Houston Sports - Dizzy Dean

Dizzy Dean

Born: January 16, 1910

Sport: Baseball (4-time All-Star, MVP, World Series Champion, Hall of Fame)

Before Houston became the home of a major league baseball team, the city played host to some interesting and talented players on their way to becoming stars.  The first record of America's pastime being played in Houston was in 1867, when a field was set up on the grounds of San Jacinto (where Texas fought their decisive battle for independence against the Mexican army) and the Houston Stonewalls defeated the Galveston Robert E. Lees 35-2.  By 1888 an entire league had been set up, based in Houston, and the most famous the various teams to call the city home was the Houston Buffaloes.  This week we'll take a minute to look at the brief time that a future Hall of Fame pitcher called our fair city home, as well as the rest of the story of Jay Hanna "Dizzy" Dean.

Houston's Buffalo Stadium, near downtown

Born in western Arkansas in 1910, young Jay supposedly only attended school consistently until the second grade when his mother died of tuberculosis by the time he was eight years old.  His father, a sharecropper and mill worker, put in long hours and often brought his sons along with him to pick cotton.  Monroe Dean soon remarried a widow who had three children of her own, and the much larger clan began to move around to find work.  Spending time in various states such as Texas, Mississippi, and Oklahoma, Jay began to play sandlot baseball, including a period of time where he and his brother Paul pitched for a middle school in Spaulding, OK.  Eventually the Dean family migrated to Fort Sam Houston in San Antonio, TX, and the oldest two stepbrothers told Jay and Paul about the quality of living that could be found in the military.  Although just 16 years of age, Jay convinced his father to lie about his age so that he could enlist, and during his time of service he played baseball consistently for various teams across the base.  His talent was obvious to everyone, as was his oversized personality, and professional scouts were known to visit the base just to watch him play.  Dean himself told numerous stories about how he developed his nickname, including one version where a Master Sergeant called him clumsy and dizzy to dissuade a scout from trying to sign him, or another where a sergeant caught him throwing potatoes at garbage can lids and tore into him with a string of names starting with "dizzy" and followed by other less-than-respectful epithets.  Early in 1929 he was approached about playing semi-professional team in San Antonio, but had to raise $100 to buy out the remainder of his enlistment time in the US Army.  The team was run by the city's Public Service Utility, so Dizzy had to read gas meters when not playing ball, but it was the start of a career that would eventually make him famous.

Still just a teenager in 1929, Dizzy Dean had already won 16 games in San Antonio when a traveling scout for the St. Louis Cardinals spotted him.  Dean was signed to a contract and got paid $100 per month, starting off at low-A ball pitching for St. Joseph, MO, before being promoted to the Houston Buffaloes where he finished their 1930 season before getting called up to the big-league club.  His cavalier attitude was evident when he got his first car, a Ford that he found at a rental lot.  After driving the car off the lot, he apparently never paid for the car or returned it - he simply parked it once he was tired of driving it, and proceeded to go get another one.  Dean threw one game for St. Louis, a complete game three-hitter that the Cardinals won 3-1 over Pittsburgh.  But despite his performance, his attitude and antics off the field caused problems with his teammates and manager.  Dean racked up over $2500 in bills that he charged to the club, was quite brash and arrogant, and repeatedly broke team rules, so they demoted him back to Houston for the 1931 season.  His attitude didn't change quickly but neither did his talent as he played his way to a 26-10 record, including 303 strikeouts in 304 innings.  But two events finally made a change for Dean.  First, he married Patricia Nash, a cashier he had met in Houston, who was both a calming and nurturing presence in his life during their 43 years of marriage.  Second, his brother Paul (who had earned the nickname "Daffy") was signed with St. Louis and began to catch up with him in the minor leagues.  Having been taught some manners by his wife and being pushed by his brother, Dizzy reported for the 1932 season ready to stick with the big club.

Dizzy Dean's rookie season was a huge success, as he led the league with 286 innings pitched during his 46 games, including 16 complete games and 4 shutouts, and led all of baseball with 191 strikeouts.  His following season was even better, going the distance in 26 of his 48 games pitched with 199 strikeouts, and was the first of four consecutive seasons with 20 wins.  On July 30, Dizzy pitched a remarkable game against the rival Chicago Cubs, setting a modern record by striking out 17 opponents in a nine-inning game.  While not on the field, Dean parlayed his personality into promotion work, endorsing numerous products while also participating a barnstorming tour with some of the top players from the Negro Leagues.  Satchel Paige and Dizzy Dean were crowd favorites, and they continued their offseason arrangements for several offseasons.  In 1934, Daffy finally made the Cardinals pro roster, and the pair became wildly popular for the team that, as both the southernmost and westernmost team in baseball, had fans across the country and earned the nickname "The Gashouse Gang".  Dizzy boldly predicted that he and his little brother would combine for 45 wins, and he missed by four - Dizzy had a staggering 30 wins, becoming the last NL pitcher to ever reach that mark, while Daffy had a respectable 19 win rookie campaign for a combined 49 Dean wins.  Dizzy's incredible season earned him his first of four consecutive All-Star appearances and he won the league MVP.  The Cardinals won the pennant and faced the Detroit Tigers in the World Series, with Dizzy and Daffy accounting for all four of St. Louis' wins as they prevailed 4-3.

Success on the field continued for another two seasons for Dizzy Dean, as he continued to be among the best pitchers in the game with the most complete games.  He placed second in MVP voting during both the 1935 and 1936 seasons, earning All-Star appearances both times.  During 1937, however, after winning 12 games early he was once again selected to the National League All-Star team when disaster struck.  Facing his last batter of the game, Dean was struck on the foot by a line drive, breaking his big toe on his left foot.  He was back on the mound just 10 days later and tried to continue pitching as much as before, but the pain caused him to modify his mechanics.  This led to a serious arm injury, bursitis, from which he never successfully recovered.  After winning just one more game for St. Louis for the remainder of the season the Cardinals traded him to the Cubs before 1938 began, although both teams were aware of the severity of his injury, and over four seasons in Chicago Dean's usage was drastically reduced and he was only able to win 16 games.  Although he did get one last postseason appearance in the Cubs 1938 World Series run, it resulted in a loss as the team was swept by the Yankees.  Two years later, the pain was too much to bear and after pitching just one inning in 1941 he decided to call it quits.  It was a devastating end to one of the most dominant pitching careers of the era that had led Dizzy's Cardinals to be a major draw during the Great Depression, likely second only to the Bronx Bombers that sported the likes of Babe Ruth and Joe DiMaggio.  But while his playing career was over, Dean's next contribution to baseball would pave the way for the sport's popularity over the airwaves.  

Although Dizzy Dean was offered a chance to become the first base coach of the Cubs, a position which he initially took, he was then approached with the opportunity to announce the home games for both the St. Louis Cardinals and Browns.  Dean was a natural announcer due to his huge personality and (sometimes deliberately) balky use of the English language, and alongside the smooth and proper Johnny O'Hara became a fan favorite.  At one point he challenged the Browns players, stating he could still do a better job than any of them, so they signed him to a one-game contract in 1947 to prove it.  The promotional stunt was a huge success, drawing over 15,000 fans to watch Dean pitch four scoreless innings in his final professional appearance before retiring for good.  His announcing career continued to expand, as he called games for additional teams such as the New York Yankees and Boston Braves, and later became a mainstay on weekly televised broadcasts for ABC and CBS until 1965.  Despite his relatively short career Dean was elected into the Hall of Fame in 1953, shortly after 1952's The Pride of St. Louis, a movie loosely based on his life, was released.  Pat's financial advice had paid off richly, as the Deans owned a large ranch and a number of office buildings in the Dallas area, but when his broadcasting career came to a close the couple decided to retire to Pat's hometown of Bond, MS.  Dizzy actually threw his hat in the ring to run for governor there in 1967, but dropped out due to his wife's poor health.  Pat would actually outlive her husband, however, as he suffered multiple heart attacks and passed away in 1974.  Two months after his death the St. Louis Cardinals retired his number 17, and in 1983 he was posthumously inducted into the Arkansas Sports Hall of Fame.  Many years after his passing, cleats worn by Dizzy Dean were still proudly displayed inside the Fingers Furniture store that was built over the former site of Houston's Buffalo Stadium, commemorating both the player and team that called our city their home.

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