The Dean Boys

1934

The Dean brothers were born in the backwoods town of Lucas, Arkansas. Neither were good at schoolwork, but both could throw a baseball. Older brother Dizzy joined the Gashouse Gang Cardinals in 1931. When his younger brother Paul (Daffy) was called up to play in 1934, Dizzy boldly acclaimed that he and his kid brother would combine to win 45 games. He was wrong. They won 49, and put the Cardinals into the World Series. Dizzy (Jay) got his nickname when a frustrated minor league manager exclaimed “get that dizzy kid out of there”. Daffy, Paul’s nickname, was created by the St Louis Press as an attention grabber. Dizzy was the quirky boastful one, Daffy was much more reserved and hated his nickname.  The brothers, particularly Dizzy, created countless headlines in the St Louis newspapers. Often due to Dizzy’s outrageous and humorous boasts, i.e. after Dizzy threw a three hit shutout in the first game of a doubleheader, Daffy threw a no hitter in the second game – “If I had known he was going to throw a no hitter, I would have thrown one too”.  Other times, not so funny, were conflicts with the team management regarding contracts including once tearing up the team locker room after one such disagreement and then both of them went AWOL from the team for a week. The only thing not controversial about the Dean boys was that without them, there would not have been a pennant for the Redbirds in 1934.

Dizzy was inducted into the Hall of Fame in 1951 and, due to his wit and over the top personality, went on to a successful career as a national baseball announcer with CBS and ABC.