a then-record 17 batters in one game. An irrepressible character, Dizzy made predictions, missed games, and generally created outrageous publicity—and headaches for management—throughout his career. He also convinced the Cardinals to sign his hard-throwing younger brother, Paul.

In 1934, Dizzy brazenly predicted that “me and Paul” would win forty-five games combined during the upcoming campaign. Dizzy was wrong: They accumulated forty-nine wins. Dizzy collected thirty victories, garnered the National League (NL) most valuable player award, and led the team to a pennant and a World Series triumph against the Detroit Tigers.

Dizzy’s off-the-field antics created as much stir as his accomplishments on the mound. At one point in 1934, Dizzy and Paul missed an exhibition game. Manager Frankie Frisch fined Dizzy and Paul one hundred dollars and fifty dollars, respectively. In response, the Deans went on a two-man strike. Frisch reacted by suspending them and, during a heated shouting match, told them to take off their uniforms if they were not going to play. Dizzy and Paul complied by ripping their home uniforms into shreds in front of their incredulous manager. When wire-service photographers lamented that they had missed the uniforms episode, Dizzy and Paul promptly tore up their road uniforms for the benefit of the photographers. The Deans were summoned to the office of the Commissioner Judge Kennesaw “Mountain” Landis, who publicly admonished the brothers, docked them one week’s pay, and then reinstated them.

A fitting climax to the bizarre 1934 season was the World Series against the Detroit Tigers. In the series, Dizzy won two games, pitching a shutout in the deciding game. During the series he bragged incessantly, took batting practice with the Tigers, played a tuba, and squeezed the tail of an oversized toy tiger. During the fifth game, Dizzy was beaned while running the bases by a throw from Detroit shortstop Billy Rogell. He was taken to the hospital, and the famous headline that appeared the next day read, “X-Ray of Dean’s Head Shows Nothing.”

Continuing the Story

Over a four-season span—from 1932 to 1935—Dizzy averaged a stunning twenty-four wins a season. He not only led the National League each year in strikeouts, but in two of those four years, he also led the league in innings pitched. In 1936, Dizzy started in the regular rotation and, amazingly, also came out of the bullpen to relieve on 17 occasions, notching 11 saves. The tireless hurler started the 1937 campaign by pitching 20 scoreless innings in a row.

When the team went to Boston in 1937, Dizzy predicted he would strike out outfielder Vince DiMaggio four times in one game. After fanning the first three times at bat against Dizzy, Vince, Joe DiMaggio’s brother, managed to lift a weak foul pop behind the plate. When catcher Bruce Ogrowdowski was just about to catch it, Dizzy screamed at the confused catcher to let the fly drop. The catcher complied, and then Dizzy fulfilled his boast by striking out the forlorn DiMaggio for a fourth time. In another wacky incident in May, 1937, Dizzy, upset over a balk called against him several days earlier, began a protest strike of sorts on the mound against the balk rule. Dizzy stalled so long that it took him more than 10 minutes to throw three pitches.

In the 1937 all-star game, Dizzy was hit on the toe by a batted ball. After he was removed from the game, he learned that the toe was broken. Dizzy stayed sidelined for only two weeks and resumed pitching too soon. Because he still had to favor his sore toe, he altered his pitching motion. The result of the change in pitching mechanics was a sore arm that never really improved. After that point, Dizzy lost the speed on his fastball and never regained his pitching prowess. He continued to pitch until 1941, on guile and guts, with only mixed results.

After his early retirement in 1941, at the age of thirty, Dizzy became a radio and television broadcaster, giving new meaning to the expression “color” commentary. A born self-promoter, Dizzy relied on his “down-home,” folksy humor and colorful syntax to regale baseball fans. A runner did not slide into a base, he “slood.” When, in turn, a runner was thrown out, Dizzy informed listeners that the player “got throwed out.” At one point, the St. Louis Board of Education criticized him for his repeated use of the substandard expression “ain’t.” Dizzy’s response was typical: “A lot of folks that ain’t saying ain’t, ain’t eatin’.”

Summary

Dizzy Dean was a baseball original, his antics and attitude, legendary. Although his career was cut short by arm miseries, he was unstoppable in his prime. Full of himself, he entertained fans while unnerving teammates and infuriating opponents.

During his shortened career, he won 150 games and compiled a 3.02 earned run average. In 1953, he was elected to the National Baseball Hall of Fame. After his baseball career, he endeared himself to millions of Americans on radio and television broadcasts over the course of the next quarter-century. In addition to his work with the St. Louis Cardinals, he also did play-by-play for the New York Yankees and the CBS and NBC Game of the Week telecasts. He died in Reno, Nevada, on July 17, 1974.

Bibliography

Feldmann, Doug. Dizzy and the Gas House Gang: The 1934 St. Louis Cardinals and Depression-Era Baseball. Jefferson, N.C.: McFarland, 2000.

Heidenry, John. 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: Public Affairs, 2007.

Lee, Bill, and Jim Prime. Baseball Eccentrics: The Most Entertaining, Outrageous, and Unforgettable Characters in the Game. Chicago: Triumph Books, 2007.

Roberts, Russell. One Hundred Baseball Legends Who Shaped Sports History. San Mateo, Calif.: Bluewood Books, 2003.