#140 Dean Chance - Los Angeles Angels

Wilmer Dean Chance
Los Angeles Angels
Pitcher

Bats:  Right  Throws:  Right  Height:  6'3"  Weight:  200
Born:  June 1, 1941, Wooster, OH

Signed:  Signed by the Baltimore Orioles as an amateur free agent before 1959 season
Major League Teams:  Los Angeles Angels 1961-1965; California Angels 1966; Minnesota Twins 1967-1969; Cleveland Indians 1970; New York Mets 1970; Detroit Tigers 1971

Died:  October 11, 2015, Wooster, OH (age 74)

Dean Chance shot to stardom early and enjoyed several dominant seasons with the Angels and Twins in the mid-1960s.  He was the youngest ever (at the time) to win the Cy Young Award in 1964 when as a 23-year-old he went 20-9 with a 1.65 ERA for the Angels.  He led the league that season in wins, ERA, complete games, shutouts and innings pitched and was third in the league with 207 strikeouts.  Against the powerhouse Yankees, Chance made five starts throwing four complete games and three shutouts, pitching to an 0.18 ERA over 50 innings.  He was an All-Star in 1964 and 1967.  Desperate for offense, the Angels dealt Chance to the Twins before the 1967 season.  He won 20 games that season, pitching a no-hitter against the Indians on August 25th, and Chance was named A.L. Comeback Player of the Year for his efforts

He spent the final seasons of his big league career with Twins, Indians, Mets and Tigers, primarily as a reliever.  Chance retired with a career 128-115 record and a 2.92 ERA over 406 appearances.  His 1,534 career strikeouts are currently 206th all-time and he was inducted into the Angels Hall of Fame in 2015.

Building the Set
May 15, 2021 from Lake Havasu City, AZ - Card #281
After adding a number of star cards in April, I decided I should focus on a group of commons for our set in May.  I set out specifically to add reasonably priced cards from the set's second series and I found a few eBay sellers running specials on recent set breaks.  In total, I added 23 cards over three-day period with this Chance card coming from Kyle's Sports Cards located in Lake Havasu City, Arizona for $4.

When these cards arrived, life was slowly returning to a pre-pandemic pace with Little League baseball games, tennis and piano lessons on the calendar.  There was a little over a month of school remaining and everyone was anxious and excited for summer vacation.

The Card / Angels Team Set
Chance appears on four cards in the set, this card and three league leaders cards.  I'll know for sure once I'm closer to completing the set, but I believe that will tie the record for number of appearances in the set with Bob Gibson (#320) and Elston Howard (#450) also appearing on four cards.  For his Cy Young Award winning season, Chance received a hero number and his successful 1964 campaign is highlighted on the back of the card.

Chance, at card #66, is one of 72 players featured within the 1965 Topps Embossed insert set and one of three Angels in the set.  He's also in the harder to find 1965 Topps Transfers insert set.

1965 Season
Chance came back down to Earth somewhat after his career year in 1964, going 15-10 with a 3.15 ERA over 36 appearances and 33 starts.  It was Chance's first year in the majors without his roommate and  partner in Hollywood night life crime, Bo Belinsky (#225), who had been dealt to the Phillies in the offseason.  Chance, Fred Newman (#101) and Marcelino Lopez (#537) were the top three starters for an Angels team that finished in seventh place in the American League.

1962 Topps #194

1963 Topps #355

1964 Topps #32

1968 Topps #255

1971 Topps #36

Other Notable Baseball Cards
First Mainstream Card:  1962 Topps #194
Topps Flagship Set Appearances (10):  1962-1971
Most Recent Mainstream Card:  2007 Upper Deck Sweet Spot Classic #135

121 - Chance non-parallel baseball cards in the Beckett online database as of 7/16/21.

Sources:  
Baseball Reference
Beckett Database
SABR
The Trading Card Database

Wikipedia

Previous Card:  #139 World Series Summary

Next Card:  #141 Charlie James - Cincinnati Reds

#7 1964 A.L. ERA Leaders - Chance & Horlen

Beginning in 1961, Topps started including league leader cards in its sets and there are 12 league leaders cards kicking off the 1965 Topps set.

Building the Set
August 21, 2020 from Charleston, SC - Card #141
In my largest (by volume) purchase to date, I spent an enjoyable hour or so in mid-August browsing the eBay store of seller mantlerulz and clicking Add to Cart on 30 different cards.  We had previously added 29 cards to our set back in February from the Philly Show.  The 30 cards, all commons, cost me $52 total (before shipping and taxes) with the cards ranging in prices from $1 to $6.  I love this haul and I found the seller's store by accident when I was browsing eBay in an attempt to add a few more cheap cards from the set's first series.  With the exception of the cards for Dick Howser (#92) and manager Birdie Tebbets (#301), along with the few former Phillies in the lot, most of the players featured on these cards are unknown to me.  In the coming weeks, I'll go through each of these new cards for our set in detail, and we've now passed the quarter mark for completion of the complete set.  We still have a long way to go, and quite a few pricey cards to add but any day I can add 30 commons in excellent shape and at a low prices is a great day.

This league leaders card was $2.50, and we now have 9 of the 12 league leaders cards in the set.

The Card
I'm assuming to be consistent with the N.L. ERA Leaders (#8) card, featuring only Sandy Koufax (#300) and Don Drysdale (#260), Topps decided to feature only the top two A.L. ERA Leaders here as well.  That means Whitey Ford (#330) and his 2.13 ERA got the shaft here, all because Chris Short wouldn't sign a contract with Topps and couldn't be featured on the N.L. ERA Leaders card.

This is the third and final appearance for Dean Chance (#140) on an A.L. leaders card, as he's also on the A.L. Pitching Leaders (#9) and A.L. Strikeout Leaders (#11) cards.  Chance's four appearances on four different cards in the set has to make him one of the most represented players (if not the most represented) in the entire 598-card run.  This was the only time Chance led the league in ERA during his 11-year career.

Joel Horlen (#480) finished second twice in ERA with a 1.88 mark in 1964 and a 2.43 mark in 1966.  He finally topped the league in 1967 with a 2.06 ERA over 258 innings pitched - a career high for him.  The 1964 White Sox starting pitching rotation boasted three different pitchers in the top five for ERA in 1964 with Horlen at second, Gary Peters (#430) fourth and Juan Pizarro (#125) fifth.

Angels Team Set / White Sox Team Set

Prior Card:  #6 1964 N.L. RBI Leaders

Next Card:  #8 1964 N.L. ERA Leaders

#9 1964 A.L. Pitching Leaders - Chance, Peters, Bunker, Pizarro & Wickersham

Beginning in 1961, Topps started including league leader cards in its sets and there are 12 league leaders cards kicking off the 1965 Topps set.

Building the Set
August 5, 2020 from Cincinnati, OH - Card #137
In early August, I hit an eBay slump and lost out on every single card I had placed a reasonable bid on from a dealer breaking up a 1965 Topps set.  It seems to me a lot of former and new collectors have returned or entered the hobby as an escape from the pandemic, and I'm noticing card prices for these 1965 Topps cards continuing to increase.  I had bid on several cards up for auction from this set break, all graded EX+ or NM, with my highest bids being around $2.50.  Every single card went for much more than that, with final winning bids ranging from $8.50 to $18.  Again, these were all commons and from the relatively prevalent first series of the set.

Surprised by the outcome of those auctions, I turned to the always reliable Dean's Cards and the easier approach of clicking Buy It Now on four cards from the first series I felt were reasonably priced.  This League Leaders card was the second most expensive card I added, having spent $20 on the Frank Howard (#40) card.  I'll feature the last two cards added from this mini shopping trip in upcoming posts.

The Card
I asked this question already with the N.L. Pitching Leaders card, but I've always wondered why Topps labelled these cards "Pitching Leaders" and not "Victory Leaders" since they were showcasing the pitchers with the most wins?

Dean Chance (#140) and Gary Peters (#430) were the American League's only two 20-game winners in 1964.  Chance would win 20 games again in 1967 for the Twins, while Peters would never again reach that plateau.  Wally Bunker (#290), Juan Pizarro (#125) and Dave Wickersham (#375) earned smaller head spaces on the bottom row of the card with 19 wins each.  Of those three pitchers and throughout the rest of their careers, only Bunker would win more than 10 games again as he went 12-11 for the Royals in 1969.

As they had done on his base card, Topps misspelled Jim Kaat's (#62) name on the back of this leaders card too.  Kaat had 17 wins in 1964.

Angels Team Set / White Sox Team Set / Orioles Team Set / Tigers Team Set

Prior Card:  #8 1964 N.L. ERA Leaders

Next Card:  #10 1964 N.L. Pitching Leaders

#11 1964 A.L. Strikeout Leaders - Downing, Pascual & Chance

Beginning in 1961, Topps started including league leader cards in its sets and there are 12 league leaders cards kicking off the 1965 Topps set.

Building the Set
February 13, 2020 from Los Angeles, CA - Card #50

eBay can be a dangerous place during long work days in the winter, and on a long work day in early February I found myself once again browsing through listings from a 1965 Topps set break from Greg Morris Cards.  I again bid on 20 cards, placing my maximum bid on each of the 20 and then vowing not to go back and increase my bid if someone else came in over me.  I stuck to my vow, and came away with another 11 new cards for our set, including this League Leaders card.  I didn't track my original minimum bids, but I won this card for $2.82.  This is the milestone 50th card added to our set.

I'm going to try to stay away from eBay auctions for a little bit, as it's more fun (albeit occasionally more expensive) to add these cards one at a time at the baseball card shows we attend.  As of this writing, there's another Philly Show coming up in a few weeks, and I'd like to hold off on adding any more cards to our set until then.  Also as of this writing, 2020 Topps Series 1 has found its way onto retail shelves, and I posted my thoughts on the newest Topps flagship set over at my other blog, The Phillies Room.

The Card
This is the only time in his 17-year career that Al Downing (#598) would lead the league in strikeouts.  He'd finish in fifth place in the league in 1965 with 179 strikeouts.  Camilo Pascual (#255) had previously led the league in strikeouts three times, doing it in 1961, 1962 and 1963.  He came five strikeouts short of doing it for the fourth year in a row, and after 1964 he never struck out 200 in a season again.  Dean Chance (#140) finished in the top 10 in strikeouts in six different seasons, getting closest to the top spot in 1964 and 1967 when he finished in third place both seasons.

And poor Dick Donovan got cut from the back of the card, as he tied Fred Newman (#101) for 51st place with both having 83 strikeouts in 1964.  Imagine being Donovan and flipping this card over to see that Topps had to choose between him and Newman and they went with Newman.

Yankees Team Set / Twins Team Set / Angels Team Set

Prior Card:  #10 1964 N.L. Pitching Leaders

Next Card:  #12 1964 N.L. Strikeout Leaders