Top 106 Baseball Players: #106 - Dizzy Dean

Dizzy Dean

Dizzy Dean was a superstar pitcher for the St. Louis Cardinals in the 1930's, spending 6 years as one of the top pitchers in the entire league and leading the Cardinals to a World Series title, and he was also known as a bit of a braggart, but he backed it up with his performance.

One famous story occurred in 1937, when he bragged before a game that he would strike out Vince DiMaggio 4 times that day. He was successful the first three times they faced each other, then DiMaggio popped the ball up behind the plate the next time he came up. Dean yelled at his catcher to drop the ball, which he did, then Dean finished off the at-bat with another strikeout.

Before the 1934 season, he famously bragged that he and his brother, Paul, would combine to win 45 games that season. The brothers outdid that prediction, winning 49 games between them, not including the 4 games they won in the World Series. Dizzy won 30 games that season, and is still the last National League pitcher to reach that milestone, 84 years later.

That season was the biggest reason that Dean made this list. Not only did he win 30 games, he led the league in strikeouts for the third straight year, pitched 7 shutouts, and was named the league MVP, in addition to posting a 1.67 ERA in the World Series and pitching a complete game shutout in Game 7 to clinch the Series.

During the 1937 All-Star Game, Earl Averill hit a line drive straight back at the mound, hitting Dean in the foot and breaking his big toe. He rushed back from the injury too quickly, which caused him to change up his throwing motion to compensate for the injury, which in turn caused him to injure his throwing arm, effectively ending the productive portion of his career. He did pitch 4 more seasons with the Chicago Cubs, but was never the dominant pitcher he had been before the injury.

After retiring, he became a broadcaster for the St. Louis Cardinals and Browns. While calling a game for the Browns in 1947, he became frustrated with the string of poor pitching performances they had had, commenting on air that he could pitch better than 9 out of the 10 pitchers on their roster. In order to sell some tickets, the Browns had Dean pitch the final game of the season, in which he threw 4 shutout innings and recorded a hit in his lone at-bat, before pulling his hamstring rounding first base and exiting the game. He returned to the broadcast booth, happy that he had proven his point.

Dean retired with 4 strikeout titles, was once the MVP and twice the runner-up, was largely responsible for a World Series title, and was elected to the Hall of Fame in 1953. He may not be remembered much today, owing partly to retiring over 70 years ago and passing away over 40 years ago, but at his best he was one of the best pitchers baseball has seen.