Dizzy Dean was used as a pinch runner in Game Four of the 1934 World Series. That's a move one doesn't see very often -- a pitcher, much less the staff ace, pinch-running -- and what happened to Dean is probably part of the reason.
A Cardinal batter hit a likely double-play grounder; Dean went into second base standing up in an attempt to break up the double play; and the relay throw from the pivot man hit Dean right in the forehead.
So they picked up the 30-game winner and hauled him off to a hospital. A Detroit paper the next day is reputed to have run the banner headline:
X-RAYS OF DEAN'S HEAD REVEAL NOTHING
Dizzy's brother, Paul Dean (19 wins that season himself) assured reporters his beloved older brother was fine: "He was talking all the way to the hospital."
"What did he say?" inquired a reporter.
"Oh, he wasn't sayin' nothing. He was jus' talkin'."
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