The Deans

Before his team took the field last week for two baseball games in Brooklyn Pitcher Jerome Herman ("Dizzy") Dean of the St. Louis Cardinals remarked: "They will be playing against one-hit Dean and no-hit Dean." In the first game (St. Louis, 13-to-0) Dizzy Dean missed his prophecy. Brooklyn got three hits. In the second (St. Louis, 3-to-0), his younger brother Paul Dean pitched the first no-hit game in the National League since 1929. Only one Brooklyn batter reached first base, on balls in the first inning.

Last spring Dizzy Dean made a prediction even more arrogant than last week's: he and his brother would together win 45 games this season. Paul Dean's victory last week was their 45th. Dizzy Dean's victory, his 27th of the season, broke a Cardinal pitching record that has stood since Cy Young won 26 games in 1899.

The most fabulous characters in modern baseball, the Brothers Dean are natives of Holdenville, Okla. In 1930, his first season in baseball, Dizzy Dean won 26 games in three different leagues: Western, Texas, National. He pitched one game for the Cardinals in 1930, was sent back to Houston in 1931, returned to St. Louis in 1932. This summer he amused crowds by lighting a bonfire in front of the Cardinals' dugout, wrapping himself in a blanket, pretending to be an Indian. He went on strike last spring when the club refused to raise the salary of Brother Paul, a 21-year-old rookie who joined the team this year. A third brother, Elmer ("Goober") Dean, sold peanuts at St. Louis Sportsman's Park until Mrs. Dizzy Dean made him stop because it detracted from her husband's dignity.

Later last week Dizzy and Paul both pitched against Cincinnati, lost 5-to-4. Next day the Cardinals won, but by that time they were two games behind the League-leading Giants. In the American League, the idle Detroit Tigers slid painlessly into the League championship when the second-place Yanks were beaten 5-to-0 by Boston.

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