Cardinals Acquire 41-Yr Old Dazzy Vance

Dazzy Vance played for the Dodgers for many years and led the league in strikeouts for seven consecutive seasons. In 1933, the Cardinals made a deal to acquire his contract at the age of 41.

His style was like no one had ever seen. He had a high leg kick, a waggle of the foot before releasing the baseball to home. He wore a bright red undershirt (not done by others yet) with sliced sleeves that twirled into ribbons to make it harder for the batters to see the ball.

Vance was the 1924 NL MVP with 28 wins and 262 strikeouts along with a 2.16 ERA. He shouldn’t have on it but in the voting process, one sportswriter left the name of Rogers Hornsby off the ballot (he had 227 hits, 43 doubles, 121 hits with a .424 batting average) because he didn’t like Rajah’s personality and Vance was the winner.