Dizzy Dean was born Jay Hanna Dean on January 16, 1911 in Lucas, Arkansas. He was the son of Albert Dean, an itinerant sharecropper who had played semiprofessional baseball as a young man, and Alma Nelson, who died when he was very young.
From the age of ten Deanand his father and two brothers worked as migrant cotton pickers.
Dean had very little formal schooling; he attended primary school through the second grade in Chickalah, Arkansas.
Dean enlisted in the United States Army at the age of sixteen and was stationed at Fort Sam Houston in Texas for three years.
A natural athlete, he was a star pitcher for the Twelfth Field Artillery team. On his discharge he joined a semiprofessional team in San Antonio, where he was discovered by a baseball scout. In 1929, Dean signed a contract to play for the minor league St. Joseph, Missouri, team; he then moved up to the Houston team in the Texas League. In 1930, he was called up to the St. Louis Cardinals. His brother Paul Dee Dean also played for St. Louis from 1934 to 1940.
Pitching in the major leagues for the St. Louis Cardinals from 1930 to 1937, and for the Chicago Cubs from 1938 to 1941 (with one sad attempt at a belated comeback in 1947 with the St. Louis Browns, where he appeared in one more game), Dizzy won 150 games, lost 83, and finished with 1, 115 strikeouts and an earned-run-average of 3. 03. During that span, Dizzy turned in some amazing seasons.
At the beginning of the 1934 season, for example, Dizzy predicted, "Me and Paul are going to win 45 games. " He was almost right. In 1934, Dizzy and Daffy won 49 games between them - of course, Dizzy won 30 of them, leading the league with most victories, while he lost only 7, compiling a league-leading won-lost percentage of . 811. That year he also led his league with 24 complete games.
On September 24, 1934, Dizzy, in the first game of a double-header, pitched a one-hitter against the Dodgers. In the second game, his brother Paul pitched a no-hitter. When reporters talked to Dizzy after the game about the no-hitter, Ol' Diz told them, "If I had known what Paul was going to do, I would have pitched one too. "
In 1935, Dean experienced a slight dropping off. He won only 28 games that year (once again leading the league with most victories) and lost 12. However, 29 of those decisions were complete games. From 1933 through 1936, Cardinal relief pitchers had little work when Dizzy was on the mound. If Dizzy's exploits made his manager thank his lucky stars, Dizzy's practical jokes off the field were enough to cause his manager to pull out his hair. Not for nothing were the St. Louis Cardinals, with Leo Durocher, Daffy and Dizzy Dean, Frankie Frich, Ducky Medwick, Wild Bill Hallahan, and Pepper Martin dubbed the Gashouse Gang.
Dizzy's lifetime achievements in the big leagues no doubt would have been more impressive if his career had not been cut short by injury. During the 1937 All Star Game, the twenty-six-year-old pitcher broke his toe. To compensate for the injury, Dizzy began to experiment with his pitching style, and soon he damaged his throwing arm. The decline was swift and painful.
From 1938 until the end of his career, Dizzy won only 16 more big league games. After retiring from the game, Dizzy played golf and took up broadcasting. Because he handled (or mishandled) the English language with the same degree of humor and nonchalance that had characterized his days in a Cardinal uniform, Dizzy soon became a radio and (eventually) a television legend; he called himself a "commulater. " "And now the playershave gone back to their respectable positions, " he would announce, describing a player's brow as covered with "pressperation. "
Dizzy died in Reno, Nevada. The epitaph he composed for himself reads: "There'll never be another like me. "
Dizzy Dean is remembered, by some estimates, as the greatest pitcher of his era. He was Four time All-Star selection (1934, 1935, 1936, 1937), Four consecutive strikeout titles (1934-1937), Led National League in complete games for four consecutive years (1934-1937), World Series champion (1934) - starter and winner of two games, Three time 20-game winner. He was elected to the Baseball Hall of Fame in 1953 and to the St. Louis Walk of Fame. In 1952, Hollywood released a movie about Dean's life. The Pride of St. Louis featured Dan Dailey playing the role of the pitching star. 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", and was nominated as a finalist for the Major League Baseball All-Century Team. 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.
Quotations: On radio, when a listener wrote in to complain that Dizzy did not know the King's English, Dizzy responded: "Ol' Diz knows the King's English. And not only that. I also know the Queen's English. " When listeners protested that he should not use the word ain't over the airwaves, Dizzy defended himself in his own inimitable style. "Why, shore I say ain't, " he told his critics, "but a lot of people who don't say ain't, ain't eating. " Dean went on to ask: "What's wrong with ain't? And as for saying 'Rizzuto slid into second' it just ain't natural. Sounds silly to me. Slud is something more than slid. It means sliding with great effort. "
In 1937, Dean suffered an injury after being hit in the toe by a line drive. Trying to return from the injury too quickly, Dean hurt his arm and largely lost his effectiveness.
Quotes from others about the person
Dean's nickname is explained on the back of card 6 of the 1934 series of Big League Baseball Cards published by Goudey Gum Company of Boston: "Dean made the White Sox dizzy trying to bat against him several years ago and so they dubbed him 'Dizzy. ' He's been making them dizzy ever since. "
On June 10, 1931, Dizzy married Patricia Nash, a Houston store clerk, who had to lend her husband-to-be the two dollars for the marriage license. They had no children.
The Cardinals did their best to talk Dean out of the marriage, but Dean refused to listen. To the shock of the Cardinals, the marriage turned out to be the best thing that could have happened to Dean. His wife, who also acted as his business manager, brought order to his chaotic life and put him on a strict savings plan.
