Cy Young Award-winning righthander Dean Chance, who played three seasons for the Twins in the late 1960s and threw two no-hitters in the same month while with Minnesota, has died.
Obit: Dean Chance; won Cy Young with Angels, All-Star with Twins
Chance posted 20 victories and had a 2.73 ERA while striking out 220 batters in 1967 for the Twins.
October 12, 2015 at 11:54AM
Chance was 74. Details about his death have yet to be officially disclosed, but former Twins teammate Jim Kaat said it appeared Chance died of a heart attack. A funeral home in Chance's hometown of Wooster, Ohio, confirmed he died Sunday.
Chance won the Cy Young as baseball's best pitcher in 1964 for the Los Angeles Angels — from 1956 to '66, only one pitcher in the majors won the award each year. That season, he went 20-9, with a 1.65 ERA and 207 strikeouts. At the time, he was the youngest pitcher to win the award, at age 23.
Chance died two months after being at Angel Stadium in Anaheim for his induction into the Angels Hall of Fame.
The Angels traded Chance to the Twins in December 1966 in a deal that sent Pete Cimino, Jimmie Hall and Don Mincher to California. In his first season with the Twins, the righthander went 20-14 with a 2.73 ERA while striking out 220 batters in 283⅔ innings. He was named an All-Star for the second time in his career.
On Aug. 6, 1967, Chance pitched five perfect innings in a 2-0, rain-shortened victory against Boston (baseball recognized non-nine inning no-hitters until 1991). Then on Aug. 25, he no-hit Cleveland and won 2-1.
He was 16-16 with a 2.53 ERA in 1968, then 5-4 with a 2.95 ERA in 20 appearances in an injury plagued 1969. After that season, the Twins sent him, Bob Miller, Graig Nettles and Ted Uhlaender to Cleveland for Luis Tiant and Stan Williams.
Chance, who was signed by the Orioles in 1959 and made his big-league debut for the Angels in 1961 vs. the Twins, went 128-115 with a 2.92 ERA in 10 seasons with five teams, including the Mets and Detroit.
He was well known for his exploits off the field, too. With teammate Bo Belinsky, he would pal around Hollywood with the likes of Frank Sinatra and Marilyn Monroe.
The Associated Press and Los Angeles Times contributed to this report.
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