RIP Dean Chance

Cy Young Award winner in 1964 (back when there was only one awarded for all of MLB) and one of the first stars for the Angels franchise dies at 74.

Dean Chance, former Angel, Twin, Tiger, dies

 

1964 was a great year for pitchers, but Chance was especially awesome that year.

And he was a stud in the original version of Earl Weaver Baseball.

 

Cy Young winner, two-time 20-game winner ... and he roomed with Bo Belinsky. That was quite an eventful career.

 

He also pitched two no-hitters in the same month for the Twins in 1967, though one was a five-inning perfect game that was later declassified as an official no-no by MLB.

 

I'm guessing that last one brought the most joy to his life.

 

In that Angels Hall of Fame ceremony, he looked like shit (as you can see), but his speech was pretty good and he seemed OK. Wonder what happened. Glad he got the recognition from the Angels that he deserved while he was alive to enjoy it. One helluva pitcher.

 

From his bio on the SABR website: "Chance said of Belinsky, 'Nobody made it with girls the way Bo did. I never learned his secret, but I enjoyed trying.'"

 

RIP. Dean Chance was an awesome pitcher. He turned his back to the plate in his wind-up (maybe in a little less flamboyant way than Luis Tiant and, later, El Duque) but enough to hide the ball and mess with hitters. He only pitched until he was 30, though. I always wonder if he could have been a Hall-of-Fame pitcher if not for the shoulder injury (something that would have been surgically repaired these days) and the years of carousing with Bo Belinsky.

Bo and Dean: A Lifetime of Fun and Friendship | SABR