Hall of Famer Warren Spahn passes away at the ripe old age of 82

[The Brain]

<a href=http://espn.go.com/classic/obit/s/2003/1124/1670072.html target=new>Courtesy of ESPN.com</a>:

Spahn started his baseball career in his hometown of Buffalo, playing first base while his father played third for the Buffalo Lake City Athletic Club. He wanted to play first in high school but his team already had an all-city player at that position. So Spahn switched to pitching.

He signed with the Braves in 1940 for $80 a month and injured his arm twice in his first season of D-level ball. But he won 19 games the next season and was invited to spring training with the Braves.

He started the 1942 season with the Braves but was sent down by manager Casey Stengel, who was angry because the left-hander refused to brush back Pee Wee Reese in an exhibition game. Spahn went 17-12 with a 1.96 ERA average at Hartford that season while the Braves finished in seventh place. Stengel called farming Spahn out the worst mistake he ever made.

In 1943, Spahn went into the Army. He served in Europe, where he was wounded, decorated for bravery with a Bronze Star and Purple Heart and was awarded a battlefield commission. He fought at the Battle of the Bulge and in the battle for the bridge at Remagen, Germany, where many men in his company were lost.

Spahn returned to baseball in 1946, and had an 8-5 record for the Braves.

The next season, he emerged as one of baseball's best pitchers with a 21-10 record. He led the NL with a 2.33 ERA and became part of a pitching partnership with Johnny Sain that took Boston to the NL pennant the next year. Because of the Braves' thin staff, Boston's pitching was described as \"Spahn and Sain and pray for rain.\"

Starting in 1947, Spahn won 20 or more games in 13 of the next 17 seasons. Only Christy Mathewson had as many 20-win seasons in the NL. Strangely, one of the years he missed that plateau was 1948, when he was 15-12 as the Braves won their first pennant since 1914.

Equipped with a high-kicking delivery that baffled batters, Spahn became a dominant pitcher after that season, a consistent 20-game winner. Only once between 1953 and 1961 did he fail to win 20 games.

Spahn led the NL in victories eight times, including five in a row from 1957-61, and led the league in strikeouts from 1949-52.

He once said, \"When I'm pitching, I feel I'm down to the essentials -- two men with one challenge between them.\"

He usually won that challenge.

He finished 6th on the all-time list for pitching victories at 363 (and only 1 win behind #5 Pud Galvin), despite his wartime stint and the fact that <b>he didn't win his first major league game until he was 25</b>. He is the winningest lefty pitcher of all-time.