Dizzy Dean – St Louis Cardinals Biography, Career Highlights, and Facts

Biography, Stories, and Facts About Dizzy Dean

Back in the day before media was printing a sports star’s every spoken word, Dizzy Dean was entertaining fans, the media, and the world like very few sports stars ever have. Dizzy Dean was a natural clown who loved to bring smiles to the faces of all those around him. Few baseball players have done it better, and the stories that have been told about his life are legendary.

Before the 1934 season Dizzy made the outlandish prediction that he and his brother Paul would win over 40 games in one season. They didn’t win 40, they won 49! Dean won 30 games in 1934 in one of the greatest seasons any Major League pitcher has ever accomplished. Dean lead the infamous Gashouse Gang to the National League pennant and a World Series duel with the Detroit Tigers. It was in Detroit where Dizzy Dean would endear himself to fans all across America and establish him as one of the best pitchers and most entertaining baseball players of all time.

Before Dizzy Dean threw his first pitch he made his presence felt. On the day before Game 1, Dean joined the opposing Detroit Tigers during batting practice. There he could be seen bragging to the Tigers team, taunting their players, and taking batting practice using Tigers slugger Hank Greenberg’s baseball bat. After that he was entertaining the media by wrestling with a Tiger’s skin and playing with the stadium’s band. Love him or hate him, Dizzy Dean had a knack of making everyone around him smile.

While Dizzy was a bundle of fun before the game, he was all business after it started. In Game 1, Dean struck out six in an 8-3 victory. In Game 4, he entered the game as a pinch runner. When a grounder was hit to shortstope, he raced to second base to break up a double play and was hit in the head with the baseball. Dean ended up in the hospital with a head injury. The next day’s headline was both funny and comforting to the Cardinal fan at the same time. The headline said “X-Ray of Dean’s Head Reveals Nothing.”

Despite his head injury, Dean returned for Game 7 and pitched a masterpiece. He allowed only one runner to reach third base and clinching the World Series for the St. Louis Cardinals.

Dizzy Dean Interesting Facts:

• One day while being interviewed by reporters, Dizzy Dean gave each a different story of his life. Later, he said that he did this because they all wanted exclusive stories.
• In the 1934 World Series, Dean won two games for the Cardinals while his brother won the other two. This is the only time that two brothers won all four games of the World Series.
• He had so much confidence in his fastball that he would yell to the players that it was coming.
• Dean was one of the few white baseball players who went on barnstorming tours with black pitcher Satchell Paige.
• Dizzy Dean had a movie made in his honor called, “The Pride Of St. Louis”.