Vern Law - The Power of Prayer

Last Updated 29 December 1995

On Friday, 1 Dec 1995, Curtis Lyons (lyons@aztec.lib.utk.edu) posted the following note to the Pirates e-mail list.

As a Librarian, I get to frequent book sales quite a bit and occasionally find a little gem for my own personal collection. A few months ago, I found a small paperback called 'Baseball Stars of 1961'. Apparently, this was a series that was put out annually. This particular book highlights the great players from the 1960 season. Obviously, it has an unusual number of Pirates highlighted: Groat, Law, Face and Mazeroski. I thought I would take advantage of this baseball downtime and relate the article about Vernon Law as you don't tend to hear as much about this colorful character as you do about the others. This is only an excerpt of the article; it is too long for me to type in totality.
For those unfamiliar with anything but Maz's homer in the 1960 Series, let us just say it is to New York Yankee fans what the 1986 Series is to Red Sox fans. They should've, would've and could've beaten the Pirates, but they didn't.
In this Series, it was Vernon Law and pray for...something rhyming with Law. In the four games that he DIDN'T start, the Yankees averaged 10 runs. His ERA for the series was 3.44. Clemente was held to 1 run and 3 rbi and the Pirates as a whole were limited to 4 homers in the 7 games. But a combination of good pitching, defense and timely hitting over 4 of the 7 games made the Pirates Cinderella winners.
But anyway, I just thought I would post excerpts from this look into Vernon Law, an interesting character in Pirates' history.
Vernon Law
The Power of Prayer
by Ray Robinson

Deacon Vernon Law, an athlete and man who devoutly believes that walking a major league batter is no less sinful than drinking, smoking, or using profane language, was the difference in the 1960 World Series between the Pittsburgh Pirates and the New York Yankees. You asked the question--so we're telling you.

Sure, there were those exciting seventh game homers by Hal Smith and Bill Mazeroski, and Roy Face backed up the Pirate starters until he ran out of energy, and Dick Groat went all the way with a damaged wrist, and Don Hoak refused to be intimidated by a half dozen line drives down the third base line and Bill Virdon made a few hits count for plenty. But Law, he was the guy.

Funny part about it is that Law made it stick against the Yanks when a base hit could have ended the whole Series, then and there. But few, if any observers, probably remember the turning point. They are too busy recalling that Vern was the winner in two games, and the starter in the seventh game that ended ultimately in a ninth inning victory for the battling Bucs. If Manager Danny Murtaugh hadn't pulled Law summarily from the mound in the sixth inning of the last game, after two Yankees singled, it is possible that Vern would have wound up with three World Series wins, thus tying such record accomplishments as Lew Burdette's triple-win in 1957 for the Braves and Harry Brecheen's three victories over the Red Sox in 1946, for the Cards...

Vern Sanders Law, the perfect baseball gentleman from Meridian, Idaho, is a hard guy. He is a competitor, with roots that seem to back to another quiet, religious man named Walter Johnson. He had won the key games for the Pirates all season long. There was no reason he couldn't do it again, even if the Yankees for the time being resembled the Murderer's Row that had emasculated another Pittsburgh team in 1927, in four straight games...

What kind of a human being is Vern Law? Well, he is a man who believes deeply and devoutly in prayer. He is an ordained lay preacher in the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints. He is one of ten children. At 12, he became a deacon in his church. At 15 he was a teacher in his church. At 17 he was ordained in the Aronic priesthood. His position in the Mormon Church enables him to baptize, marry and administer the sacraments according to Mormon laws.

He prays every morning, with his wife Vanita, and four sons, Velvon, Veryl, Vance and Vaughn. Often, while he is pitching, he bows his head and prays, and when he does many a batter has probably tried to read his lips, figuring Vern might be telling the Lord what pitch he's got on his mind.

"I ask for strength," says Vern, about his praying. "I don't expect my prayers to be answered in a positive way at once. I just want to be able to do my best. Prayer doesn't guarantee anything for anyone. It's just that a person--whether he's an athlete or anything else-- needs to be humbled once in a while."

Vern has never liked the idea that, as a professional baseball pitcher, he is sometimes obligated to pitch on Sundays. "But a contract is an obligation," Law explains thoughtfully. "I know the church would want me to fulfill the obligation."

Before he beat the Yankees, 3-2, in that Sunday game at the Stadium, he had led his entire family in prayer. Then he went off to do battle. Ordinarily he would have attended church. But, remember, he had his obligation?

"We prayed that no one on either side would be hurt, that everyone would do as well as possible," said Law.

Though victory game to him, largely through his own determined efforts, Law is never graceless enough to pray for such practical things as baseball triumphs.

"No, that would be nothing but a selfish prayer," explains Vern Law.

In his nine years as a Pirate...Law has been thumbed out of only one game--and that was done as a favor to the pitcher.

Umpire San Landes, on this particular occasion, had been subjected to a rather regal going-over from some of the masterful word-smiths and bench jockeys on the Pirate roster.

"You don't belong around here listening to all that nasty stuff," advised Landes, looking at Vern, cringing in a corner of the Buc hangout. "I think you ought to leave."

Vern promptly got up and left the premises, bowing meekly to Landes' diplomacy. Later, the official report handed in to the Commissioner's office actually noted Landes' solicitude for Law's feelings. "I didn't want Vern to hear all that abusive language," the historic message said...

In a highly competitive game that sometimes places a premium on brutishness and callousness, Law is, of course a rather incongruous figure. Although brushing back hitters has become a commonplace, accepted technique for frightening and discouraging hitters from taking a toehold at the plate, Law simply doesn't believe in it, either morally or as an efficacious instrument. He prefers to pitch his own game, throwing his well-controlled sliders, his moderately fast fastball and his precisely aimed curve ball. He has a reputation for throwing more than his quota of home run balls, and this is probably due in no small part to the fact that he is reluctant to "stick a ball in a batter's ear" or loosen up the power hitters with suspiciously close pitches.

"I don't throw at hitters," explains Law, who tries to play the game in accordance with the basic tenets of his Church. "Naturally, a pitcher trying to throw the ball to spots, has to pitch inside. But my control is good enough for me to throw it inside, without being afraid to hit anyone. Sure, a ball can get away from a man. None of us is perfect. But it's intent that counts. If you threw at a hitter and he was hurt, you'd feel terrible. I know I would."...

A Pirate who is part of the pre-Rickey era, Law was originally recommended to the club by a United States Senator, Herman Welcker of Idaho. Welcker, who is now dead, grabbed Bing Crosby, the popular singer who owns stock in the Pirates, and told him he had seen a great kid pitcher named Law. Welcker and Crosby happened also to be Gonzaga College classmates, and Welker, who seemed to be more adept at scouting than legislating, had also suggested Harmon Killebrew be signed by the Senators.

The boy was signed when he was 18, along with his brother, Evan, a catcher. The price for the two wasn't more than Leo Durocher pays for a good suit...

"There isn't a pitcher in the game," insists Manager Danny Murtaugh, "who has a better memory. He recalls everything a pitcher should know about a batter. Sometimes he can think back to a situation that happened three, four years ago."...

But pitching--using sound theory, memory, guts, and luck (and Vern emphasizes the latter)--is what he's best cut out to do. It's a cinch he'll be doing it for some years with the battling Buccos, even if the language around the dugout he occupies is anathema to his way of life.
Chuck_Blahous(@simpson.senate.gov) added this note to the discussion: 

        This is something that isn't mentioned enough, I think. Law 
     really did shut down the Yankees pretty well while poor Bob 
     Friend and Vinegar Bend Mizell were getting the stuffing kicked 
     out of them.  This despite the fact that, as indicated in the 
     locker-room interview afterwards, Law was pitching on a "bum 
     ankle."  
        I would further suggest that Murtaugh's decision to lift Law 
     in -- I think -- the 5th inning or so of game 7 almost cost the 
     Bucs the Series.  The Yankees got a couple of hits and runs off 
     of him, but he still looked very much in control.  Murtaugh went 
     to Elroy Face, who had performed very well to that point in the 
     series, but Face was not effective, and soon the Bucs were 
     looking at a big deficit.  (I did a previous posting in which I 
     wondered whether or not this figured into Murtaugh's decision to 
     stick with Blass for the distance of game 7 in 1971).  Law won 20 
     games that year and was possibly the biggest reason that the Bucs 
     prevailed in that Series.
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