Remembering Dean Chance

One man who had a hard time forgetting standout Angels pitcher Dean Chance was Yankees legend Mickey Mantle.

Once, after he swung and missed at a Dean Chance darting fastball away at the knee, Mantle turned to Angel catcher/pitch-caller Bob Rodgers and pleaded, “C’mon, Buck.  This ain’t fair!”

Mantle went 13-for-53 in his career against Chance for a .245 average. Dean struck Mantle out 17 times, good for 32% of Mickey’s at bats against him. It got so bad that Mantle was quoted as saying about the Angel hurler, “Every time I see his name on a lineup card, I feel like throwing up.”

But it wasn’t that Dean Chance was picking on Mickey Mantle—he was tough on everyone.  In his six-year Angels career, from 1961 to 1966, Chance had an ERA of 2.83, an ERA+ of 122, and had crafted more than 150 strikeouts in a season four times.  His best year, of course, was his Cy Young season of 1964 when he won 20 games with a 1.65 ERA, 11 shutouts, and 207 strikeouts. Dean got a whopping 85% of the votes for the Cy Young that year, especially impressive considering there was just a single award for both leagues at the time—Dodgers lefty Sandy Koufax, who had a 1.74 ERA and over 200 strikeouts that year, got only one vote.

Dean Chance’s talent as a pitcher was regularly on display at Northwestern High School in Wayne, Ohio, where he had 18 no-hitters in his high school career. He was quickly signed by the Baltimore Orioles in 1959, and he pitched well in their minor league system, winning 22 games in two years. In December of 1960 a shift in the American League’s landscape was about to intervene in Chance’s career path, though, as the league held its first ever expansion draft in order to build rosters for the budding Los Angeles Angels and Washington Senators.

Even though Dean had pitched well for the Orioles in their minor leagues, Baltimore decided to leave Dean unprotected in the draft. The Orioles had a wealth of great young arms in their system, so they felt like they could survive without Chance. Also, management decided to risk putting him in the draft pool because his brash, cocky attitude made them a little uncomfortable.

The Senators chose Chance with the 48th pick of the draft, but at the conclusion of the proceedings, the Angels and Senators were required to complete several trades since the rules stated that each team was required to have a certain number of pitchers and a certain number of position players on their roster by the end of the day.

So it was then that the Angels made one of the best trades they had ever agreed to: Dean Chance from the Senators for outfielder Joe Hicks.

Chance got his cup of coffee with the Angels as a September call-up in 1961, but then he broke camp with the Halos in 1962 and was a star player for them from then on. He was a key member of the 1962 team that saw the Angels in first place on July 4th and had the second-year Angels chasing the Yankees for the pennant deep into September. Chance won 14 games as a starter and had eight saves as a reliever with a 2.96 ERA for that ’62 team. Dean often referred to that year as the most fun he ever had in baseball.  Not only was the team winning, but this was the year he became best friends with one of sport’s most legendary bon vivants, Bo Belinsky. Bo was a devilishly handsome fellow who threw the first no-hitter in Angel history in May of the 1962 season, and with national gossip columnist Walter Winchell’s help, that feat quickly made Belinsky one of the most famous men in America.

Bo and Dean were inseparable that year. They hung out at Ernie’s House of Serfas with other sports celebrities like L.A. Lakers shooting guard Rodney “Hot Rod” Hundley.  After the conclusion of their games, they hit up all of the night clubs in Los Angeles, including the Cocoanut Grove supper club at the Ambassador Hotel where they sat with Frank Sinatra to catch Eddie Fisher’s act. They even were invited by FBI chief J. Edgar Hoover to visit him and fire off some Tommy guns at the bureau’s range when the Angels were in town to play the Senators.

But in spite of all the fun he had off the field, Dean Chance was always in beast mode when he was on the mound pitching for the Angels. Take, for example, his game on June 6, 1964 against the Yankees at Dodger Stadium.  In that contest, Dean pitched 14 innings and gave up no runs, three hits, and two walks against the mighty Mickey Mantle/Roger Maris/Clete Boyer/Elston Howard/etc. New York Yankees.  He also had 12 strikeouts in that game before he was lifted in the bottom of the 14th for a pinch hitter.

The Angels parted ways with Dean after a 1966 trade with the Twins for three of Minnesota’s hitters.  Dean went on to have an ERA under 3.00 for the Twins for the next three seasons.  Dean then kicked around with the Indians, Mets, and Tigers before calling it a career in 1971.  He ended up with 128 wins and a 2.92 ERA during his eleven-year career in the majors.

Wilmer Dean Chance passed away at his home in Ohio on Sunday at the age of 74.