Vance Law

Vance Aaron Law (born October 1, 1956) is a former third baseman in Major League Baseball. From 1980 through 1991, he played for the Pittsburgh Pirates (1980–81), Chicago White Sox (1982–84), Montreal Expos (1985–87), Chicago Cubs (1988–89), and Oakland Athletics (1991). He also played one season in Japan for the Chunichi Dragons in 1990. Law batted and threw right-handed. He is the son of Cy Young Award winner Vern Law. He served as head baseball coach at Brigham Young University from 2000 to 2012.^[1]

Pro career

Law's best season in the Major Leagues was in 1988 when he hit .293, with 163 hits, and 78 RBIs. He was selected to the 1988 All-Star Game as one of a then-record six Cubs players on the team (Andre Dawson, Greg Maddux, Ryne Sandberg, Rafael Palmeiro, and Shawon Dunston were the other five.)

Law holds an American League record for the longest errorless game by a third baseman when he played all 25 innings of the longest game in AL history (May 8 and 9, 1984, against the Milwaukee Brewers). Unusually, Law also appeared as a pitcher in 7 games, all as an emergency relief pitcher in games that were already blowout losses. While it is not unprecedented for a position player to have one or two career pitching appearances (see, for example, Rocky Colavito), seven such appearances is an extraordinarily high number. Law finished all 7 games he appeared in, and had a career ERA of 3.38 in 8 innings.

During the 1980s, a variation of the Chicago-style hot dog called the Vance Law Dog was sold at Wrigley Field. It featured a traditional Chicago-style hot dog topped with cole slaw and ketchup. Some fans incorrectly referred to the dog as 'The Vance Slaw Dog' because of the inclusion of cole slaw. The dog was a personal favorite of the late broadcasting legend Harry Caray. It was not unusual for fans to catch Caray eating a Vance Law Dog after singing his famous seventh-inning stretch.^[2]

Coaching career

Law became head baseball coach at Brigham Young University in 2000. Following the 2012 season, Law did not have his contract renewed. Law was 397-347-2 at head coach over a 13-year span.^[3]

See also

• List of second generation MLB players

References

External links

• Career statistics and player information from Baseball-Reference, or Fangraphs, or The Baseball Cube, or Baseball-Reference (Minors)
• Baseball Almanac
• Baseball Library