Wednesday, February 28, 2024

REVISITING AN OLD BLOG POST: 1972 MISSING IN ACTION DEAN CHANCE

Today we revisit another ten-year-old blog post, this one my "missing in action" 1972 card and "career-capper" for former Cy Young Winner Dean Chance, who wrapped up a nice career with a handful of games with the Detroit Tigers in 1971:


Here's the original write-up from that post:
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."