Baseball History Podcast

Arthur Charles Vance, nicknamed “Dazzy,” was born March 4, 1891 in Orient, Iowa.

Although he didn’t play his first full season until age 31, Vance was the dominant National League pitcher of the 1920s.  After a decade in the Minors, Vance joined the Dodgers in 1922 and used his blazing fastball to win 187 games for them over the next 11 seasons.

Welcome to the Baseball History Podcast: Featuring This Week in Baseball History, baseball dictionary and a tour of baseball cities.  I’m your game announcer Bob Wright.

This is game 32 of the 2009 baseball season

In the first inning let’s take a look at This Week in Baseball History for the 1 week of August.

August 1

1924 Dazzy Vance strikes out seven consecutive batters to establish a major league record as the Brooklyn Robins defeat the Cubs, 4-0.

Arthur Charles Vance, nicknamed “Dazzy,” was born March 4, 1891 in Orient, Iowa.

Although he didn’t play his first full season until age 31, Vance was the dominant National League pitcher of the 1920s.  After a decade in the Minors, Vance joined the Dodgers in 1922 and used his blazing fastball to win 187 games for them over the next 11 seasons.

His nickname was fitting; a charter member of the carousing “Daffiness Boys,” he led his Dodger teammates virtually everywhere but to a pennant.

Vance played a decade in the minors before establishing himself as a big league player in 1922 with the Brooklyn Dodgers at the age of 31.

He broke in impressively with one club after another, only to have his arm tire by mid-season.  His great starts earned him one game with the Pirates in 1915, and trials with the Yankees in 1915 and 1918.

He pitched poorly each time and was returned to the minors.  An arm operation, and a manager in New Orleans who allowed him to start on four days’ rest instead of three, proved the cure.  Vance went 21-11 in the Southern League in 1921 and was bought by the Dodgers.  Owner Charlie Ebbets actually wanted Vance’s New Orleans batterymate, defensive catcher Hank DeBerry, and had to take Vance as part of a package.

Vance, starting every fifth day, won the first of his seven strikeout titles as a 31-year-old rookie in 1922.  He often led by wide margins; in 1924, he fanned nearly twice as many as his nearest competitor.

His style was unique and fearsome.  He would rear back – the ball tiny in his huge hand – kick his leg high, waggle his foot, and catapult the ball toward the intimidated hitter.  After living and dying by the fastball for a decade in the minors, he added an outstanding curveball.  In a flamboyant touch of distracting showmanship, he wore a red undershirt with the sleeves sliced into twirling ribbons, making his delivery even more disconcerting.  The tatters were subsequently outlawed.

In 1924, Vance topped the league with a 2.16 Earned Run Average and career highs of 28 wins, 262 strikeouts, and 30 complete games.  He had only six losses.  The Dodgers fell one win short of the first-place Giants, the closest Vance ever came to a pennant in Brooklyn.  He was named National League Most Valuable Player over Rogers Hornsby, who batted .424 for the season.

On September 24, 1924, Vance struck out three batters on nine pitches in the second inning of a 6-5 win over the Chicago Cubs.  He became the fifth National League pitcher and the seventh pitcher in Major League history to accomplish the nine-strike/three-strikeout half-inning.

Vance led the league in wins a second time in 1925, with 22.  On September 13, of that season, he no-hit Philadelphia 10-1, walking one and striking out nine.

He won 22 again in 1928 with a league-best 2.09 Earned Run Average, and he earned a final Earned Run Average title in 1930 with a 2.61 mark.

Vance’s play began to decline in the early 1930s.   After going 12-11 at age forty-one, he was traded to the Cardinals in 1933, where Dazzy joined Dizzy and Daffy Dean.  Though sold to the Reds in 1934, Vance was waived back to St. Louis in time to earn a World Series ring.  He finished up with Brooklyn as a reliever in 1935.

He retired with a 197-140 record and a 3.24 Earned Run Average.  During his career, Vance tied for the National League lead in shutouts four times, compiling a total of 30.  He struck out 2,045 batters and walked only 840- remarkable numbers considering he only saw 33 innings of big league play during his twenties.

Vance was one of the three Dodger runners to wind up on third base at the same time when Babe Herman “tripled” into a double play; although it was actually scored a double.  With Vance on second and Chick Fewster on first, Babe Herman hit a long ball and began racing around the bases.  As he rounded second, the third base coach yelled at him to go back, since Fewster had not yet passed third.  Vance, having rounded third, misunderstood the coach and reversed course, returning to third.  Fewster arrived at third.  Herman ignored the instruction and also arrived at third.  The third baseman tagged out Vance and Fewster; Herman was declared safe by rule.

Dazzy Vance was elected to the Baseball Hall of Fame in 1955.

He died February 16, 1961, in Homosassa Springs, Florida

In this inning we’ll open up the Baseball Dictionary

Under the letter: V

Vance is also mentioned in the poem “Lineup for Yesterday” by Ogden Nash:

V is for Vance,
The Dodgers’ own Dazzy;
None of his rivals
Could throw as fast as he.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lineup_for_Yesterday

For those of you that want to stick around, here’s an

Extra Inning

For those of you that want to stick around, here’s an

Extra Inning

Catching up on Emails:

The first one is from Pops O’Maxfield and starts:

Bob,
Stop mispronouncing LaJoie. It’s not la-joy. Either la-ZHWAH, or la-ZHWAY, or LAJ- a-WAY.  The last way is how he pronounced it.  Also, it’s Henry Chadwick not Harry Chadwick.
Did you ever do Arthur Irwin?

Well, Pops, as I recall, when I did the BHP featuring LAJ- a-WAY I practiced the pronunciation a few times before recording.  However, his name has come up in numerous other BHP’s and that’s probably where I mispronounced his name.

The second one comes from Penny McKibben.  Penny says:

Hi, Bob…

I just discovered your podcast about a week ago, and have been playing catch-up. So far, I have
reached Game 30 of the 2006 season, wherein you gave a brief history of Our Eugene Emeralds.

As I am playing catch-up, I don’t know if you’ve been e-mailed by another fan about this yet, but
you mispronounced the name of one of the streets that borders Civic Stadium here in Eugene. You gave it as “Williamette.” The proper pronunciation is “Wil-LAM-ette. Not to worry much, though, people from all over the country (not the Northwest, in other words) mispronounce the name of our state, too. They tend to say “OR-E-Gone” (which is incorrect). The correct pronunciation is “Orygun,” and to this end, the University of Nike (I mean Oregon) has issued a bumper sticker that reads just that: “ORYGUN.”

On another note, in Game 29, you told us that the college team you follow is coached by
George Horton. He has since been hired by the aforementioned University to lead our very own
resurrected University of Oregon Ducks Baseball team, which began playing this recent February
at PK Park, on Martin Luther King Jr., Blvd. (formerly Centennial Boulevard) next to Autzen Stadium.

For additional information on the UO Ducks Baseball team, you can visit www.goducks.com .

All in all, I’ve been enjoying the podcast, especially the thumbnail biographies of various players.
I do also enjoy the virtual tour of our great nation’s ballparks. I look forward to discovering whether you have done a segment on the Seattle Steelheads and Sicks Stadium. (If you haven’t yet, here’s a vote for it being included in this season’s games.)

Facing a 1-1 pitch, I remain a fan…

Thanks Penny, I do appreciate the corrections from listeners.

My Cal State Fullerton season seats are right next to where Coach Horton’s block of seats were.  I think they now belong to Coach Soranno.  I really enjoy having all of the major league scouts sitting around me.

I’ve also read that Coach Horton will not play the Titans until all of the players that were recruited while he was with CSUF have left the team either by graduation or being drafted.

I’m looking forward to that time that the Ducks come to Fullerton for the first time.  You can bet that I will be in the stands.  I will joining in with the rest of the CSUF fans in giving George a warm welcome.

This next one is from Edward Watson and says:

Bob,

I grew up in a baseball family, my father’s favorite players were Walter Johnson and Ty Cobb. As a child we visited Cobb’s grave while on a family trip in Georgia. My mother nearly named me after Christy Mathewson because she admired his combination of personal character and baseball skill. He was also probably the first baseball star to be known by one name, “Matty.” Could you profile “Big Six” for me?

Thank you for creating the podcast, I’ve enjoyed hearing again many of the names my father discussed when he was alive.

And my answer to Edward:

Thanks for your email.  I appreciated the comments.

Back in May of 2006 I did a BHP on Matty.  You can find it at http://baseballhistorypodcast.com/2006/05/

It was one of my early shows (#23) and may deserve a rewrite sometime in the future.

Thanks for listening to BHP

And this one from Kevin Graham:

Bob,

I’m a big fan of your podcast, it’s on my must listen to list every week. The new website is great as well, just adding a face to the biography makes it so much better. I’m still waiting for a Bobby Murcer bio, it’s long overdue.

I have a baseball blog that is linked below, and I’m trying to get my readership up, and I was wondering if you could help me out. If I send you a 90 second promo for my blog could you play it on your podcast?

Check out my site, it’s a little different than other baseball history sites that you might see. If you like it, and would be willing to run a promo, just let me know. When you check out the site, you’ll notice that this is not a site that’s selling anything, just baseball history.

Thank You for your time, I hope to be hearing from you,

So, let’s go ahead and listen to that promo   (Play promo)

Jim in Los Angeles with another correction:

Hi Bob

I love your podcasts. I am slowly but surely going through them!

I liked the Rocky Colavito one quite a bit. I couldn’t help but mention that Harvey Kuenn’s name is pronounced “Keen”. I might suggest doing a podcast on Harvey. I always found it curious that he was too often referred to as the guy Cleveland traded Colavito for when Harvey was a great hitter himself who amassed over 2000 hits. Harvey will always be a hero to his hometown Milwaukee Brewers fans like myself. He became the namesake of the 1982 “Harvey’s Wallbangers” team that won the Brewers only pennant. The team had a losing record when he took over as manager, and he proved to be the catalyst they needed. He’s also the greatest player to ever come out of the University of Wisconsin, my alma mater. Unfortunately he will probably keep that title since UW no longer has a baseball program.

I hope you enjoy the rest of the season. Keep up the great work on the podcasts!

This email is from Bill Cohn, from Redondo Beach, California

Hi Bob,

I first started follow baseball in 1959 at the age of eight. That season will always be special to me and seeing and hearing names of players from that era brings back a lot of great and vivid memories. Many of the baseball cards from that season remain imprinted in my memory. Your recent Wally Post installment made me do a double take as you described his two assists in one inning during a June 28, 1959 game in which the Giants defeated the Phillies 6-0. The score and teams were familiar and I realized that it was the first game I ever attended. At the beginning of that season, I had become a rabid Giants fan and listened to almost every game. I started to read the sports page every morning which triggered my lifelong love of reading.  I will never forget that sunny day at San Francisco’s Seals’ Stadium in which I entered into a magical world with my parents and younger brother. My most vivid memory that day is of my hero, Willie Mays, crashing against the center field wall to make a leaping catch. We had seats in the first row behind the Giants bullpen in right field and could almost reach out and touch the players. Unfortunately, I was too young and inexperienced to appreciate such a treat. At some point, the Phillies right fielder caught a fly ball very close to the line. I can still see him gracefully moving over to catch it. I now know from reviewing the box score on Retrosheet.org that the catch was made by Wally Post. In another play I always thought that Giant Willie Kirkland (Please profile him in a Podcast someday) was thrown out trying to stretch a double into a triple. However, according to Retrosheet, Kirkland made it to third base, but Orlando Cepeda was thrown out at second. That must have been one of Post’s assists. The Giants came close to the pennant that year, but faded in a heart-breaking finish. Nevertheless, 1959 will always be a wonderful year for me.

Ironically, my family moved to the Los Angeles area the following year. Being too young to have absorbed the Giants-Dodgers rivalry, I sort of shifted my allegiance to the Dodgers. However, the Giants have always had hold on me and I am still happy to see them do well. Willie Mays continues to be my all-time favorite ball player and still brings a tingle to my spine.  I sometimes wonder if I am the only split Dodger/Giant fan in the world!

Thanks for doing the Podcast

Yeah, Bill, you may be the only split Dodger/Giant fan in the world.

­­­

And Jeff Burd sent this email about Tour segments:

I’ve been following your Baseball History podcast and am interested in knowing more about the listener-generated “Tours” segment.  I will find myself in Cincinnatti next week and thought it might be a good opportunity to try this out.

I was hoping you could tell me more about what you look for in these tours.  Being a new subscriber, I’m afraid I’ve not experienced one via your podcast.  Could you direct me to a few that I could access on your website?  Also, do you have any written examples I could peruse?  What suggestions would you make for someone wanting to write such a segment?

Thanks for your time, and good luck with your future podcasts.  I have found them to be most enjoyable.

My response to Jeff said:

My first season of BHP’s had Tour segments in each game.  If you go to http://baseballhistorypodcast.com/ and look for games from that first season you will hear that I featured stadiums and their teams.  Most were minor league ballparks.  There is no specific format to the segment.  If you are interested in composing a segment, just put together about one page of info on the ballpark.  I found most of my information by searching online.  Don’t be concerned about being too professional (I’m certainly not).

If you would like to a part of Baseball History Podcast, submit your written contribution for the tour segment.  I will only be doing the tour when one is sent in by a listener.  You can do the segment on any stadium or team; past or present; Minor League, Major League, Negro League or any league outside of the US.  Write about 1 page in a conversational tone, send it to me, I will record it, and you will get the credit.

You can email me at baseballhistory@gmail.com.

You can follow me on Twitter; I’m BaseballHistory.

Look for the new BHP web site at Baseball History Podcast at baseballhistorypodcast.com.

Well, that’s it for today’s game of Baseball History Podcast.  I’ll see you later at the ballpark.