So Long to “The Invincible One”

The winningest lefty ever, Warren Spahn died Monday. Between 1946 and 1964, he won 20 games 13 times for the Braves of Boston and Milwaukee (6 in a row) and had 2 no-hitters. What makes it more impressive is the fact that he is one of those guys that missed several years while he was fighting (and earning medals) in World War II. But he didn’t cry about it…

After what I went through overseas, I never thought of anything I was told to do in baseball as hard work. You get over feeling like that when you spend days on end sleeping in frozen tank tracks in enemy threatened territory. The Army taught me something about challenges and about what’s important and what isn’t. Everything I tackle in baseball and in life I take as a challenge rather than work.

I found the origin of the famous phrase, “Spahn and Sain and pray for rain” at Baseball Almanac:

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.

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One Response to So Long to “The Invincible One”

  1. Linkmeister says:

    I heard this game mentioned today in a eulogy; it seems unbelievable in this era of 5-day rotations.

    He went head-to-head with Juan Marichal in a 16-inning game in 1962 (a year which will live in infamy for Dodgers fans), losing in the bottom of the 16th, 1-0, on a home run by Willie Mays.

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