Some more on the first man to win a Cy Young for a former expansion team.
Dean was originally an Orioles farmhand before being taken in the expansion draft. Here he is at spring training in 1960, after a good first year at Bluefield.
After six years with the Angels and three with the Twins, Dean was traded to Cleveland after the 1969 season (the Graig Nettles-Luis Tiant trade). While many of Dean's Tribe pics show him in the sleeveless 1964-1969 uniform (because they were taken during spring training), here he is in two shots at Detroit, in proper 1970 colors.
With the defending World Champion Mets in danger of blowing a pennant race in a very weak NL East, Chance was purchased in mid-September to bolster the Amazins' staff. We see him being welcomed to the team on September 19th, first hanging out with Tom Seaver and Gary Gentry, and then with Seaver escorting the "new kid" to his own locker. Having been tied with Pittsburgh on Tuesday, September 15th, but then backsliding by losing two games at lowly Montreal and the Friday opener against the Pirates at Shea, the Metsies now found themselves 2.5 games behind, and looked to Chance to help stabilize things.
However, all three Mets pitchers in the shot would fail over the upcoming weekend. Gentry was outdueled by Luke Walker on Saturday, losing 2-1, and after Jerry Koosman got that game back by winning the opener of the Sunday doubleheader, Seaver took the mound in the nightcap, opposed by the immortal Fred Cambria. And was outpitched by Cambria, getting booed off the mound as he was knocked out in the 6th. (Granted, he only left down 3-2 [Danny Frisella let the inherited runners score, so Tom was charged with five runs], but he was in a skid that had taken him from 17-6 to 18-10 [he would finish at 18-12] and the Shea faithful were understandably annoyed at his loss of form.)
Still, the Mets tied the game ("Stubbornly, almost sullenly, they rallied; a Boswell home run in the 6th, three hits in the 7th," to quote Roger Angell's account of this game in his
New Yorker piece, "The Baltimore Vermeers"), until the top of the 10th, when Willie Stargell (big shock) homered off of Tug McGraw to give the Bucs the lead. (McGraw was starting his 4th inning of work, but that's 1970 for you…) After a Manny Sanguillen single and a George Kopacz sacrifice, Chance made his Mets debut, being summoned to put out the fire. He intentionally walked Dave Cash, and then gave up a triple to Gene Alley, sealing the loss. Well, not really a triple…Tommie Agee and Rod Gaspar collided going for the ball…but still, two insurance runs (a third scored when Dave Giusti squeezed Alley home), and the game, series, and eventually season were lost.
(It's interesting to note that Chance is seen here wearing #27, when both Baseball-Reference and Wikipedia have him only wearing his familiar #32 as a Met. Did the team originally give him the uniform that Don Cardwell [and his impressive chest hair] left behind when the Mets sold him to Atlanta in July, and only later dug up a #32 for Dino? [No Met had worn #32 that year.] They would have had to work fast, as Chance made his Mets debut the day after these pictures, as noted. Or is it a goof?)
Chance made two more appearances for the Mets, was traded to the Tigers at the end of spring training the next year, and retired that season, due to back problems. He was inducted into the Angels' Hall of Fame this past August.