Dazzy Goes Yard at Forbes Field, Beats the Bucs

(This is the seventh in a series that celebrates the 100th anniversary of Dazzy Vance’s great 1924 season with the Brooklyn Robins.)

By Glen Sparks

Dazzy Vance was never much of a hitter. He batted just .150 over his 17-year career, but he did hit seven home runs, including one on May 22, 1924. His drive dropped over the left-field fence at Forbes Field and helped Brooklyn to a 4-2 win over the Pirates.

Vance beat Wilbur Cooper, a veteran left-hander and native to Bearsville, West Virginia. Cooper was a three-time 20-game winner, en route to doing it a fourth and final time in 1924. He threw his pitches with a fluid delivery. Some observers thought he looked a bit too relaxed on the mound. At least one reporter defended Cooper. “The pirate southpaw works as hard as any other hurler, but his grace and ease of motion misleads some of the rooters.”

Cooper, a decent hitter (a .239 career batting average), helped his team grab an early lead against the Dodgers. He hit a two-out, two-run double that scored Rabbit Maranville and Johnny Gooch.

Brooklyn waited until the fifth inning to tie the score. Andy High singled to lead off the frame and, after Hank DeBerry popped out, Vance came to bat. He was 0-for-22 on the season. Dazzy, though, took a solid cut off Cooper and hit the second home run of his career. William Peet from the Pittsburgh Post wrote, “It’s a cinch Vance will probably never hit another ball so far when Cooper is pitching. He is not a slugger.” Charles J. Doyle from the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette lamented, “It was sad to think that another pitcher, who is not particularly famed for his swatting prowess, was able to hit the ball over the garden wall.”

Brooklyn added two more runs later in the inning and went in front, 4-2. That was it for the scoring. Both starting pitchers stayed in the game and rarely strayed into trouble. Vance allowed two hits and two walks over his final five innings, while Cooper yielded just a single and a walk from the sixth through the ninth.

Cooper did not strike out a batter.  Vance punched out four Pirates and surrendered seven hits. He improved his  won-loss record to 6-1 and had won six straight (Dazzy won 10 consecutive games in 1923). Vance’s ERA dropped to 2.20.  The Brooklyn ace gave up four stolen bases, while two Bucs were caught stealing. Vance explained to Thomas S. Rice of the Brooklyn Daily Eagle, “So little base stealing is done nowadays that I have got out of the habit of holding up runners, and concentrate on the batters. … Hereafter, I will keep my eyes on the boys.”

Rice wrote, “Cooper was as good as Vance or possibly a little better except in the fifth inning.” Thomas W. Meany from the Brooklyn Times Union offered a more glowing review of the Brooklyn ace.  He wrote, “The game was Vance’s usual masterpiece.”

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