Latter-day Saint Pitcher Vern Law Inducted Into Pittsburgh Pirates Hall of Fame

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By Trent Toone, Church News

Vernon Law, the Latter-day Saint farm boy from Meridian, Idaho, who became the first Pittsburgh Pirates pitcher to win a Cy Young Award and help lead his team to the 1960 World Series title, was inducted into the organization’s hall of fame on August 21.

Joined by family members last week, the 95-year-old received a gold jacket and threw a ceremonial first pitch before a game.

“It’s the capstone of my career,” Law said in an MLB.com article. “It is absolutely wonderful. I thought when I turned 95, all the excitement in my life was over. But, no, this has brought a lot of memories.”

Law spent all 16 seasons of his Major League Baseball career with the Pirates, ranging from 1950-1967 (he missed the 1952-53 seasons serving in the Korean War).

He was the first Pirate pitcher to win a Cy Young Award, an annual honor given to the best pitcher in the American and National Leagues of Major League Baseball.

In 1960, Law was tied for the most complete games in the league with 18 and won 20 in the regular season; he then went 2-0 with a 3.44 ERA in his three games pitched in the World Series, helping the Pirates upset the New York Yankees in Game 7.

Law has attributed his athletic success to how he lived his faith and clean lifestyle.

“I always felt like if I got my rest, that I ate properly, and that I trained and did everything I could I would be successful as a player. I didn’t need all this other stuff going on around me,” he said in a SportsNet Pittsburgh video.

As a devout member of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, teammates called Law “Deacon” and “Preacher,” while news media often labeled him a “lay Mormon minister” for occasionally offering silent prayers on the mound.

Umpire Stan Landes once ejected Law from the dugout during a heated game because “I didn’t want Vern to hear the abusive language,” he wrote in a report to the commissioner’s office, according to a 2005 Deseret News article.

After the Pirates’ victory over the Yankees in Game 7 of the 1960 World Series, frenzied fans besieged the locker room doors. Law received timely help from U.S. Secretary of Agriculture Ezra Taft Benson, a member of the Quorum of the Twelve Apostles and future Church president, who offered a backdoor exit to a waiting vehicle. The group drove away unnoticed.

Following his professional baseball career, Law was an assistant coach at Brigham Young University.

In 2017, a Deseret News columnist wrote about a Pirates fan who followed Law during his career and was impressed with how Law lived his faith. The man said he later joined the Church.

“I read all I could get about each player. Vernon Law was a favorite. I was not [a Latter-day Saint], but I took note of what writers said about his character and values. It caused me some interest in the Church, and along with other things, it caused me to contact the Church for information,” the article said. “A couple of years later, I was baptized, married in the temple. ... I may have joined the Church without him, but I do know if he had not set a good example, I would likely have never looked into the Church.”