Charles Arthur Vance was born March 4, 1891, in Orient, Iowa. His father was Albert Theophilus Vance, a farmer, and his mother, Sara Elizabeth; He was their fifth child. When he was young, they moved to a farm in Pleasant Hill Township. Located in Webster County, Nebraska. Webster County is very near the Kansas state line. Vance attended high school but made his baseball reputation pitching for a semi-pro team near Hastings. He married Edythe Carmony, daughter of a railroad worker, and they set up their home in Hastings. They would live there until 1925. Their son Bob was born there in 1918, and a daughter came along a few years later.
Vance, 6’2″, 200lbs, broke into professional baseball in 1912 when he joined the York Prohibitionists of the Class-D Nebraska League. Vance was known for his fastball at the time, and he slowly moved up the ladder. In 1914 he split time in two leagues, winning 26 games, but he strained his arm, pitching four games in six days. After that, his arm usually gave out early in the season, and he was sent to another team. ” Something went wrong with my arm. I could no longer throw hard, and it hurt like the dickens every time I threw,” he said.
In 1915, his contract was purchased by the Pittsburgh Pirates. He lost his MLB debut on April 16th and was promptly traded to the New York Yankees. He lost all three of his decisions there. He was sent to St. Joseph and once again had arm trouble. The Yankees got him treatment, and he got another shot in 1918, and it did not go well. The Yankees would send him out on options, and he bounced around in A and AA ball for the next few seasons. In 1920, he found himself in New Orleans.
While pitching in New Orleans, he was playing poker one night when he banged his arm on the table raking in a pot. He immediately felt intense pain. When it had not gone away the next morning, he went to see a doctor. This doctor found what the previous ones had missed. No one knows exactly what the surgeon did, but Bill James speculated that he removed bone chips and debris from Vance’s elbow. That explanation makes a lot of sense.
After the surgery, Vance found that he no longer experienced pain when he pitched, and his fastball was Dazzling again. Owner Charles Ebbets sent a scout down to New Orleans to scout a catcher they wanted, Hank DeBerry. DeBerry could be purchased, but they wanted Brooklyn to take a pitcher, too, and that pitcher was Vance. Ebbets balked and said no. He could have had Vance earlier and passed. New Orleans replied, no Vance, no DeBerry. Just as Ebbets was about to say no to the whole thing, the scout, Larry Sutton, told him he had talked to DeBerry, and he said he was playing well because Vance was making him look good. According to DeBerry, Vance was the best pitcher in the league.
So, Brooklyn acquired 31-year-old Dazzy Vance and catcher Hank DeBerry. At an age when most pitchers begin to slow down, Vance was making his start toward the Hall of Fame. He was impressive in spring training and made his debut with the Dodgers on April 13. He pitched a complete game with DeBerry catching but lost to the Giants, 4-3.
He won his first major league game on April 26th in Boston, beating the Braves 10-1. He also had three hits in the game and drove in two runs. He won 18 games in each of his first two seasons with the Robins and led the league in strikeouts in both years. Those two were the first of seven straight seasons leading the league in whiffs. Although he was known for his fastball, he also had a devastating curveball.
He had his best season in 1924, leading the league in the mythical triple-crown categories of wins, 28, ERA, 2.16, and strikeouts, 262. He also had 15 straight wins at one point and 30 complete games. He won the NL’s Most Valuable Player award. He was the only NL pitcher to cop that award until Carl Hubbel did it in 1933. Instead of a trophy, they awarded him $1000.00 in gold coins. He set the league record for strikeouts in a 9-inning game by fanning 15 Cubs on August 23rd. One month later, he came back and struck 3 Cubs in order on nine pitches. He and teammate Burleigh Grimes became the only teammates to rank 1-2 between 1905, Mathewson-Ames, and 1960, Koufax-Drysdale. On July 20, 1925, Vance struck out 17 Cardinals in a 10-inning game.
They were quite a pair, Vance and Grimes. They were both great pitchers, but they had little else in common. Vance was a fun-loving flake, and Grimes was dour and dead serious on the mound. Uncharacteristically, Grimes joined Vance and a couple teammates for an after-midnight episode, not out on the town, but in a Pullman car. After finishing a series with the Giants, the Dodgers took the train out of Flatbush and found out the Braves, who had just finished a series with the Phillies, were also on the train.
The miscreants cut eyeholes in pillowcases and invaded the Braves’ sleeping car. Announcing that they were the Ku Klux Klan, they awakened the Braves players and dragged some of them out of bed. When they found Braves catcher Mickey O’Neil, they demanded to know what his signs were. The catcher, who was totally terrified at this point, eventually told them.
By the mid-20s, the team was referred to more often as the Dodgers instead of the Robins. A contingent of these players were also known as the Daffiness Boys. That nickname was cemented by the famous three men on third base adventure. Although not blamed for it, Vance was right in the middle of it. Vance was on second and Chick Fewster on first when rookie Babe Herman hit a long drive to right. As the kid rounded second, the coach yelled at him to go back since Fewster had not yet passed third, Vance, who was on his way home, stopped and went back to the bag because he thought the coach was yelling at him. Meanwhile, Herman kept on coming and to the delight of the fans in attendance, Brooklyn had three men on third. Fewster and Herman were tagged out. Vance, the legal resident, stayed. Herman had doubled into a double play.
Herman was supposedly the daffiest of the bunch, but Vance was right there with him. He even formed a 4-for-0 club. It was for his penchant for hitting four times and not getting a hit. According to Frank Graham, a writer, he even went so far as to have bylaws for the club, including, “Raise as much hell as you like, but don’t get caught.” Pitcher Jesse Petty violated that rule. He was caught coming into the hotel by the manager, Wilbert Robinson after a late-night party. Robinson fined him, and worse yet, he was expelled from the club.
When Petty asked teammates to intercede for him, they refused. He took his woes to baseball writer, Joe Gordon and asked him to write a letter for him apologizing and pleading for reinstatement. Petty copied the letter, signed it, and put it in Vance’s mailbox. That night he was summoned to Vance’s room for a hearing. “Did you write the letter?” Vance asked. Yes, was the reply. ” You are not only a big dope for being caught by Robbie, you are deceitful as well. There are words in this letter you can’t spell and don’t know the meaning of.“His expulsion was made permanent.
While he was pitching, Dazzy wore a sweat-stained tattered sweatshirt. Opponents claimed he cut the shirt into strips with a razor blade. The effect of his fastball coming out of fluttering pieces of flannel was disconcerting to hitters. Vance denied that he cut anything; he said the shirt was that way because it was wearing out. One opponent said if that is the case, he should buy a new one. Dazzy said, ” Oh no, this is my lucky shirt, I have had it since I was in New Orleans. I haven’t even washed it.”
John McGraw, the feisty Giants manager, complained to the league office and NL president, John Heydler. He told McGraw he could find nothing in the rule book against wearing a tattered sweatshirt. So Vance continued wearing the offending garment. He pitched well for Brooklyn throughout the ’20s. He pitched a no-hitter against the Phillies on September 13, 1925. His last season with 20 wins was in 1928. He never reached the lofty heights of 1924 again. In 1932, the 41-year-old Vance won 12 games. The 10th time in 11 years with Brooklyn that he posted double-digit wins.
At the start of the 1933 season, Vance was traded to the Cardinals. He won six games for the Birds, and after the season, he was claimed by the Reds. He pitched sparingly in Cincy and was sent back to St. Louis via waivers in August. The Cardinals won the pennant, and Vance got his first chance at pitching in the fall classic. He pitched one and 1/3rd innings against the Tigers, giving up two hits and no runs, striking out three, After the season, the Cardinals released him in the spring, and he was signed by the Dodgers for the 1935 season. Again, seeing limited action, Vance won 3 games and lost two. He pitched his last game on August 14, 1935. He faced two hitters, and they both reached base.
He retired after the season with 197 wins. He also won 133 games in the minors. So, over his 26-year career, he won 330 games. He was 44 years old. One hundred ninety-one of those wins came with the Dodgers. With Kershaw reaching 197 last season, Vance is fourth all-time behind Sutton, Drysdale and Kershaw.
In the mid-20s, Vance had moved his family to Homosassa Springs, Florida. He enjoyed hunting and fishing and immediately upon retiring, opened a hunting and fishing camp nearby. Later he owned the Homosassa Springs hotel for sportsmen. He spent his years promoting tourism and guiding guests on hunting and fishing trips.
In 1955, Dazzy was accorded baseball’s highest honor and elected to the Hall of Fame. He was told about the honor by Dodger owner Walter O’Malley. But he had suspected he was getting the honor when a highway patrolman pulled him over and told him a photographer was waiting for him at home. Dazzy passed away on February 16th, 1961, two weeks shy of his 70th birthday. His death came as a surprise. An avid outdoorsman, he seemed fit right up to the end. He had actually played an old-timer’s game a month before he passed.
Some of the stuff they did would get you arrested today. Good Article, Bear!
Straight from the Horse’s Mouth in The Athletic:
For now, president of baseball operations Andrew Friedman said Wednesday, the team would evaluate its internal stockpile of veterans and prospects to determine how to compensate for the loss of Lux. The next couple of weeks will serve as an extended audition. As the season draws closer, Friedman explained, the team would decide whether to pursue free agents or trades.
“Right now, it’s just about wrapping our arms around the different questions that we want to see (answered) in spring training,” Friedman said. “And starting to compile a list of potentially available players, and compare what we have internally to what we can potentially access externally. And I think even the role is up in the air.”
For an executive who is notoriously tight lip about his plans this statement says a lot.
Great writeup Bear. Really enjoyed his story. Still in a funk over Gavin! I was so looking forward to rooting for him this year. Great kid! He and Vargas and Pepiot were the three I was high on this year. Still think Pepiot will pull a Gonsolin and attack the zone with his off speed stuff and throw his fastball on the edges.
Thanks Cassidy, You can pull for him even while he is out. Just hope the damage is not that bad. They won’t even know until they go in after the swelling goes down.
There is a great article in The Athletic on Ryan Pepiot:
https://theathletic.com/4251108/2023/03/01/dodgers-mlb-ryan-pepiot-rotation/
In part, it says:
Pepiot, one of the top pitching prospects in the sport not long ago, broke through for his major-league debut in May. The surface numbers were fine as he posted a 3.47 ERA in nine appearances and established a clear ability to miss bats. Yet he never seemed comfortable. His mechanics were awry from the jump. He struggled to throw strikes, walking 27 in 36 1/3 innings, with hitters then keying in on him in predictable counts.
Worst of all, his best pitch — his changeup — wasn’t in its proper form at any point. Rather than dive under opposing bats, it would spin out of his hand, almost always to his arm side, with running action that made the pitch essentially noncompetitive to big-league hitters.
“It was … ” Pepiot said, almost scoffing at himself. “It was frustrating. Very frustrating. Just to go back and look at it and watch it, I’m thinking, ‘What are you doing?’”
Pepiot entered minor-league camp last March poised to debut a new, sweeping slider with elite horizontal movement. The plan was to regularly throw the pitch to the point where there was a subtle shift in his arm slot to try to get around the baseball and generate more movement.
The pitch was mothballed early, but the damage to his mechanics had been done. Eventually, it leaked into the other elements of his arsenal as well. His changeup flattened and had more run. He settled on a cutter-like slider he could throw for strikes, but it wasn’t ideal to play off his other stuff. Each of his pitches was repeatedly spraying off to the arm side as they left his hand. Making corrections proved difficult to do midseason.
Given the opportunity to review the footage this winter, Pepiot noticed a difference. Trying to throw the “sweeper” slider had distorted his release point; a simple movement of his thumb allowed him to develop a more traditional slider that maximizes his strengths. That smidgen of a difference restored his changeup and the pitch started to have its proper depth again, with an organization-wide push for Pepiot to attack the zone.
The Dodgers also had Pepiot work on the mobility of his hips and spine, hopeful the flexibility will have him rotate better around the baseball — “Basically making sure his glove was getting into a good enough spot so he was able to work north-south instead of shooting it way over here,” Hill said, motioning to his arm side — and correct some of the bad habits.
Getting back to himself should open things up more for Pepiot overall.
“(It’s) having three pitches that can actually be in the zone and then get some swing-and-miss as well on top of it rather than people just eliminating one whole pitch or one whole side of the plate,” Pepiot said. “They actually have to respect the whole plate.”
It sounds like he has “fixed” the problem and could “break out” this year. Of course, Gavin Stone looks ready and then there is Bobby Miller. All three could be in the Rotation in 2024.
Pepiot passes the “eye test” with an explosive fastball and a deceptive changeup. I still think he may profile best as a late-inning reliever but he is certainly strong enough to be a SP and I believe in him a lot.
Miguel Rojas has opted to not play in the WBC for Venezuela. He cited the need to prepare for a bigger role with the Dodgers due to the loss of Gavin Lux. Now that is a team player.
There is absolutely no reason to sign another SS right about now. Of course, CT3 has to prepare as the backup at SS, but I think Rojas will get most of the reps there.
The market doesn’t offer much in terms of SS. If AF establishes the need to improve offensively, it will likely come out of another position. CF would seem like the logical position. AF is probably taking a close look at Vargas production at 2B as well.
I wouldn’t want the Dodgers to sign another shortstop but I hope they can trade for a young controllable one. Oneil Cruz would be entertaining. Mark, don’t forget there is a net now that protects those sitting along the first base line.
https://www.mlb.com/news/oneil-cruz-strives-for-30-30-season-in-2023
There is a reason I am not more upset about O’Neil Cruz. And that reason is Yordan Alvarez.
I would say, at this juncture, there is absolutely no way the Pirates would trade Cruz. Personally, I do not think he will be great, but he is being hyped as that! It would have to be a HUGE BIG LARGE TREMENDOUS OVERPAY and that is not happening.
Well I’m not going to suggest a boring option for short. Where’s the fun in that?
There’s no rush for another SS option, but the Dodgers are suddenly very thin. I guess Yonny is behind Taylor, and that doesn’t seem great.
Some youtubers who follow the Yankees and Orioles are proposing trade possibilities that aren’t ridiculous. Fans of the Reds and Pirates might be proposing trades too.
Some teams that are deep in the infield need pitching. The Dodgers have pitching.
The more I think about it, the more I think another UT guy might be needed. And, sad to say, it could cost Outman his roster spot on OD…. at least until an outfielder is injured.
I think the discussion about Adames is most rooted in AF’s history with him and the fact that the Dodgers passed on the big-name shortstops, choosing instead to bet on Lux.
Oh well. Stuff happens.
Trying to trade for young and controllable player who is either over-hyped or on the cusp of stardom is not how it works, especially if it’s with a team like the Pirates.
They need a 1st baseman and have plenty of shortstop replacements. They could use pitching as well.
Good article. I really appreciate learning more about the old timers. There are a lot of non Dodgers that I would like articles on as well.
Thanks. Just write who you would like written about and I will do my best to accommodate you. Freddie Freeman spring homer #2. Outman hit the ball hard on his single. Peralta just missed hitting one out.
3:05 PM ET
Michael Grove R
0-0 .00 ERA
Confirmed Lineup
LF D. Peralta L
1B F. Freeman L
DH J. Martinez R
3B Max Muncy L
C A. Barnes R
CF J. Heyward L
SS Miguel Rojas R
RF James Outman L
2B M. Vargas
Partly-cloudy-day
0% Rain
48° Wind 4 mph R-L
Not a bad lineup today. That’s an entertaining lineup with so much pop in it today. The balls will be flying out today. David Peralta leading off. I do believe he used to hit first when playing for the Diamondbacks. How would that lineup with Betts batting second and everyone moving down in the order. And then Will Smith at catcher. That’s a pretty good lineup right there. We’re off to the world series now and we didn’t trade anybody. We kept everyone. Of course they all played in Oklahoma City. But we kept them. And we still have them. And didn’t get any other players. Bring on the Astros! We are set and ready with what we got. Let’s GO!!!!
Miguel Rojas is a career .260 hitter.
Yet some want to trade legit minor league talent for Willy Adames, who’s a career .255 hitter.
Love it
Wily Adames has hit what 20 plus homers in the last three seasons. What do Dodgers fans like? The long ball. They go yard or they strikeout. That’s baseball now.
Adames STRIKES OUT A LOT. 166 times last year. I would rather have a contact hitter with a plus OBP than a power hitter like Adames whose OBP was .298. In case you wonder, that is lousy.
I agree. Not a fan of his game. I’d rather go into the season with Rojas over giving up the prospect capital to acquire Adames.
If we truly want to improve our offense, we are likely to gain more offensive via the acquisition of an OFer.
David Vassegh
@THEREAL_DV
Dave Roberts said Daniel Hudson is progressing in spring training, but was doubtful he would be ready for Opening Day “It will be early in the season, but I don’t think Opening Day is a hard date for us.” #Dodgers
Bellinger had another hit today and went 1-2 in the Cubs game with a run scored. JT had a hit today also.
Bellinger’s hitting .429 through the first 7 games …
RIP Albie Pearson.
When I was enthralled by Sandy and Maury, Albie was my favorite Angel.
atimes.com/sports/angels/story/2023-02-27/albie-pearson-the-littlest-angel-dies-at-88?fbclid=IwAR2Tq9pMDxZhfki1PT2e_N5IDIfaV6weMxp7oq8Cr5Hb3m7gbFncxqdU1zo
Outman looks like more than a 4th outfielder to me
We’ll never know unless he gets a chance.
I heard Yonny looked good today.
He made a couple of good plays, but his fielding has never been in question. He also made a throwing error on a routine play that sailed over Devin Mann’s head and allowed two runs to score. He was 1-2 at the plate. All of the D-Backs five runs were unearned. Vargas also made an error.