The man widely considered “The Greatest Little-Leaguer Who Ever Lived” has died.
Art “Pinky” Deras, who led Hamtramck to the Little League World Series championship in 1959, died at a local hospital early Sunday morning following a brief illness. He was 75.
Deras’ death was confirmed by the National Polish-American Sports Hall of Fame, which inducted Deras in 2011. Deras’ son Kevin confirmed his death to The News on Sunday night. The cause of death wasn’t officially announced, though Deras has had health issues in recent years.
Deras resided in Sterling Heights, following a 30-year career in law enforcement. He retired in 2001 as a detective with the City of Warren Police Department.
The News last spoke to Deras in late August 2021, for his reaction on the Taylor North team winning the Little League World Series, joining Deras’ team as the only two from Michigan to win the championship.
Deras was surprised it took so long for another team from Michigan to join the boys from Hamtramck.
“I thought long ago it would’ve been broken,” he told The News last summer. “I don’t know by who, but 62 years is a long time. I knew sooner or later, somebody from Michigan would have to win it.”
“You guys did something awesome,” Deras added, when asked what he would say if given the chance to talk to the 11 players from the Taylor North team. “You should be proud.”
Deras certainly was proud of his accomplishments, and those of his teammates.
Deras and Hamtramck dominated all season long in 1959, but particularly in South Williamsport, Pennsylvania, for the Little League World Series, where it outscored three opponents, 24-1.
Hamtramck beat Puerto Rico, 5-0; Hawaii, 7-1; and California in the final, 12-0.
Hamtramck finished the season with 13 consecutive wins, much on the strength of Deras’ play. That season, Deras finished with 75 consecutive scoreless innings, 16 shutouts in 18 starts, and 10 no-hitters. He had 298 strikeouts in 108 innings, with 10 walks. From 46 feet, he was clocked at 71 miles per hour, which looks like a 100-mph fastball from 60 feet. And at the plate, Deras had 12 home runs in 13 postseason games; on the year, he batted a .641 with 33 homers and 112 RBIs.
Deras had many fond memories of that 1959 season, but wasn’t one to be boastful.
Until a documentary on his Little League career came out in 2010, Deras’ two sons knew very little of just how big a deal their dad was back in the day.
“It wasn’t made a big deal of in the family or in the local circle of friends; outside of that, apparently, it was huge,” Kevin Deras told The News on Sunday night. “All the facts that came out, things we didn’t know. I mean, we made some assumptions, like, ‘Hey, Dad won a game in the ’50s.”
“He was not a boastful man. He was very reserved, was not one to brag at all. If asked about it, he’d discuss it. But he was more interested in Tigers baseball and just what was going on locally.
“He never put it out there that he was a part of history.”
Hamtramck’s feat was celebrated locally and nationally, welcomed home by a crowd of more than 2,000 fans, and invited to the Lawrence Welk show in Los Angeles, Disneyland and a Los Angeles Dodgers game. The team is in the Michigan Sports Hall of Fame.
The feat came back when they used wooden bats, and there were no pitch counts, assuring Deras’ record numbers on the mound never will be broken.
“They won’t allow it,” Kevin Deras said. “He’s definitely something that we will never see again.”
After his epic amateur career — he was 5-foot-9 and 135 pounds in Little League, 6 feet by Pony League, and earned eight varsity letters at Hamtramck High School, in both football and baseball, leading both teams to league championships, before graduating in 1964 — Deras signed an $80,000 contract with the St. Louis Cardinals, choosing them over his hometown Detroit Tigers because the Cardinals offered more money.
Deras, who got the nickname “Pinky” from his grandmother shortly after his birth and never got an explanation why, also passed up a full-ride scholarship to play football for Duffy Daugherty at Michigan State.
He played five seasons in the Cardinals’ minor-league system, never rising above Double A, before joining the Army Reserve and, eventually, the Warren Police Department.
Deras’ story was told in a documentary, “The Legend of Pinky Deras: The Greatest Little-Leaguer There Ever Was,” which was produced by Buddy Moorehouse and Brian Kruger. Kevin Deras said the documentary gave his father renewed energy and purpose later in life. As for the rest of the team, they held a reunion banquet in 1984, but hadn’t had one since. Deras watched bits and pieces of Taylor North’s championship run in 2021, channel-surfing between ESPN and the Weather Channel.
“Every once in a while, I’ll think about the way we ended up winning it,” Deras told The News in 2021. “Of course, I was supposedly the star of the team, but don’t forget we had to have another pitcher. I couldn’t pitch every game. I think about him a lot. He just passed away (in 2014), Sidney Cline. He pitched every other game when we were advancing to Williamsport.
“We knew we did something exceptional, but we didn’t realize how big it was until we got back home. People were throwing those banquets, parades. We didn’t realize it was big of a thing. To us, really, basically it was just another game we had to win.”
Deras is also survived by son Adam, daughter Debbie, former wife Jane, and seven grandchildren.
Funeral arrangements were pending Sunday night.
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Twitter: @tonypaul1984
