Gary Dean Lance (born September 21, 1948) is a former

baseball Baseball is a bat-and-ball sport played between two teams of nine players each, taking turns batting and fielding. The game occurs over the course of several plays, with each play generally beginning when a player on the fielding t ...

pitcher In baseball, the pitcher is the player who throws ("pitches") the baseball from the pitcher's mound toward the catcher to begin each play, with the goal of retiring a batter, who attempts to either make contact with the pitched ball or draw ...

. He played briefly for the Kansas City Royals of

Major League Baseball Major League Baseball (MLB) is a professional baseball organization and the oldest major professional sports league in the world. MLB is composed of 30 total teams, divided equally between the National League (NL) and the American League (AL), ...

(MLB) in its 1977 season. Listed at 6' 3", 195 lb., Lance batted and threw right handed. He was born in Greenville, South Carolina and attended Dentsville High School in Columbia, SC and continued playing baseball for University of South Carolina.Baseball Reference – MLB Statistics and History
/ref>

Career

The Royals signed Lance as a free agent in 1971. He spent six seasons in the minor leagues playing at six different levels.Baseball Reference – MiLB and Mexican League Statistics
/ref> In 1974, while pitching for the Double-A

Jacksonville Suns The Jacksonville Jumbo Shrimp are a Minor League Baseball team of the International League (IL) and the Triple-A affiliate of the Miami Marlins. They are located in Jacksonville, Florida, and are named for shrimp caught in the area. The team pla ...

, Lance hurled a no-hitter against the

Birmingham A's The Birmingham A's were a Minor League Baseball team that played in the Double-A Southern League from 1967 to 1975. They were located in Birmingham, Alabama, and were named for their Major League Baseball affiliates, the Kansas City Athletics (1 ...

. He averaged 12 wins in four of these seasons, with a career-high 16 victories in 1977, before joining the big team late in the year. Lance debuted with Kansas City on September 28, 1977, pitching two innings of

relief Relief is a sculptural method in which the sculpted pieces are bonded to a solid background of the same material. The term '' relief'' is from the Latin verb ''relevo'', to raise. To create a sculpture in relief is to give the impression that th ...

against the Oakland Athletics. He came into the game in the 8th inning to replace

Mark Littell Mark Alan Littell (January 17, 1953 – September 5, 2022), nicknamed "Country" and "Ramrod", was an American relief pitcher in Major League Baseball in 1973 and from 1975 to 1982 for the Kansas City Royals and St. Louis Cardinals. He was a memb ...

, after the A's had tied the game at 5–5. Lance got the last out of the inning, pitched a scoreless 9th, then gave up the winning run in the 10th to take the loss. He never appeared in a major league game again. Lance returned to the minors for three more years, retiring in 1980. He posted an 80–72 record with a 3.75

ERA An era is a span of time defined for the purposes of chronology or historiography, as in the regnal eras in the history of a given monarchy, a calendar era used for a given calendar, or the geological eras defined for the history of Earth. Comp ...

in 10 minor league seasons. Following his playing career, Lance spent many years as a minor league pitching coach, most recently with the

Portland Beavers The Portland Beavers was the name of separate minor league baseball teams, which represented Portland, Oregon, in the Pacific Coast League (PCL). The team was established in 1903, the first year of the PCL. Franchise history Many baseball teams ...

in 2007. In between, Lance played winter ball in

Venezuela Venezuela (; ), officially the Bolivarian Republic of Venezuela ( es, link=no, República Bolivariana de Venezuela), is a country on the northern coast of South America, consisting of a continental landmass and many islands and islets in th ...

with the

Tiburones de La Guaira The Tiburones de La Guaira ( en, La Guaira Sharks) are a baseball team in the Venezuelan Professional Baseball League. Based in the city of La Guaira, they play their home games in Estadio Fórum La Guaira and have won seven national champions ...

and

Tigres de Aragua The Tigres de Aragua ( en, Aragua Tigers) is a baseball team that plays in the Venezuelan Professional Baseball League and represents the state of Aragua. Founded in 1965, the Tigres plays its home games at the Estadio José Pérez Colmenares i ...

clubs, as well as in

Puerto Rico Puerto Rico (; abbreviated PR; tnq, Boriken, ''Borinquen''), officially the Commonwealth of Puerto Rico ( es, link=yes, Estado Libre Asociado de Puerto Rico, lit=Free Associated State of Puerto Rico), is a Caribbean island and unincorporated ...

for the Lobos de Arecibo,

Indios de Mayagüez The Indios de Mayagüez (Mayagüez Indians) are a baseball team in Puerto Rico's Liga de Béisbol Profesional Roberto Clemente (Roberto Clemente Professional Baseball League, in Spanish). Based in Mayagüez, the ''Indios'' have won 18 national ...

and

Vaqueros de Bayamón The Vaqueros de Bayamón are a Puerto Rican basketball team of the Baloncesto Superior Nacional based in Bayamón, Puerto Rico. The Vaqueros play their home games at Coliseo Rubén Rodríguez, Rubén Rodríguez Coliseum, a venue shared with the L ...

. While pitching for Arecibo, he was a member of the 1983 Caribbean Series champion team. Lance made a short return in 1990, while pitching for the

Florida Tropics Florida Tropics SC is a professional soccer club based in Lakeland, Florida. They are owned by Central Florida Sports Ventures, LLC, led by Dr. Panos Iakovidis, and former USL commissioner and Rochester Rhinos owner Chris Economides. The organ ...

of the short-lived

Senior Professional Baseball Association The Senior Professional Baseball Association, referred to commonly as the ''Senior League'', was a winter baseball league based in Florida for players age 35 and over, with a minimum age of 32 for catchers. The league began play in 1989 and had ei ...

.The Trading Card Database Gallery
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References

External links

, o

{{DEFAULTSORT:Lance, Gary 1948 births Living people American expatriate baseball players in Mexico Baseball players from South Carolina Gulf Coast Royals players Indios de Mayagüez players Jacksonville Suns players Kansas City Royals players Lobos de Arecibo players Major League Baseball pitchers Mexican League baseball pitchers Minor league baseball coaches Omaha Royals players San Jose Bees players Spokane Indians players Sportspeople from Greenville, South Carolina Sultanes de Monterrey players Tiburones de La Guaira players American expatriate baseball players in Venezuela Tigres de Aragua players Vaqueros de Bayamón players West Palm Beach Tropics players