With 363 victories, Warren Spahn is the winningest lefty in baseball
history. Over 21 years, he won 20 or more games 13 times, was a 17-time
All Star, won a Cy Young-award, then, of course, was elected to the
National Baseball Hall of Fame. Spahn was also a war hero, serving in
World War II and awarded the Purple Heart.
To say Spahn lived a storied life is an understatement.
In Warren Spahn, author Lew Freedman tells the story of this
incredible lefty. Known for his supremely high leg kick, Spahn became
one of the greatest pitchers in baseball history. However, the road
wasn't as easy as it would seem.
Struggling in his major-league debut at age twenty, manager Casey
Stengel demoted the young left. It would be four years before Spahn
would return to the diamond, as he received a calling of a different
kind--one from his country.
Enlisting in the Army, Spahn would serve with distinction, seeing action
in the Battle of the Bulge and the Ludendorff Bridge, and was awarded a
battlefield commission, along with a Purple Heart.
Upon his return to the game, he would take the league by storm. Spahn
dominated for over two decades, spending twenty years with the Braves
(both Boston and Milwaukee), as well as a season with the New York Mets
and San Francisco Giants. Pitching into his mid-forties, he would throw
two no-hitters at the advanced ages of thirty-nine and forty.
From his early days in Buffalo and young career, through his time and
the military and all the way to the 1948 Braves and "Spahn and Sain and
Pray for Rain," author Lew Freedman leaves no stone unturned in sharing
the incredible life of this pitching icon, who is still considered the
greatest left-handed pitcher to ever play the game.
