(Updated July 21, 2020)
In 1933, during his second full season in the big leagues, Dizzy Dean of the Cardinals was developing a reputation as a fearless pitcher who could work his way out of any situation.
That cool under pressure helped him survive a tough jam off the field as well.
Dean walked into a St. Louis drugstore while an armed robbery was in progress. One of the robbers stuck a pistol in Dean’s stomach and ordered him into a back room.
Dean, his wife, Patricia, and everyone else in the store survived the holdup unscathed.
The incident added to the legend of a 23-year-old pitcher who was attracting as much attention for his demeanor as he was for his arm.
In the summer of 1933, The Sporting News wrote, “Dean has a lot of ego, both off and on the field. … It is the result of a supreme confidence in himself. … Breaks against him never daunt him, for, in his opinion, all things must come his way eventually.”
It’s a stickup
At about 11 o’clock on the evening of July 21, 1933, Dean and his wife arrived at the Forest Park Hotel on the corner of Euclid Avenue and West Pine Boulevard in St. Louis. Dean and his wife resided at the hotel.
Dean lingered in the lobby while his wife entered the hotel drugstore. Soon after, two men with guns came into the drugstore and ordered the half-dozen or so customers, including Mrs. Dean, into a rear room. Before Mrs. Dean complied, she discreetly slipped her purse, containing about $50 and a wristwatch, into an ice cream box behind the counter, the St. Louis Star-Times reported.
As the customers went into the back room as instructed, the robbers told proprietor Sam Levitch to stay with them and to empty his pockets. The bandits were searching Levitch and taking whatever money he had on him when Dean came into the drugstore. Dean was there to inspect a movie camera he was considering purchasing and to view home movies of the Cardinals taken with the camera, according to the St. Louis Post-Dispatch.
Dean noticed the two men standing near Levitch but didn’t think anything was amiss. “They were just kids,” Dean told the Post-Dispatch.
One of the armed men stuck a gun in Dean’s stomach and said, “Get in that room and stay there,” the Star-Times reported.
Dean thought it was a practical joke. “I thought that guy had a water gun and was just playing,” Dean told the Star-Times.
Dean pushed the man’s shoulder, laughed and said, “Quit kidding.”
Thinking the man was there to see the home baseball movies, Dean said, “Come on, let’s get going.”
Levitch said, “Dizzy. this is a real stickup.”
No joking matter
“I felt awfully weak all of a sudden,” Dean told the Star-Times. “I went into that other room pretty quick.”
The robbers didn’t recognize Dean, according to the Star-Times.
With everyone except Levitch in the back room, the robbers went to the cash register, grabbed about $200 and fled. They made no attempt to rob any of the customers, the Star-Times reported.
As the robbers ran to the street, Mrs. Dean followed and “saw them drive away in a roadster” with an Illinois license plate, the Post-Dispatch reported.
According to the Star-Times, Dean told the other customers after the bandits fled, “I came here to see a motion picture and ran into a real-life thriller.”
Dean later told the Star-Times, “I sure was in one tight spot. It was worse than being in the box with the bases loaded and nobody out.”
After the dust settled, Dean stayed in the drugstore, watched the home baseball movies and bought the movie camera, the St. Louis newspapers reported.
Honor among thieves
On July 24, 1933, three days after the armed robbery, Dean told the Star-Times, “A mysterious telephone call came to me today. The voice said it was one of the bandits speaking. He said he had nothing against me personally and to show it he would send me a half-dozen neckties.”
Later that day, a half-dozen neckties, wrapped as a gift, arrived for Dean, “and are they beauties,” he boasted to the Star-Times.
Dick Farrington, a columnist for The Sporting News, wrote, “Dizzy Dean was held up the other night. Reports say this was the only time Diz has been known to keep his mouth shut and his pockets open.”
Unfazed, Dean delivered one of the most dominant performances of his Hall of Fame career when he struck out 17 Cubs on July 30, 1933. Boxscore
Wrote Grantland Rice: “This Cardinal star has everything a great pitcher needs _ more smoke than a burning oil well, a fine curveball, good control, a cool head and plenty of heart.”
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