Man Versus Machine

February 2004

As the major league ball players, managers and coaches make their annual journey to Florida (the Grapefruit League) or Arizona (the Cactus League), I mused about Warren Spahn, the left-handed pitcher who died November 24, 2003, aged 82. No other lefty won as many games in major league history.

Spring training reminded me of an experiment tried about 1960 or 1961 by a major league club, I think it was the Dodgers. They had a pitching machine constructed to pitch batting practice to allow coaches who pitched batting practice to be free for other duties.

Placed on the pitchers’ mound, it could consistently throw strikes, and the velocity could be varied. The pitching machine was called “The Warren Spahn”, who was the top left-hander in baseball for 21 seasons and noted for his control.

Now here is the “kicker” –

The Warren Spahn pitching machine wore out after a couple of spring training sessions, but Warren Spahn himself was still pitching in the major leagues. The man outlasted the machine by 19 or 20 years.

Spahn was 44 years old when he retired. He came to the majors with the Braves when that team was still in Boston. The Boston Braves were never as popular as the Boston Red Sox, but there was a good program the Braves had when I was a boy. They sponsored the “Knot Hole Gang”, where boys and girls could be admitted to the right field bleachers to see a game for twenty-five cents. With Boston’s good urban transit system, it was easy to get to Braves Field on Commonwealth Avenue. I went several times in the 1920s.

Like other athletes, Spahn’s career was put on hold during World War II. He experienced the Battle of the Bulge and the seizure of the bridge at Remagen. Spahn was commissioned as a Lieutenant on the battlefield. He also received the Bronze Star and the Purple Heart. Only one other Hall-of-Famer was awarded the Purple Heart, Hoyt Wilhelm.

Spahn was pitching for the Boston Braves in 1948 when the Braves won the National League pennant. Also on the pitching staff was Johnny Sain, a premier right-hander. A sports editor, late in that season, 1948, wanted Spahn and Sain to pitch all the remaining games and he composed a short poem:

“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 version I remember is

“Spahn and Sain
And two days of rain.”

Warren Spahn was the best left handed pitcher in the history of baseball in the opinion of many, including me. 20 seasons with the Braves – 8 in Boston and 12 in Milwaukee, and a final season with the Mets and Giants.

All baseball nuts are fond of statistics. So let some figures illustrate why Spahn was the best lefty:

He won 363 games and lost 245
He won 20 games in one season 13 times
Pitched 382 complete games in 665 starts
Pitched 5243 innings, a record for left-handers
Pitched 63 shutouts, National League record for lefties
14 times an All Star

Stan Musial, the Cardinal slugger said, when Spahn at age 42 pitched a 20 win season, “I don’t think Spahn will ever get into the Hall of Fame; he’ll never stop pitching.”

Spahn was elected to the Hall of Fame in his first year of eligibility.

Last August, the Atlanta Braves dedicated a statue honoring Warren Spahn – a 9 foot high bronze sculpture depicting Spahn in the motion of his famous high leg kick. Spahn, in a wheel chair, attended the celebration.

In baseball today with the coming exposure of the use of illegal substances to enhance strength. Pitchers going 5 innings to be replaced by the set-up man and then the relief pitcher, the “closer”. Players hopping from team to team for more millions of dollars. We need more Warren Spahns. By the way, the designated hitter rule in the American League, so the weak-hitting pitcher never comes to bat? Warren Spahn had a career hitting average of .363.

He served our country unselfishly. It would be a big plus for the game today for young players to imitate his character and courage, his continuous attention to physical conditioning and his love of the game.

The Warren Spahn Pitching Machine wore out in a couple of years, but Warren Spahn, the living man, pitched 21 seasons in the major leagues.

Did Shakespeare anticipate Warren Spahn? Rosaline, in LOVE’S LABOUR’S LOST (Act IV, Sc. i), says:

“Thou canst not hit it, hit, hit it
Thou canst not hit it, my good man.”