Vern Law

Position: Pitcher
Bats: Right  •  Throws: Right
6-2, 195lb (188cm, 88kg)
Born: March 12, 1930 in Meridian, ID
High School: Meridian HS (Meridian, ID)
Debut: June 11, 1950
Last Game: August 20, 1967
Full Name: Vernon Sanders Law
Nicknames: Deacon or Preacher
View Player Info from the B-R Bullpen
View Player Bio from the SABR BioProject

Relatives: Father of Vance Law

Nine Players Who Debuted in 1950

Joe Adcock
Gus Bell
Jimmy Piersall
Jackie Jensen
Jim Busby
Chico Carrasquel
Billy Martin
Lew Burdette
Whitey Ford

All-Time Teammate Team

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Notable Events and Chronology for Vern Law Career

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September 19, 1950

Duke Snider gets a cake from Fans on his birthday

May 24, 1955

After losing 11 straight games‚ the Pirates rout the Dodgers, 15 – 1‚ their highest score in 172 games. Tomorrow, they will sink to the cellar. Bob Friend‚ who pitches the last 4 1/3 innings in relief of starter Vern Law‚ is the winner. Preston Ward has a single‚ triple and home run to pace the Corsairs.

July 19, 1955

Pirate hurler Vern Law pitches 18 innings against the Braves

September 20, 1955

Willie Mays becomes the seventh player to hit fifty home runs in a season when he connects off Pittsburgh’s Vern Law for the second time in the Giants’ 14-8 victory at the Polo Grounds. The round-tripper is the 24 year-old center fielder’s seventh in six consecutive games.

August 28, 1959

Clemente homerun contained by Forbes Flag Pole

July 13, 1960

Vern Law becomes the second Pirate to win a 1960 All-Star Game, working two scoreless innings. Stan Musial comes off the National League bench and hits his record 6th and last All-Star Game home run. Willie Mays, Ken Boyer and Eddie Mathews also homer in the 6 – 0 NL win, the third shutout in All-Star Game history.

August 2, 1960

Pirates right fielder Roberto Clemente is robbed on a 430-to-450-foot putout. With two on, two out and no score in the 6th, Dodgers centerfielder Duke Snider goes to considerable lengths to frustrate his favorite right fielder. Frank Finch of the Los Angeles Times reports: “Clemente clouted an ‘extra-baser’ which Snider caught with one hand near the center-field wall.” Clemente, however, has little cause for complaint. A mere two innings earlier, he himself performed a bit of “armed” robbery with Norm Larker playing the hapless victim though Larker, for his part, would claim it’s the umpire who robbed him. Frank Finch continues: “Round Four started well enough for L.A. when Tom Davis got a bad-hop single and raced to third on Norm Larker’s single to right. However, Bob Clemente’s rifle peg to Rocky Nelson nipped Larker trying to get back to first base. Larker snorted and stomped like a Brahma bull, getting the bum’s rush from umpire Ken Burkhart for throwing the tantrum. From the press box, it appeared that Larker had gotten back in time, but he had no excuse for the play even being close.” Clemente’s “lethal weapon” once again proves pivotal two innings later. George Lederer of the Long Beach Independent writes: “Stan Williams learned how costly his [7th-inning] error was when John Roseboro led off the 8th with a single. Roseboro, batting for Williams, lined Vern Law’s first pitch into the right field corner and was held to a single only by Roberto Clemente’s quick retrieve and bullet throw to second. Trailing by three runs instead of one, manager Walter Alston could not call for the bunt that otherwise would have been in order. Maury Wills, leading off in Alston’s revised lineup, promptly grounded into a double play to wipe out the Dodgers’ last serious bid.”

September 18, 1960

Pittsburgh’s Vern Law joins the 20-win circle with a complete-game 5 – 3 win in the first game of a Sunday doubleheader at Cincinnati’s Crosley Field.

October 5, 1960

The Pirates win their first World Series Game since 1925

November 3, 1960

Vern Law, who finished 20-9 with 18 complete games for the National League champion Pittsburgh Pirates, is voted Cy Young Award winner. Warren Spahn of the Milwaukee Braves finishes second.

December 25, 1960

Major League Baseball Season Recap 1960

July 2, 1961

The Pirates sweep a pair from the Giants, winning 7 – 6 and 9 – 0. Sore-armed Vern Law, making his first start in more than three weeks, is lifted in the 6th and Harvey Haddix wins in relief. Bobby Shantz pitches a 5-hitter to win the nitecap as the Bucs score six unearned runs off Juan Marichal. The Giants, 2 1/2 games back yesterday, will be nine out on the evening of July 8. The Giants’ Orlando Cepeda flexes his muscles, as does Pittsburgh’s Roberto Clemente. The Baby Bull powers a two-run, tape measure blast over the centerfield bricks. Shortly thereafter, the rival stars trade 425-footers. Crashing against Forbes Field’s right center exit gate, Cepeda’s blast goes for two bases. Clemente’s clout comes in the nightcap, good for a bases-clearing triple which puts Pittsburgh’s up, 8 – 0.

June 2, 1962

1962 – Roberto Clemente’s home run almost reaches Forbes Field’s right-field roof, providing Pittsburgh with an early 3-run lead over Houston which starter Vern Law will not relinquish. As Les Biederman of the Pittsburgh Press recounts: “Roberto Clemente almost made history Saturday, missing by a foot or so of being the first right-handed batter to hit a ball to the right field roof. Clemente’s homer in the first inning landed against the facing of the right field roof, a tremendous blast as it was.” Bobby Bragan, formerly Pittsburgh’s manager but now working for Houston, provides his own account: “The ball was within a foot or so of landing on top of the roof and perhaps two or three feet in fair territory. It probably was the longest ball ever hit to that field by a right-handed batter.”

July 20, 1962

1962 – Willie Mays, Willie McCovey and Co. overpower Roberto Clemente’s Pirates with a devastating aerial assault and an assist from the Pirates’ very own fifth column, “Dr. Strangeglove”, Dick Stuart. “Vern Law was not around long,” writes Bob Stevens of the San Francisco Chronicle. “Chuck Hiller led off with a single and Jim Davenport forced him. Mays then hit a line drive, 420-foot home run for 2 – 0. With two down in the 3rd, McCovey belted a memorable shot over the left-field scoreboard. It was one of the few ever ripped into that area by a lefthander in the more than half a century existence of ivy-cloaked Forbes Field. The McCovey smash stood up for the victory, as Jack Lamabe, Tom Sturdivant and Earl Francis shut out the Giants on four hits until Stuart goofed in the 8th. The Bucs started to move in the 4th, when Bill Mazeroski singled home Clemente, who also contributed a dazzling throw from right field to cut down the sliding McCovey at the plate in the 6th.”

July 7, 1963

Pirates win 10th Straight loss for the Mets Full Radio Broadcast

August 8, 1963

Vern Law (4-5) is placed on the retired list with a sore arm. He will come back in 1964.

April 24, 1965

Bob Aspromonte is the first to set off the Astrodome scoreboard’s home run display

May 29, 1966

1966 – Jim Gentile drills a homer off Elroy Face in the eleventh inning to drop Pittsburgh, 3-2. John Bateman had earlier gone deep off Vern Law to send the game into overtime. Claude Raymond picks up the win.

Law was largely responsible for the Pirates’ World Championship in 1960, when he captured the Cy Young Award with a 20-9 record and a league-high 18 complete games. Despite nursing a late-season sprained ankle, he won the first and fourth games of the Series and had a no-decision in the famed seventh game, won by the Pirates on Bill Mazeroski’s ninth-inning homer.
Idaho Senator Herman Welker recommended favorite son Law to former classmate Bing Crosby, part owner of the Pirates. Signed by the Pirates in 1948, Law, a control pitcher with a classic, straight-up motion, reached Pittsburgh in 1950 but spent 1952 and 1953 in the military. He and Bob Friend anchored a young pitching staff on last-place teams in 1954, 1955, and 1957. But both blossomed in 1958 and the Pirates rose to second place. Though Friend slumped in 1959, Law went 18-9.

After reaching the top in 1960, Law missed most of 1961 with a torn rotator muscle. Pitching in pain throughout 1962, he rebounded to go 10-7, but more physical problems in 1963 forced him on to the voluntary retired list. He made a surprising comeback in 1964 (12-13, 3.61) and in 1965, at age thirty-five, led the Pirates with 17 wins and a 2.15 ERA. He was honored with the Lou Gehrig Memorial Award as comeback player of the year. After more injuries his last two years, he retired among Pittsburgh’s all-time pitching leaders. Vern and his wife, VaNita, had six children: Veldon, Veryl, Vaughn, Varlin, VaLynda, and major league infielder Vance.

Factoids, Quotes, Milestones and Odd Facts

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