Latest / Retro Sports Radio: Classic Games from History / 1975 • Baseball Clip • Don Drysdale remembers Dazzy Vance's First Game

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1975 • Baseball Clip • Don Drysdale remembers Dazzy Vance's First Game · Retro Sports Radio: Classic Games from History

• 0:00
  This is Retro Sports Radio. Visit RetroSeasons.com for more sports history.
• 0:07
  This is Don Drysdale. I've played a lot of baseball in my day and it's a great game and I loved every minute of it.
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  I can tell you from experience that it's tough being a pitcher and not so many candidates make it to the top.
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  But the good ones do and today you'll hear about a fabulous pitcher who never won a big league game until he was 31 years old.
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  This program is brought to you as a public service of the station on behalf of your local Army representative.
• 0:31
  Today's Army will teach you career skills that you can profit from for a lifetime.
• 0:36
  Now today's story. It's about a great pitcher for the Brooklyn Dodgers named Dazzie Vance.
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  This man's story should be an inspiration to every young athlete no matter what sport they're in.
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  It's proof that if you're patient and believe in yourself, well, you can make it.
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  Dazzie got into professional baseball in 1915. He pitched in nine games for the New York Yankees but never won a game.
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  The following year he was sent to the Miners and he stayed there for five wacky years.
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  His arm hurt and he never knew why, although he suspected that he might have injured it while boxing with his brother at their home in Red Cloud, Nebraska.
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  Anyway, his arm hurt, but he was married and he had a family to support. So he decided to stay in baseball.
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  While he was pitching in Columbus, Ohio, he found that soaking his arm in a bucket of ice water between innings made him feel better.
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  But after a few weeks, even that didn't help. So he went to the doctor.
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  The doctor told him, I don't know what you've done to hurt yourself, but if you can keep it well for the next four or five years, well, you should be okay.
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  That's a long time for a pitcher to wait around for his arm to heal up.
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  And if Vance knew any other way to make a living, he probably would have left baseball.
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  Instead, he stayed. In 1917, he started the season in Toledo, Ohio, but he couldn't get the ball over the plate.
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  The next thing he knew, he was in Memphis. His fastball was good, but by the third inning, he was so tired that they'd pull him out of the game.
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  He stayed in Memphis for another season, but it was obvious that he wasn't going anywhere.
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  So he was traded to New Orleans and all of a sudden he got better.
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  His former teammates couldn't believe it was the same man when he whipped them only two weeks after being traded.
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  But Dazzie Vance was only beginning his winning ways.
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  And I'll tell you about this man's amazing success story in just a moment.
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  First, here's some equally interesting news from today's Army.
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  It takes more than one person to make a winner.
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  When I was pitching baseball, I knew there were a lot of people on and off the field backing me up.
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  Well, it's the same in the combat arms of today's Army. Armor, infantry, artillery, tough young men working together,
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  overcoming a challenge to accomplish the mission.
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  Go with the first team and join the people who've joined the Army.
• 2:51
  Now back to our story. Dazzie Vance had been in the minor leagues for five years.
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  His arm hurt almost all the time, and he was a mediocre pitcher who tired fast and who had little consistency.
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  But in 1920, he was traded to New Orleans, and overnight he began to pitch like a champion.
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  In 1921, he won 21 games, and the Dodgers picked him up, although it wasn't what they originally had in mind.
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  What they wanted was a catcher, but their scout was so impressed with Vance's fastball that they gambled and brought him up, too.
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  When he finally got to Brooklyn, he was 31 years old, although his age was a secret. His sore arm was a baseball legend.
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  He had drifted through 12 different teams in 12 different towns, but the Dodgers took a chance and bought him anyway.
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  In his first year, he won 18 games and led the league in strikeouts. In his second year, he did the same thing, 18 wins and he led the league in strikeouts.
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  In his third year, he won 28 games, led the league in strikeouts, and was voted the most valuable player.
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  He led the league in strikeouts seven times, and that's something that no other pitcher has ever done.
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  When he retired, he had won 197 games and struck out 2,045 batters, and he pitched until he was 44 years old.
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  Twenty years later, he was voted into baseball's Hall of Fame, and I say that's not bad for a guy that had a sore arm for five years and never won a game until he was 31 years old.
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  This is Don Drysdale. You can be a winner at a much earlier age if you'll see your local Army recruiter soon.
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  He's looking for young men and women who are interested in learning a career with a future.
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  Same soon, and join the people who've joined the Army.
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  Till next time, so long everyone.