Vance Law

How can you do a profile of Rudy Law and not do one of Vance Law? If there's any justice in the world, you can't. No, Rudy and Vance were not brothers or even related, to the best of my knowledge.

Vance came to the White Sox in a four player trade with the Pirates. He was traded along with Ernie Camacho for Ross Baumgarten and Butch Edge. How cool sounding is a name like Butch Edge? It's like Max Power. Powerful and macho and it sounds made up.

Vance was on the White Sox for three years, 1982 - 1984. His middle year with the Sox, he was part of the AL Western Division champs. A vital part of that well oiled machine that was Winning Ugly. Although, he only batted .243 in 1983, his worst hitting year with the Sox. Go figure.

He was traded to the Montreal Expos for Bob James in the 1984 off-season. After that, Vance played with the Cubs and played his final season with the Athletics in 1991. Vance is one of the few players that have reached the postseason with the White Sox and the Cubs. A rare Chicago feat. He also holds the record for most errorless innings by a third baseman in one game, with 25 innings on May 8th and 9th 1984 against the Milwaukee Brewers.

Vance, and the memory of those aviator glasses (I had them too in the 80's), is the head baseball coach at Brigham Young University. He is also the son of Cy Young award winner, Vern Law. Vance had is best season as a Chicago Cub in 1988. He even made the All-Star team that year.

In his career, the only position Vance did not play was catcher. He even entered 7 games as a pitcher for the Expos and Athletics. Even though he may be remembered for playing with the Chunichi Dragons in 1990, he will be the bit player for Chicago playoff teams in my heart.