A
fun one today on the blog, from my "1960's Career-Cappers" set released
a few years ago, my 1966 capper for the great, and I mean GREAT, Warren
Spahn, who called it an amazing career in 1965 after a brief tenure
with the San Francisco Giants:
Spahn
began the season with the New Yrok Mets before finding himself out
West, appearing in 16 games for the Giants and going 3-4 over that time
with a very nice 3.39 ERA in 71.2 innings.
Overall,
the 44-year-old went 7-16 in his 21st year of Big League action,
appearing in 36 games and ending up with a 4.01 ERA with eight complete
games and 197.2 innings pitched with 90 strikeouts.
The man was amazing, flat out, and by the time he retired in 1965 he posted a 363-245 record, with a 3.09 ERA, 63 shutouts, 28
saves and 2583 strikeouts over 750 appearances, 665 of which were
starts.
Oh yeah, he also hit 35 career home runs along with 189 runs batted in with (coincidentally) 363 hits!
And remember he didn’t win his first game until he was 25 years of age, as he served in the military from 1943 to 1945.
His first 20-game season was 1947 (at the age of 26), and he kept right on rolling until his final 20-game season in 1963!
In between, he ended up posting 13 such campaigns, leading the
league eight times (with five of those coming consecutively from 1957 to
1961).
Just an incredible talent!
Was there anything he couldn’t do?Once in a lifetime right there...