Warren Spahn

This article is about the Hall of Fame pitcher. For the annual award given out for the top left-handed pitcher in the majors, see Warren Spahn Award. Warren Spahn PitcherBorn: April 23, 1921(1921-04-23)
Buffalo, New YorkDied: November 24, 2003(aged 82)
Broken Arrow, OklahomaBatted: Left Threw: Left MLB debut April 19, 1942
for the Boston BravesFinal game October 1, 1965
for the San Francisco GiantsCareer statistics Win-Loss record 363-245 Earned run average 3.09 Strikeouts 2,583 Teams

Boston/Milwaukee Braves (1942, 1946-1964)
New York Mets (1965)
San Francisco Giants (1965)

Career highlights and awards

14x All-Star selection (1947, 1949, 1950, 1951, 1952, 1953, 1954, 1956, 1957, 1958, 1959, 1961, 1962, 1963)
World Series champion (1957)
1957 Cy Young Award
4x NL TSN Pitcher of the Year (1953, 1957, 1958, 1961)
1961 Lou Gehrig Memorial Award
Atlanta Braves #21 retired

Member of the National Baseball Hall of Fame Elected 1973Vote 82.89%

Warren Edward Spahn (April 23, 1921 – November 24, 2003) was an American left-handed pitcher in Major League Baseball who played for 21 seasons, all in the National League. He won 20 games in 13 different seasons, including a 23-7 record when he was aged 42. Spahn was the 1957 Cy Young Award winner, and was the runner-up three times, all during the period when just one award was given. He was elected to the Baseball Hall of Fame in 1973.

Spahn was regarded as a "thinking man's" pitcher who liked to outwit batters. He once described his approach on the mound: "Hitting is timing. Pitching is upsetting timing."

Spahn won more games (363) than any other left-handed pitcher, or any other pitcher who played his entire career in the post-1920 live-ball era, and is acknowledged as one of the best pitchers in Major League Baseball history. The Warren Spahn Award, given to the major leagues' best left-handed pitcher, is named after him.

1 Baseball career
2 World War II
3 Death
4 See also
5 Other
6 Notes
7 External links

Baseball career

Spahn was born in Buffalo, New York, in 1921. His major league career began in 1942 with the Braves and he spent all but one year with that franchise, first in Boston and then in Milwaukee. He finished his career in 1965 with the New York Mets and the San Francisco Giants. Spahn won more games than any other lefty (363) and is the fifth-winningest pitcher in MLB, trailing only Cy Young (511), Walter Johnson (417), Grover Cleveland Alexander (373), and Christy Mathewson (373) on the all-time list.[1]

Spahn also threw two no-hitters, won 3 ERA titles, and appeared in 14 All-Star Games, the most of any pitcher in the 20th century.

To describe the 1948 Braves' pitching staff, Boston Post sports editor Gerald V. Hern wrote this poem which the popular media eventually condensed to "Spahn and Sain and Pray for Rain":[2]

First we'll use Spahn
then we'll use Sain
Then an off day
followed by rain
Back will come Spahn
followed by Sain
And followed
we hope
by two days of rain.

The poem was inspired by the performance of Spahn and Sain during the Braves' 1948 pennant drive. The team swept a Labor Day doubleheader, with Spahn throwing a complete 14-inning win in the opener, and Sain pitching a shutout in the second game. Following two off days, it did rain. Spahn won the next day, and Sain won the day after that. Three days later, Spahn won again. Sain won the next day. After one more off day, the two pitchers were brought back, and won another doubleheader. The two pitchers had gone 8-0 in twelve days' time.[3]

Spahn acquired the nickname "Hooks", not so much because of his pitching, but due to the prominent shape of his nose. He had once been hit in the face by a thrown ball that he was not expecting, and his broken nose settled into a hook-like shape. In Spahn's final season, during his stint with the Mets, Yogi Berra came out of retirement briefly and caught 4 games, one of them with Spahn pitching. Yogi later told reporters, "I don't think we're the oldest battery, but we're certainly the ugliest."

Spahn was known for a very high leg kick in his delivery, surpassed perhaps only by eventual Giants teammate Juan Marichal. Photo sequences show that this high kick served a specific purpose. As a left-hander, Spahn was able not only to watch any runner on first base, but also to not telegraph whether he was delivering to the plate or to first base, thereby forcing the runner to stay close to the bag. Spahn adapted over the years. As his fastball waned, Spahn relied more on changing speeds and location, with the help of a devastating screwball. He led the NL in wins from age 36 through 40.

Spahn was also a good hitter for a pitcher, hitting home runs for 17 straight years, and finishing with an NL career record for pitchers, with 35 home runs. Wes Ferrell, who spent most of his time in the American League, holds the overall record for pitchers, with 37.

Spahn briefly managed the Tulsa Oilers AAA franchise in the Pacific Coast League in the 1960's. he also coached for the Mexico City Tigers, and also pitched a handful of games there. He was a pitching coach with the Cleveland Indians, in the minor leagues for the California Angels, and for six years, with Japan's Hiroshima Toyo Carp.

World War II

Spahn reached the major leagues in 1942 at the age of 21. He famously clashed with Boston Braves manager Casey Stengel, who sent him to the minors after Spahn refused to throw at a batter in an exhibition game. Stengel later said that it was the worst managing mistake he had ever made. The 1942 Braves finished next to last, and Stengel was fired the following year. Spahn was reunited with his first manager 23 years later, for the even more woeful last-place New York Mets, and later quipped, "I'm probably the only guy who worked with Stengel before and after he was a genius."[4]

The United States, heavily involved in World War II by that time, required substantial manpower for the war effort. After finishing the 1942 season in the minors, Spahn chose to enlist in the United States Army, along with many other major leaguers. He served with distinction, and was awarded Purple Hearts and the Bronze Star for bravery. He saw action in the Battle of the Bulge and at the Ludendorff Bridge (the famous bridge at Remagen) as a combat engineer, and was awarded a battlefield commission. He was the only one of major league baseball's military who earned a battlefield commission, and along with Ted Williams, Yogi Berra, and Bob Feller, the most famous to see combat.

Spahn returned the major leagues in 1946 at the age of 25, having missed 3 full seasons. Had he played, it is possible that Spahn would have finished his career behind only Cy Young in all-time wins. Spahn was less speculative and more philosophical:

"People say that my absence from the big leagues may have cost me a chance to win 400 games. But I don't know about that. I matured a lot in three years, and I think I was better equipped to handle major league hitters at 25 than I was at 22. Also, I pitched until I was 44. Maybe I wouldn't have been able to do that otherwise."[5]

In 1947, Spahn led the National League in ERA while posting a 21-10 record. It was the first of his thirteen 20-win seasons. Spahn also won two more ERA titles, in 1953 and 1961.

In 1951, Spahn allowed the first career hit to Willie Mays, a home run. Mays had begun his career 0-for-12, and Spahn joked, "I'll never forgive myself. We might have gotten rid of Willie forever if I'd only struck him out."

In 1957, he was the ace of the champion Milwaukee Braves. Spahn pitched on two other Braves pennant winners, in 1948 and 1958. He had 2,583 strikeouts, which at the time of his retirement was the second-highest total in baseball history after Walter Johnson.[6] Spahn led the NL in strikeouts for four consecutive seasons, from 1949 to 1952, including a career high of 18 (then the NL record) on June 14, 1952. For several decades, Spahn's Hall of Fame plaque contained a typographical error, crediting him with 2,853 strikeouts.[7]

Spahn maintained that "A pitcher needs two pitches - one they're looking for, and one to cross 'em up." He was thus able to maintain his position as one of the game's top pitchers until his 19th season in the sport. This was exemplified by his start on July 2, 1963. Facing the San Francisco Giants, the 42-year-old Spahn became locked into a storied pitchers' duel with 25-year-old Juan Marichal. The score was still 0-0 after more than four hours when Willie Mays hit a game-winning solo home run off Spahn with one out in the bottom of the 16th inning. Marichal's manager, Alvin Dark, visited the mound in the 9th, 10th, 11th, 13th, and 14th innings, and was talked out of removing Marichal each time. During the 14th-inning visit, Marichal told Dark, "Do you see that man pitching for the other side? Do you know that man is 42 years old? I'm only 25. If that man is on the mound, nobody is going to take me out of here."[8] Marichal ended up throwing 227 pitches in the complete game 1-0 win, while Spahn threw 201 in the loss, allowing nine hits and one walk. Hall of Famer Carl Hubbell, who was in attendance that night, said of Spahn, "He ought to will his body to medical science."

Spahn threw his first no-hitter in 1960, when he was 39. He pitched his second no-hitter the following year. By the last two seasons of his career, Spahn was the oldest active player in baseball. He lost this distinction for a single day: September 25, 1965, when 58-year-old Satchel Paige pitched three innings.

Death

Spahn died of natural causes, at his home in Broken Arrow, Oklahoma. He is interred in the Elmwood Cemetery in Hartshorne. After his death a street was named after him in Buffalo, New York that connects Abbott Road with Seneca Street, through Cazenovia Park, in the heart of South Buffalo. The street is near South Park High School, Spahn's alma mater.

A few months before his death, Spahn attended the unveiling of a statue outside Atlanta's Turner Field. The statue depicts Spahn in the middle of one of his leg kicks. This statue was created by Famous Oklahoma Artist Shan Gray, who also sculpted statues; of Warren Spahn that stands in the Oklahoma Sports Hall of Fame, The Mickey Mantle Statue Outside of the At&t Bricktown Ballpark in OKC, and the 4 Statues at Heisman Park(Billy Vessels, Steve Owens, Billy Sims, and Jason White) at the University of Oklahoma.

Other

In their Naked Gun films, producers Zucker, Abrahams and Zucker sometimes included joke credits. The trio, who were Milwaukee-area natives, included Spahn in the closing credits once, with the disclaimer, "He's not in the film, but he's still our all-time favorite left-hand pitcher."