Vance Punches Out 22 in Week Nine

(This is the 10th in a series that celebrates the 100th anniversary of Dazzy Vance’s great 1924 season with the Brooklyn Robins/Superbas/Dodgers.)

By Glen Sparks

Dazzy Vance enjoyed two 11-strikeout games in week nine of the 1924 season. He beat the Chicago Cubs and the St. Louis Cardinals.

Dodger fielders made four errors and nearly flubbed away the June 9 match-up against Chicago. About 8,000 fans filed into Ebbets Field on a Monday afternoon. The Dodgers jumped ahead 2-0 in the third inning against right-hander Elmer Jacobs, and it looked like they might be enough for Dazzy.

Vance looked strong through seven shutout innings and already had fanned eight. “The blonde giant had his fastball flashing  by the Chicago batsmen like a streak of white,” Thomas W. Meany wrote in the Brooklyn Daily Times.

The Cubs, though, pushed across three runs in the eighth. Arnold Statz singled, and Hooks Carter came to the plate with two outs. Carter hit a ground ball down the third-base line, and Milt Stock’s throw eluded first baseman Jack Fournier. Bernie Friberg walked to load the bases. Denver Grigsby’s single scored two unearned runs, and Friberg advanced to third. With Cliff Heathcote at bat and as Vance went into his wind-up, Friberg stole home. Chicago now led 3-2.

Rip Wheeler, who relieved Jacobs in the fifth inning, retired Brooklyn 1-2-3 in the bottom of the eighth, and Vance did the same to Chicago in the top of the ninth.

Bernie Neis pinch-hit for Vance in the bottom of the ninth and took a walk. High laid down a successful sacrifice, and Jimmy Johnston singled to put runners on first and second. Wheat drew a walk that loaded the bases; Cubs manager Bill Killefer called on Tony Kaufmann, a 23-year-old right-hander.

Kaufmann walked Wheat, the first batter he faced, to tie the game. Milt Stock’s groundball single brought home the winning run. Charles Hoerter, referring to Brooklyn manager Wilbert Robinson by his nickname, wrote in the New York Daily News, “Uncle Robbie smiles once again.”

Besides striking out 11 batters, Vance allowed just five hits, all of them singles. According to the Brooklyn Daily Eagle, “It would have been a crime against baseball for Vance to have lost.”

Dazzy’s turn in the rotation came up again on Saturday, June 14, at home against the Cardinals and in front of about 12,000 fans. The Redbird line-up featured the NL’s most dangerous hitter, Rogers Hornsby, known by many as The Rajah.

From north Texas, the irascible Rajah employed a smooth right-handed stroke. He had won four straight batting titles, averaging .389 from 1920-23 with a .451 on-base percentage and .639 slugging percentage. He went on to bat .424 in 1924, still the best mark among major leaguers in the live-ball era. He struck out just 32 times.

Going into this game against Vance and the Dodgers, Hornsby’s batting average stood at .406. In four at-bats against Dazzy, the Rajah went hitless and struck out three times.

Vance got Hornsby looking to end the first inning. Brooklyn took a 1-0 lead in the bottom of that frame on Zack Wheat’s RBI single off Cardinals starter Jesse Haines. St. Louis tied the score in the top of the second on a Mike Gonzalez RBI hit.

Zack Wheat’s two-run homer in the third inning, followed by a Jack Fournier home run, gave Brooklyn a 4-1 advantage. Hornsby, meanwhile, fanned to start the St. Louis fourth.

St. Louis put across a second run in the fifth on a Jack Smith’s two-out RBI single. With runners on first and second, Vance struck out Hornsby to end the rally.

The Rajah came up to bat a final time with two outs and a runner on first base in the seventh. Dazzy ended the inning by getting Hornsby to pop up in foul territory. Brooklyn scored its final run on Fournier’s single in the bottom of the seventh, giving the Dodgers a 5-2 lead.

Dazzy added three more strikeouts in the final two innings. He improved to 9-2 on the season, and the third-place Dodgers raised their record to 26-22. Afterward, the Brooklyn Eagle’s Thomas S. Rice recalled the afternoon battles that pitted one of the game’s best pitchers against one of the best hitters. “His (Vance’s) three strikeouts against Hornsby,” Rice wrote “were classics, especially the third.”

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