EchoVib

The great pitchers in baseball’s record book are mostly names out of a distant past, men like Christy Mathewson. Cy Young, Walter Johnson and Grover Alexander. But since 1946 a hawk-nosed lefthander with a marvelously smooth motion has been setting down National League batters with such consistency that he now must be classed with the giants of the game. Last week Milwaukee’s 39-year-old Warren Spahn could look back on another superb season at an age when most stars have long since retired to sell insurance or peddle beer.

Just a few days before, Spahn had pitched the first no-hitter of his 15-year career, a 4-0 victory over the Phillies. His record of 21-9 made him the first lefthander to ever win 20 or more games in eleven seasons. His 288 games were still shy of the 300-mark reached by twelve pitchers, but Spahn. if his arm holds up, has a good chance of eventually surpassing the 325 victories of Philadelphia’s Eddie Plank (1901-17) to become the top lefthander of all time. “I have just three words to describe Spahn,” says Milwaukee Manager Charlie Dressen. “Great, great, great.”

In & Out. Son of a wallpaper salesman in Buffalo, Spahn was just ripening in the minors when he went into the Army in 1942. A combat engineer, Spahn won a battlefield commission and was wounded by shrapnel in the action to repair the Remagen bridge for the first troops to cross the Rhine. Spahn shrugs off both the wound (“It was only a scratch in the foot”) and the promotion (“I got it only because all our officers were killed”).

In 1946 Spahn was a mature, 25-year-old rookie with the Boston Braves who could fire his high, hard one all afternoon. But, like all pitchers, Spahn soon found his fastball tailing off, began to develop his assortment of multiple-speed curves. Ten years ago, when he saw that even his curves and control were not enough, Spahn started to perfect a screwball and a slider with the patience of a hothouse gardener growing prize orchids. Says the Cardinals’ Stan Musial: “The tough pitcher is the one with a pitch that breaks in and another that breaks out, and Spahn has them for either right or lefthanded batters.”

“I’m smarter now than when I had the big fastball,” says Spahn. “I do a lot of things now besides just knowing the batters and being able to hit the spots. Sometimes I get behind hitters on purpose. That makes them hungry hitters. They start looking for fat pitches. I make my living off hungry hitters.”

Spahn is at his best when the going is worst. “I don’t lose easily, and I pitch that way.” he says. “You can’t be content with halfway measures. I start every game intent on a no-hitter. When they get a hit, I try for a one-hit shutout. We baseball players live pretty high on the hog, and for 2 or 2½ hours on the ball field you can really put out.”

Fluid Drive. Spahn treats his left arm as the treasure it is. To protect it from strain, he long ago developed a fluid motion that produces tremendous body leverage. With this care, Spahn never has had to baby his arm in a game, never has missed a single big-league inning because of soreness. “Pitchers don’t go out of baseball because of their age,” says Spahn. “Either you learn the proper ways of throwing or you don’t last.”

Manager Dressen, for one, thinks Spahn is far from a career’s end: “The way he throws, natural and with no strain, and with stuff like he had the other night—why he’ll go on damn near forever.” Warren Spahn agrees. “The way I feel right now, I’m going to be around awhile,” says Spahn. “Yes sir, quite awhile.”

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