August 6, 1935: A Walk Off Big Blast For Dizzy

     On August 6, 1935, Dizzy Dean recorded his 18th win of the season by hitting a tenth inning three run walk off shot off of Reds reliever Emmett Nelson that gave the Cardinals a crazy 6-3 victory in front of a home crowd at Sportsman's Park. The table was set for Dean when Bill Delancey doubled and Charley Gelbert was issued a free pass before Leo Durocher moved Gelbert over with a sacrifice. Dizzy, who had come on in relief in the seventh stepped to the plate just hoping to put wood on the ball, and that he did, as he came around on it and rocked it over the wall in left. The walk off shot was Dizzy's seventh home run of his career. He only hit eight, and only one of those was a walk off shot. Unfortunately, I could not find a good quote from Dizzy after he hit that one, because you know he had a few in him.

     According to the Society of American Baseball Research only 32 pitchers have hit a walk off home run, which includes one that happened by a hurler in the American Association, and another that came off the bat of a Federal League hurler. The last time it was accomplished by a pitcher came in 1986 when a fever ridden Craig Lefferts blasted a walk off that gave his Padres a dramatic win over the Giants in San Diego.

Check out the box score here: http://www.baseball-reference.com/boxes/SLN/SLN193508060.shtml