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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 (). 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.
Dean was best known for winning 30 games in 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 Medwick.
St. Louis was the southernmost and westernmost city in the major leagues at the time, and the Gashouse Gang became a de facto "Cardinal Nation." Team members, particularly Southerners such as the Dean brothers and Pepper Martin, became folk heroes in the Great 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". "They X-rayed my head and found nothing", Maria Gallagher, New York Times, April 5, 1992 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.Diz: The Story of Dizzy Dean and Baseball During the Great Depression, Robert Gregory, Viking Adult (February 13, 1992)
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.
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.
In 1942, Dean appeared in one game for the Superior Blues, a Class C team in the Northern League; as the starting pitcher, he allowed three runs in two innings, and then played in the outfield.
While doing a game on CBS, Dean once said, over the open mic, "I don't know why they're calling this the Game of the Week. There's a much better game, Dodgers and Giants, over on NBC." Every so often, he would sign off by saying, "Don't fail to miss tomorrow's game!" During rain delays, he was famous for off-key renditions of the "Wabash Cannonball". These manglings of the language only endeared Dean to fans, being a precursor of such beloved tongue-tangled ballplayers-turned-broadcasters as Ralph Kiner, Herb Score, and Jerry Coleman.
An English teacher once wrote to him, complaining that he shouldn't use the word "ain't" on the air, as it was a bad example to children. On the air, Dean said, "A lot of folks who ain't sayin' 'ain't,' ain't eatin'. So, Teach, you learn 'em English, and I'll learn 'em baseball."
In the 1950s, Dean appeared in guest roles on Faye Emerson's Wonderful Town on CBS and on The Guy Mitchell Show on ABC.
After leaving sportscasting in the late 1960s, Dean retired with his wife, Patricia, to her hometown of Bond, Mississippi.
After retiring to Mississippi, Dean was investigated for his role in an interstate gambling ring but was ultimately not charged. The indictments handed down in the United States District Court for the Eastern District of Michigan in 1970 named him and his nephew, Paul, as co-conspirators but not defendants. He denied any wrongdoing and cooperated as a witness.
Dean died July 17, 1974, at age 64 in Reno, Nevada, of a heart attack, and was buried in the Bond Cemetery. The Baseball Necrology Dean's home in Bond was named Deanash, a combination of his name and his wife's maiden name (Nash); it was willed by Dean's wife to the Mississippi Baptist Convention, which operates foster homes for children in a rural setting.
A Dizzy Dean Museum was established at 1152 Lakeland Drive in Jackson, Mississippi. The Dean exhibit is now part of the Mississippi Sports Hall of Fame & Museum, located adjacent to Smith-Wills Stadium, a former minor-league baseball park. Mississippi Sports Hall of Fame & Museum
In the 1971 sci-fi movie The Resurrection of Zachary Wheeler, Leslie Nielsen answers incorrectly "Dizzy Dean, 1935" when asked in which season did a pitcher win 30 games before Denny McLain.
Dean was mentioned in the 1949 poem "Line-Up for Yesterday" by Ogden Nash:
Dean was referenced in the classic TV sitcom The Honeymooners by the character Ed Norton, who justified mooching a second dinner off of Ralph Kramden by saying, "Look, let's face it, Ralph. Dizzy Dean warms up in the bullpen before the game, but he still pitches." Later in the scene, when tensions rise, Kramden quips "Shut up, Dizzy Dean, and eat your spaghetti!"
Dean was parodied in the 1936 Merrie Melodies cartoon Boulevardier from the Bronx with a character named Dizzy Dan.
Dean was also referenced in the 1939 Laurel and Hardy film A Chump at Oxford, when Oliver Hardy unknowingly called the character of the actual dean at the famous Oxford University a "dizzy dean".
Dean is also featured prominently in some versions of Abbott and Costello's "Who's on First?" comedy sketch. In the sketch, Abbott is explaining to Costello that many ballplayers have unusual nicknames including Dizzy Dean, his brother Daffy Dean, and their "French cousin Goofé Dean" ("goofy" pronounced with a French accent).
Actor Ben Jones wrote and performed a one-man play about Dean, entitled Ol' Diz.
The United States Congress designated the U.S. Post Office in Wiggins, Mississippi as the "Jay Hanna 'Dizzy' Dean Post Office" in 2000 by Public Law 106–236. On October 22, 2007, a rest area on U.S. Route 49 in Wiggins, Mississippi, south of Dean's home in Bond, was named "Dizzy Dean Rest Area" after Dean.
In Morrison Bluff, Arkansas, about south of Clarksville, there is a restaurant, Porky's, with Dizzy Dean memorabilia.
In 2015, author Carolyn E. Mueller and illustrator Ed Koehler published an animated book titled Dizzy Dean and the Gashouse Gang (). The book showcases the antics of Dizzy and his brother Paul Dean, Joe Medwick, Pepper Martin, player/manager Frankie Frisch, and the 1934 St. Louis Cardinals season in their quest to win their third World Series.
Dizzy Dean in one of the characters of Mr. Vértigo, the novel written by the American author Paul Auster in 1994.
Branch Rickey, who was the Cardinals' general manager during Dean's time with the club, had a high regard for both Dean's talent and his character, while remaining bemused by Dean's casual interpersonal skills. After one of their talks, the well-educated Rickey said, "Tell me why I spent four mortal hours today conversing with a person named Dizzy Dean."[7]
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Dean was an effective hitting pitcher. He posted a .225 batting average (161-for-717) with 76 runs, 8 home runs, 76 RBI and 5 stolen bases. In five World Series pitching appearances (he was also used in one game as a pinch runner), he hit .333 (5-for-15) with 3 runs, 2 doubles and 1 RBI. Defensively, he was about average, recording a .960 fielding percentage which was one point higher than the league average at his position.
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