Dazzy Vance

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Clarence Arthur "Dazzy" Vance (March 4, 1891 - February 16, 1961) was a star Major League Baseball pitcher during the 1920s.

Born in Orient, Iowa, 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, when he went 18-12 with a 3.70 ERA and a league-leading 134 strikeouts. His best individual season came in 1924, when he led the National League in wins (28), strikeouts (262) and ERA (2.16) (see Triple crown) en route to winning the National League MVP award.

Dazzy Vance
is a member of
the Baseball
Hall of Fame

Vance's play began to decline in the early 1930s, and after bouncing to the St. Louis Cardinals, Cincinnati Reds and back to the Dodgers, he retired after the 1935 season. Vance led the league in ERA three times, wins twice, and established a National League record by leading the league in strikeouts in seven consecutive years (1922 - 1928). He retired with a 197-140 record, 2045 strikeouts and a 3.24 ERA - remarkable numbers considering he only saw 33 innings of big league play during his twenties.

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. Vance became the fifth National League pitcher and the seventh pitcher in Major League history to accomplish the nine-strike/three-strikeout half-inning. He finished the season with more strikeouts than any two National League pitchers combined (Burleigh Grimes with 135 and Dolf Luque with 86 were second and third respectively).

Vance pitched a no-hitter in 1925. He was inducted into the Baseball Hall of Fame in 1955. In 1981, Lawrence Ritter and Donald Honig included him in their book The 100 Greatest Baseball Players of All Time.