Well I finally gave up on trying to find a suitable image of former
Cy Young pitcher Dean Chance as a Detroit Tiger, so through the wonders
of Photoshop, I created one myself for his "Missing" 1972 card (or
"Career Capper" if you prefer).
Check it out:
Not a bad result if I may say so…
I may have to do the same for my other "white whale", Jim Perry as an Oakland A's player.
Anyway, by August of 1971 Chance was closing out a decent 11-year
career, pitching in 31 games for Detroit, with 14 starts and 89.2
innings of work.
That's enough time to warrant a card in the following year's set in
my opinion, especially for a guy who put in some all-star seasons in
the Major Leagues.
Most notably, he had that monster year in 1964 with the Los Angeles
Angels that saw him go 20-9 with a sparkling 1.65 earned run average,
11 shutouts and 207 strikeouts, making him the only pitcher besides a
guy names "Koufax" to win the Cy Young Award
between 1963 and 1966.
In 1967, now as a member of the Minnesota Twins, Chance had another
excellent campaign, posting a 20-14 record with a 2.73 E.R.A., five
shutouts and 220 strikeouts.
By the time he retired, he put together a career 128-115 record
with a 2.92 E.R.A., 33 shutouts and 1534 strikeouts, with two All-Star
game nods and that Cy Young hardware from '64.
