R.I.P. pitcher Dean Chance; tossed 2 no-hitters in '67 for Twins

Obit: Pitcher Dean Chance; tossed 2 no-hitters in '67 for Twins

While an Angel, he won the Cy Young in 1964 at the age of 23, and he did so in spectacular fashion with 11 shutouts and a 1.65 ERA. In the second half of that year, he was 15-4 with a 1.29 ERA. He never really lived up to the potential he showed that year, but continued to pitch well enough to manage a lifetime ERA of 2.92 - better, for example, than Lefty Grove, Warren Spahn, Greg Maddux, Pedro Martinez, Roger Clemens, Randy Johnson, David Price, Madison Bumgarner, or King Felix Hernandez (to name just a few great pitchers with worse lifetime ERAs than Chance).

I suppose the reason for his disappointing lifetime total of 128 wins had something to do with the fact that he and his fellow fun-seeking underachiever Bo Belinsky managed to drink and twist the night away with every available model and movie starlet in every toney night spot in the L.A. area. It seemed to a youthful onlooker like a non-stop bacchanalia of "booze and broads," as their pal Sinatra might have said. If their lives had been a movie scene, it would have been one of those 1930s-40s black-and-white montages where they show the neon signs of nightclub after nightclub while glasses clink together and champagne spills to the sexy Cuban and Brazilian rhythms.

Although Chance could bring it, the man could not hit a lick. In 662 at bats over 11 years, he struck out 420 times and managed only two extra base hits, giving him a mighty lifetime slugging average of .069.