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Summarized by Paul Pickett
What's Happening With LDS Baseball Ace Vernon Law
(Catching up with... Vernon law, Pirates Ace -- October 10, 1960)
Sports Illustrated pg.15, 22May00 S2
By Richard Deitsch
PROVO, UTAH -- LDS Church member and Cy Young Award winner Vernon
Law remembers some of the special moments of his baseball career. He
recalls some of the tactics used by the professional scouts to
recruit him to their team. He eventually decided on the Pittsburgh
Pirates after their agent showed up with dozen roses, a box of
chocolates and a special recruiter in reserve. "I remember the phone
rang halfway through the meeting" recalls Law, 70. "You can only
imagine the impact getting a call from Bing Crosby had on my mother."
At the time, Crosby was part-owner of the Pirates.
Nicknamed the Deacon for his status as a church elder, Law carried a
red spiral notebook throughout his career and filled it with hundreds
of inspirational aphorisms. When he felt pain in his pitching arm in
1961, for example, he wrote, "Difficulty can be the means of opening
up a new opportunity."
Law entitled his notebook Words to Live By. His faith was tested when
the arm pain lingered for three seasons. He retired in August 1963
but returned to Pittsburgh the next year and won 12 games. In '65
Law finished 17-9 with a 2.15 ERA and was named the Comeback Player
of the Year. Two years later he retired a second time, with 162
victories amassed over 16 seasons.
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