[21], Spahn's seemingly ageless ability caused Stan Musial to quip, "[Spahn] will never get into the Hall of Fame. It winds up with me saying, next time Ill have to be absolutely perfect., Alex Coffey was the communications specialist at the National Baseball Hall of Fame, National Baseball Hall of Fame and Museum, 25 Main Street,Cooperstown, NY 13326Phone: 1-888-HALL-OF-FAME | 607-547-7200 | Fax: 607-547-0398. He smoked while chewing Beechnut gum Spahn kept adding sticks during a game, leaving him with a large chunk in his mouth that gave the erroneous impression he was chewing tobacco. (National Baseball Hall of Fame and Museum), The heck with any strikeout records, he said to the Boston Globe after his 11-strikeout game. [3] He was a 17-time All-Star who won 20games or more in 13 seasons, including a 237 winloss record when he was age 42. He won at least 20 games every year from 1956 to 1961, led the league in complete games every year from 1957 to 1963, and in 1963 at age 42 posted a 23-7 record and compiled a 2.60 earned run average. Baseball retired me. When Spahn pitched three games for the Mexico City Tigers in 1966 and three games for the Tulsa Oilers in 1967, people got the mistaken impression that he was staging a comeback. Good luck again prevailed in the ninth. Spahn struck out the side in the second, getting Pancho Herrera, Gonzalez and Cal Neeman to miss third strikes. Otherwise, we all could have gone home then. He said, Dont worry Chico Im going to win this game for you.. There wasnt the hype then that there is today, says Crandall, who like some other players in the game cant remember a single detail. He won't stop pitching.". Orlando Cepeda s stolen base in the second inningmust have infuriated Spahn.He had one of the best pick-off moves in baseball, one so sure and sudden that he picked off Jackie Robinson twice in one game. Spahn and Marichal werent overpowering but shared excellent control, a fine repertoire of pitches, and a high leg kick that obscured a batters sightlines. 14 *morris win: allowed 5+ er but still got the win. "Hitting is timing. He retired Johnny Callison leading off the first on a fly to left, then got Malkmus on a grounder to short and Ken Walters swinging at a third strike. Spahn, who returned to the Braves soon after his discharge in 1946, would go 21-10 in 1947. His pickoff move was described as one of the best in the major leagues. While Mays rounded the bases and disappeared quickly into the night, the crowd stood and cheered both pitchers and, for that matter, themselves for sticking it out. First signed by the Boston Braves, he reported to the Class-D Bradford Bees of the PONY League - later known as the NY-Penn League - after graduating high school. Spahn finished his first no hitter as well as his 20th victory. [3] Spahn still holds the major league record for most career wins by a left-handed pitcher. vs. CIN 0.1 IP, 1 H, 0 SO, 1 BB, 0 ER. Stan Musial was quoted as saying, "I don't think Spahn will ever get into the Hall of Fame, He'll never stop pitching.". July 2 was cool, with the usual west-to-east wind rippling across from left-center to right-center that presented a major obstacle for right-handed batters and helped left handers but sometimes sent shots by lefties into foul territory. Do you have a sports website? But I don't know about that. But I don't know about that. The other selections were: outfielders Ty Cobb, Babe Ruth, and Willie Mays; shortstop Cal Ripken, third baseman Mike Schmidt, second baseman Jackie Robinson, first baseman Lou Gehrig, catcher Mickey Cochrane, right-handed pitcher Christy Mathewson, relief pitcher Dennis Eckersley, and manager Casey Stengel. The pitch that extended his career was extending the game. I had struck him out twice before he came up in the ninth.. The statue was created by Shan Gray, who has sculpted numerous other statues of athletes which stand in Oklahoma, including two others of Spahn. In 2013, the Bob Feller Act of Valor Award honored Spahn as one of 37 Baseball Hall of Fame members for his service in the United States Army during World War II. Entering the season, the strike zone had been expanded from knees to armpits all the way to knees to top of shoulder level. The Giants and Braves were playing night ball at San Franciscos typically breezy, chilly Candlestick Park, a pitchers paradise because balls dont carry as far in cold weather as they do when its humid. He consistently was the league lead in Wins, ERA, Strikeouts and Complete Games. I didnt retire from baseball, Spahn said. It was almost mandatory to pitch every four days.. Then the writers converged. Spahnie had a good fastball, not as good as Johnson's, but good. Hes 42 and Im 25 and you cant take me out until that man is not pitching., Memory is a cruel mistress. Spahn became great because of these things and because hes one of the smartest men ever to play the game. Marichal and Spahn sailed through the first three innings, Marichal yielding one hit, Spahn one, Marichal getting the most mileage out of his fastball, Spahn learning quickly that his screwball was getting right-handed hitters while his curve curbed lefties. BL-2870.70 (National Baseball Hall of Fame Library), Warren Spahn, right, pitched 20 of his 21 big league seasons with the Braves. He won 363 games, and pitched 63 shutouts. Spahn also won two more ERA titles, in 1953 and 1961. I blame myself for Willie. followed by Sain After outliving his wife LoRene by 25 years, Spahn died on November 24, 2003. Spahn won four and lost 12 at which point the Mets put Spahn on waivers. It was, I told the guys in the office, a rare exercise of sound editorial judgment. Despite the banner headline, the game was little moreat least at the timethan a one-day story. [23], His 2,583 career strikeouts were the most by a left-handed pitcher in Major League Baseball history until he was later on surpassed by Mickey Lolich in 1975. In SportsIllustrated, Ron Fimrite described a high arc to left field, where, after hanging in the night sky for what seemed like an eternity, it landed beyond the fence.. Ailing with a broken leg, four broken ribs, a punctured lung, internal bleeding, and fluid buildup in his lungs, Spahn, 82, was wheeled in to see the work. The Warren Spahn Award, given to the Major Leagues' best left-handed pitcher, is named after Spahnie, who joined the Twenty-Wins Club thirteen times and threw two no-hitters. He would finish the season 21-10. Spahn would hold court at the Hall of Fame, thrilling contemporaries like Hank Aaron, Stan Musial, and Willie Mays as well as younger immortals like Johnny Bench and Fergie Jenkins, all the while sucking on a long necked beer. I said, Willie, this is going to be the last inning for me. Facing the San Francisco Giants, the 42-year-old Spahn became locked into a storied pitchers' duel with 25-year-old Juan Marichal. Marichal got through the top half surrendering only a two-out single to Menke. Spahn also made his acting debut with a cameo appearance as a German soldier in a 1963 episode (S2E8 "Glow Against the Sky")[30] of the television series Combat! When the Giants were batting, Marichal sat with a warm-up jacket, a towel over his pitching hand to keep his fingers loose, chewing Bazooka gum. Spahn was known for a very high leg kick in his delivery, as was his later Giants teammate Juan Marichal. He is interred in the Elmwood Cemetery in Hartshorne. [1], On June 11, 1950, Spahn and pitcher Bob Rush of the Cubs each stole a base against each other; no opposing pitchers again stole a base in the same game until May 3, 2004, when Jason Marquis and Greg Maddux repeated the feat. If a guy gets wild or starts getting his pitches up, you know his arm might be tired, but that wasnt the case with Juan. Dark never asked a reliever to warm up. But for one day at least, an epic pitching duel dominated the news. Five days lateryes, he got an extra day off, toohe strained a tendon in his arm throwing a slider to John Bateman but finished the game and beat Houston, 5-0, on five singles. Had he played, it is possible that Spahn would have finished his career behind only Walter Johnson and Cy Young in all-time wins. When he and Burdette were teammates, the guy pitching would come off the field and find his friend waiting in the run way behind the dugout holding a lit cigarette for him. With the game still scoreless in the ninth, it was Spahns turn to breathe a sigh of relief. Frequently Spahns personal catcher, Crandall knew Spahn so well he was rarely shaken off. But ironically, those two walks were what cost him the game, as Hal Jeffcoats triple drove in Roy Smalley and Eddie Miksis, giving the Cubs the 3-1 win. Singles by Spahn, Bill Bruton and Eddie Mathews produced another run in the fifth. I dont want this kid to get hurt, I was thinking. He fanned Herrera and Gonzalez in the seventh and pinch-hitters Tony Taylor and Lee Walls after one was out in the eighth. "If anybody asks me who my favorite pitcher of all-time is, I say Warren Spahn ." - Whitey Ford in An Indian Summer: The 1957 Milwaukee Braves Champions of Baseball (Thad Mumau, 2007) "I don't know if we're the oldest battery, but we're certainly the ugliest." - Yogi Berra in 1965. Warren Edward Spahn (April 23, 1921 November 24, 2003) was an American professional baseball pitcher[1] who played 21 seasons in Major League Baseball (MLB). As of this writing, only one player in the last quarter century Seattles Jamie (The Ancient Mariner) Moyer in 2003 has had a 20-win season past the age of 40. Warren Spahn served in the United States Army (from 1943 through 1945) during World War II, participated in the battle for the bridge at Remagen (and many other battles), was awarded a purple heart. Spahn made his professional debut on July 6 at MacArthur Park (Dwyer Stadium) in Batavia, New York. [5] Regarded as a "thinking man's" pitcher who liked to outwit batters, Spahn once described his approach on the mound: "Hitting is timing. Spahn was also a good hitter, hitting at least one home run in 17 straight seasons, and finishing with an NL career record for pitchers, with 35 home runs. update=copyright.getFullYear(); The fans missed him, but he was added by a special Committee to the all-century team. But there would be no easy outs, no pit stops that July night. 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. Spahn threw 201 pitches, Marichal 227. - Casey Stengel in Winningest Pitchers: Baseball's 300-game Winners (Rich Westcott, Temple Univ Publishing, July 2002, Page 108) [Warren Spahn Quotes], Warren Spahn Autograph on a 1991 Topps Archives Baseball Card (#147 | Checklist), Warren Spahn Miscellaneous Items of Interest. But fellow Hall of Famer Stan Musial had his doubts as to whether Spahn, a major league pitcher until his mid-40s, would ever be honored in Cooperstown, once half-jokingly stating, I dont think Spahn will ever get into the Hall of Fame. Another pinch-hitter, Bobby Del Greco, fanned on three pitches for Spahn's fourth straight strikeout. Giants 1, Braves 0, an eight-hitter for Marichal, with four walks and 10 strikeouts, a nine-hitter for Spahn, with one intentional walk and two strikeouts. And good old Yogi Berra, recruited to warm up Spahn, said, I dont know if were the oldest battery, but were certainly the ugliest.. 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