the legend of dazzy vance

was dazzy vance one of baseball's greatest pitchers, as this 1982 tcma card suggests?

i'm not sure.  i am sure, however, that dazzy vance was a dodger double dipper.

[this is the seventyfourth installment in the double dippers posts.  here are the previous posts - brett butler, omar daal, eric young, nick willhite, chris gwynn, mickey hatcher, dave anderson, don zimmer, rafael landestoy, dave hansen, jose vizcaino, hideo nomo, greg maddux, mike maddux, jon garland, chan ho park, vicente romo, gene mauch, denny lewallyn, von joshua, joe moeller, dioner navarro, rudy seanez, bart shirley, randy wolf, ismael valdes, bobby castillo, mike devereaux, pete richert, jay johnstone, jesse orosco, lee lacy, giovanni carrara, jeff weaver, ted sizemore,  orel hershiser, tom goodwin, joe ferguson, eddie murray, matt luke, ken mcmullen, tim wallach, jerry grote, don sutton, ralph branca, todd hundley, elmer dessens, guillermo mota, joe beckwith, jamie hoffmann, babe herman, joe medwick, juan castro, ron perranoski, clyde king, paul waner, hughie jennings, ron negray, broadway aleck smith, george smith, johnny cooney, jim fairey, frenchy bordagaray, doc casey, waite hoyt, luis olmo, clyde sukeforth, willie keeler,  harry howell, germany smith, johnny allen, marv rackley, bobo newsom. and maury wills.]

vance was 31 with an 0-4 lifetime record when he debuted for the brooklyn robins in 1922.  he won 18 games that season, and led the league in strikeouts.  he would continue to lead the league in strikeouts in each of the following six seasons, becoming the first (and still the only) national leaguer to claim seven straight strikeout titles.  in 1923, vance again won 18 games, and then in 1924, he achieved the pitcher's triple crown - a league leading 24 wins, 2.16 era, and 262 strikeouts.  he also won the league mvp award that year.  vance led the league with 22 wins in 1925, and he led the league in era in 1928 and 1930, but never won another triple crown.

following the 1931 season, wilbert robinson retired and the robins became the dodgers.  at 41, vance pitched in 27 games for the dodgers in 1932, but was just 12-10 with a 4.20 era.  after the season, he was traded to the cardinals.  vance helped the cardinals win the pennant in 1933, and he made an appearance in game 4 of the world series.  the cardinals lost that game, but beat the tigers to give vance a world series title in his only trip to the postseason.  the following year, vance began the season with the reds, but returned to the cardinals in june of 1935.  they released him in the spring of 1936, and he was quickly signed by the dodgers.

in his second stint with brooklyn, vance was used exclusively as a reliever, posting a record of 3-2 in 20 appearances with an era of 4.41.  he retired following that 1936 season.  19 years later, in 1955, vance was elected to the baseball hall of fame as noted on his 2003 upper deck sp legendary cuts card

remember, only two of vance's 12 seasons with brooklyn occurred when the team was known as the dodgers, so it is fitting that the robins are his team noted on the front of the card.  one of vance's teammates for about half of his time with the robins was fellow hall of famer burleigh grimes, who was also featured in the 2003 upper deck sp legendary cuts set.

grimes never pitched for the franchise when they were known as the dodgers, so i was disappointed to not see 'robins' on the front of the card.  what is even worse is that the back of grimes' card has nothing but robins - both at the top and then again with each season that he pitched for the franchise

the back of vance's card also has robins up top, which is consistent with the front of his card, but the yearly stat rows should also say robins from 1922 through 1931 instead of dodgers

overall, vance won 190 games for the franchise, more than any other brooklyn pitcher and behind only don sutton and don drysdale in franchise history.  his 1918 strikeouts for the team are also the most of any brooklyn pitcher, and he trails only the two dons and sandy koufax on the franchise leader board in that category.  so, even if vance is not one of baseball's greatest pitchers, he most certainly is one of brooklyn's greatest.

if you can't beat 'em, join 'em

back in 1974, the dodgers faced off against the oakland a's in the world series.  james augustus hunter, better known as 'catfish' made two appearances in the series - he earned the save in game 1 by striking out the only batter he faced (joe ferguson) and then got the win in game 3 after starting and going 8 innings.  in that game, bill buckner took him deep for a solo home run - the only run the dodgers would score against him.  also in that game, davey lopes was 2 for 3 with a walk and 2 steals against hunter, which qualifies as a classic world series matchup according to the 2002 upper deck world series heroes set.  here's a davey lopes jersey relic from that set that p-town tom of the blog waiting 'til next year sent me a while back

i do so appreciate relics of ron cey, lopes and bill russell, since they are not as plentiful as those of steve garvey.  i think cey is the only one without a jersey card in this particular set.  anyway, lopes later went and joined the a's following the dodgers' world series victory in 1981.  he was traded to the cubs late in the 1984 season, but topps still showed him in a's gear in 1985.  here's his 1985 topps tiffany card as proof

tom also sent an autographed card of one of the other dodger infielders - ron cey signed a copy of one of his cards from the 2004 upper deck legends timeless teams set

cey is a great ttm signer, so i would imagine that's how this one got signed.  i do plan to finish the timeless teams blog, by the way.  this year for sure.

not all of the cards in the trade package were of the infield - there were lots of other dodger goodies.  here's a 1982 tcma baseball's greatest pitchers card of don newcombe

and even a 1989 score jay howell card

can be appreciated for the unocal logo and old field level scoreboard from dodger stadium in the background.

dodger stadium is in the background of mark ellis' 2013 topps walmart blue parallel as well

but seeing part of a bud light sign is not as nice as that scoreboard on howell's card.

tom sent another relic card, too.  from 2013 topps archives, it's andre ethier giving up the shirt on his back

speaking of archives, i understand that the 2014 set will use the 1973, 1986, 1989 and 1980 set designs.  why use 1980 again? it was just used in 2012 archives.  i'm guessing that there will be one or two short prints (again) that use the 1978 design, but it would be nice if topps used it for the base set sometime.  of course, if they have bill russell on the auto checklist this year, i might give them a pass.

thanks for the trade tom!  and it looks like, once again, you will be waiting until at least next year for your cubs.