Tuesday, April 3, 2012

no. 34 - sandy vance


Who is the man: Sandy Vance had just completed his rookie season with the Los Angeles Dodgers. He was voted the Dodgers' rookie of the year after the 1970 season.

Can ya dig it: I recall seeing this card as a youngster and being instantly drawn to Vance, hoping that he had a long and prosperous career with the Dodgers, but not realizing that this was his only baseball card.

Right on: The chain-link fence is out of sight. Love those old-style spring training props.

You see this cat Vance is a bad mother: Vance features the names of two of the greatest pitchers in Dodger history -- Sandy Koufax and Dazzy Vance -- in his name. I can't think of anything more bad-ass than saying, "name's Sandy Vance. Sandy as in Koufax. Vance as in Dazzy."

Shut your mouth: According to Vance's wikipedia page, his oldest son decided to root for the Giants during the 2010 World Series. Because of this, Vance's daughter, a Dodger fan, has barely spoken to her brother since. I have no idea if this is really true.

No one understand him but his woman: Vance developed arm injuries in 1971 and didn't play in the major leagues after that season. Vance was part of a talented crop of young Dodger talent in the late '60s and early '70s, but one of the few top prospects who didn't pan out.


(A word about the back): Vance's totals for Stanford were good enough to get him in the school's Hall of Fame.

4 comments:

  1. Sandy Koufax and Dazzy Vance came to mind here as well as soon as I saw the post, interesting card.

    ReplyDelete
  2. I alway thought Billy Garbarkowitz would have been the Dodger's top rookie of 1970. But I think he was ineledible because he spent most of 1969 with the big club.

    Unrelated: I remember reading about Dazzy Vance from a book called Strange but true Baseball Stories when I was a kid. Dazzy's story was that he is one of the all time late bloomers not winning a game until age 31, never the less he still ended up in the HOF.

    ReplyDelete
  3. I had the Sandy Vance once, hurt like hell and took forever to clean.

    ReplyDelete
  4. I'm now in love with his daughter if that is true about the brother.

    ReplyDelete