11. Dazzy Vance
Baseball / Cowles / 1891-1961
QUICK FACTS:
Played for: Pittsburgh Pirates, New York Yankees, Brooklyn Dodgers, St. Louis Cardinals and Cincinnati Reds
Best athlete from Nebraska played with or against: Clarence Mitchell shares very similar south-central Nebraska roots, having been born 10 days earlier than Vance in Franklin and having grown up in Red Cloud. Vance replaced Mitchell in the Brooklyn rotation in 1922, but Mitchell -- a 125-game winner -- pitched in the National League until 1932.
Best moment as an athlete: Won the Triple Crown for pitchers in 1924, with 28 wins, a 2.16 ERA and 262 strikeouts and edged Rogers Hornsby for the most valuable player in the National League.
Born Clarence Arthur Vance in Orient, Iowa, he grew up in south-central Nebraska, residing in Cowles and Hardy. His nickname came from the saying, "Ain't that a daisy," which Vance would pronounce "Dazzy."
Plagued by a sore arm while pitching in the minor leagues early in his career, Vance had only brief trials in the majors in 1915 and 1918. But he finally made the majors at age 31 with Brooklyn in 1922 and started a Hall-of-Fame career by leading the National League in strikeouts seven years in a row.
Reports differ on the cure for Vance's arm problems. Some think he re-injured it banging on a table in the middle of a poker game and that the pain required emergency surgery that actually helped him stay healthy. Others say a secretion gland malfunction caused inflammation that took five years to heal.
Regardless, he made his way to Brooklyn, and went on to win 197 games in a career that lasted through 1935, including 22 victories or more in three seasons.
He nearly pitched back-toback no-hitters in 1925, settling instead for a 1-0 one-hit victory and a 10-1 no-hit win. Vance spent the majority of his career with Brooklyn, but was also a member of St. Louis' "Gashouse Gang" World Series champions of 1934. Elected to the Hall of Fame in 1955, he died of a heart attack in 1961 in Homosassa Springs, Fla.
-- Rob White
QUICK FACTS:
Played for: Pittsburgh Pirates, New York Yankees, Brooklyn Dodgers, St. Louis Cardinals and Cincinnati Reds
Best athlete from Nebraska played with or against: Clarence Mitchell shares very similar south-central Nebraska roots, having been born 10 days earlier than Vance in Franklin and having grown up in Red Cloud. Vance replaced Mitchell in the Brooklyn rotation in 1922, but Mitchell -- a 125-game winner -- pitched in the National League until 1932.
Best moment as an athlete: Won the Triple Crown for pitchers in 1924, with 28 wins, a 2.16 ERA and 262 strikeouts and edged Rogers Hornsby for the most valuable player in the National League.
