Vance Law: Mormon Athlete

Vance Aaron Law is a former Major League Baseball player and college baseball coach. He is a member of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints.

Law was born on October 1, 1956, in Boise, Idaho. He is the son of Vernon Law, a Major League Baseball pitcher who spent his entire career with the Pittsburgh Pirates and won the Cy Young award.

Vance Law was a third baseman with several teams. He played with the Oakland Athletics (1991), the Chunichi Dragons (1990), the Chicago Cubs (1988–1989), the Montreal Expos (1985–1987), the Chicago White Sox (1982–1984), and the Pittsburgh Pirates (1980–1981). He holds an American League record for the longest errorless game by a third baseman—25 innings of the longest game in American League history (May 8 and 9, 1984). He played seven games as an emergency relief pitcher. He was a National League All-Star during the 1988 season.

Beginning in 2000, Law was the head baseball coach at Brigham Young University. BYU terminated his employment after the losing season of 2012. He was 397-347-2 during his coaching career. He led the team to a 2001 Mountain West Conference championship and was named Coach of the Year. The team took a second Mountain West Conference title in 2002. BYU had four all-Americans under Law’s leadership.

Before coming to BYU, Law was the head baseball coach at Provo High School—his alma mater—where he was named 4A Coach of the Year in 1997 and led his team to a state title. He had been assistant coach at Utah Valley State College in 1993–1994.

Law earned a bachelor’s degree and a teaching certificate from BYU and played point guard in basketball and shortstop in baseball. He graduated in 1983.

For more than 18 years, Law served as a resource player for the major league rookie training.

Sports Illustrated positioned him 19th on its list of Utah’s 50 greatest athletes of the century. He and his wife, Sharon, have five children.