Vance George Dinges (May 29, 1915 – October 4, 1990) was an American

professional baseball Professional baseball is organized baseball in which players are selected for their talents and are paid to play for a specific team or club system. It is played in leagues and associated farm teams throughout the world. Modern professional ...

player Player may refer to: Role or adjective * Player (game), a participant in a game or sport ** Gamer, a player in video and tabletop games ** Athlete, a player in sports ** Player character, a character in a video game or role playing game who ...

. He appeared in 159 Major League games as a

first baseman A first baseman, abbreviated 1B, is the player on a baseball or softball team who fields the area nearest first base, the first of four bases a baserunner must touch in succession to score a run. The first baseman is responsible for the majori ...

and

outfielder An outfielder is a person playing in one of the three defensive positions in baseball or softball, farthest from the batter. These defenders are the left fielder, the center fielder, and the right fielder. As an outfielder, their duty is to c ...

for the

1945 1945 marked the end of World War II and the fall of Nazi Germany and the Empire of Japan. It is also the only year in which Nuclear weapon, nuclear weapons Atomic bombings of Hiroshima and Nagasaki, have been used in combat. Events Below, ...

and 1946 Philadelphia Phillies. The native of Elizabeth, New Jersey, threw and batted left-handed; he stood tall and weighed . Dinges' professional career lasted eleven seasons, 1938 through 1948. He was acquired by the Phillies from the

Boston Red Sox The Boston Red Sox are an American professional baseball team based in Boston. The Red Sox compete in Major League Baseball (MLB) as a member club of the American League (AL) East division. Founded in as one of the American League's eigh ...

in the 1944 Rule 5 draft; Phils'

general manager A general manager (GM) is an executive who has overall responsibility for managing both the revenue and cost elements of a company's income statement, known as profit & loss (P&L) responsibility. A general manager usually oversees most or all of ...

Herb Pennock Herbert Jefferis Pennock (February 10, 1894 – January 30, 1948) was an American professional baseball pitcher and front-office executive. He played in Major League Baseball from 1912 through 1933, and is best known for his time spent with the ...

had previously been the head of the Red Sox' farm system. He made his MLB debut on April 17, 1945, and singled in his first at bat off Curt Davis of the Brooklyn Dodgers. He served as a backup outfielder and first baseman that seasons, appearing in 109 games and

batting Batting may refer to: * Batting (baseball), the act of attempting to hit a ball thrown by the pitcher with a baseball bat, in order to score runs * Batting (cricket), the act of defending one's wicket with the cricket bat while attempting to score ...

.287. He also hit his first MLB

home run In baseball, a home run (abbreviated HR) is scored when the ball is hit in such a way that the batter is able to circle the bases and reach home plate safely in one play without any errors being committed by the defensive team. A home run i ...

that April 24, a solo blast off the New York Giants' Andy Hansen. Dinges was named a member of the 1945

National League The National League of Professional Baseball Clubs, known simply as the National League (NL), is the older of two leagues constituting Major League Baseball (MLB) in the United States and Canada, and the world's oldest extant professional team ...

All-Star squad by

The Sporting News The ''Sporting News'' is a website and former magazine publication owned by Sporting News Holdings, which is a U.S.-based sports media company formed in December 2020 by a private investor consortium. It was originally established in 1886 as a pr ...

. But no midsummer classic was played that season and no official All-Star teams were officially chosen by the two leagues because of wartime travel restrictions Dinges then split between the Phils and their

Utica Blue Sox The Utica Blue Sox was the name of two minor league baseball teams based in Utica, New York. In the 2010s, the ''Utica Blue Sox'' is the name of a collegiate summer baseball team of the Perfect Game Collegiate Baseball League (PGCBL) based in ...

Eastern League affiliate. He backed up

right-handed In human biology, handedness is an individual's preferential use of one hand, known as the dominant hand, due to it being stronger, faster or more dextrous. The other hand, comparatively often the weaker, less dextrous or simply less subjecti ...

-hitting first baseman

Frank McCormick Frank Andrew McCormick (June 9, 1911 – November 21, 1982) was an American baseball first baseman who played fifteen seasons in Major League Baseball (MLB). Nicknamed "Buck" in honor of Frank Buck, he played for the Cincinnati Reds, Philadelph ...

in 26 games and batted .308, slugging his second big-league homer as a pinch hitter off

Ed Bahr Edson Garfield Bahr (October 16, 1919 – April 6, 2007) was a Canadian-born professional baseball pitcher who appeared in Major League Baseball for the Pittsburgh Pirates in and . Bahr was born in Rouleau, Saskatchewan, but graduated from West ...

of the Pittsburgh Pirates on July 12.1946-7-12 box score
from

Retrosheet Retrosheet is a nonprofit organization whose website features box scores of Major League Baseball (MLB) games from 1906 to the present, and play-by-play narratives for almost every contest since the 1930s. It also includes scores from every major ...

In 553

plate appearances In baseball statistics, a player is credited with a plate appearance (denoted by PA) each time he completes a turn batting. Under Rule 5.04(c) of the Official Baseball Rules, a player completes a turn batting when he is put out or becomes a runner ...

and 501 at bats, Dinges collected 146 Major League

hit Hit means to strike someone or something. Hit or HIT may also refer to: Arts, entertainment and media Fictional entities * Hit, a fictional character from '' Dragon Ball Super'' * Homicide International Trust, or HIT, a fictional organization ...

s and posted a batting average of .291.

References

External links

1915 births 1990 deaths Andalusia Bulldogs players Canton Terriers players Evergreen Greenies players Harrisonburg Turks players Louisville Colonels (minor league) players Major League Baseball first basemen Major League Baseball outfielders Minor league baseball managers Mount Airy Graniteers players Oneonta Indians players Philadelphia Phillies players Roanoke Red Sox players Salina Blue Jays players Sanford Lookouts players Scranton Miners players Scranton Red Sox players Sportspeople from Elizabeth, New Jersey Baseball players from Union County, New Jersey Utica Blue Sox players {{US-baseball-first-baseman-stub