TODAY IN BASEBALL HISTORY

In a career that spanned three decades, Warren Spahn's teammates included Paul Waner and Tug McGraw. A World War II veteran who missed four years of baseball while he was a foot soldier in Europe, Spahn still won 363 games - the most ever by a left-handed pitcher. He won 177 games after his 35th birthday, and anchored the Braves' staff for 17 seasons, helping them to two pennants and a World Series title in 1957.

Chance encounters: Johnny Sain, who teamed with Spahn to form the famous duo that inspired the phrase, "Spahn and Sain, and pray for rain."... Luke Appling hit a famous home run off Spahn in an old-timers game... Willie Mays: Spahn gave up his first home run, on May 28, 1951. It was also Mays' first hit as a big leaguer.

Factoid
On April 15th, 1952, in the last home opener in Braves Field in Boston, 4,694 fans saw Warren Spahn lose 3-2 to Brooklyn's Preacher Roe.  On September 16th, 1960 at the age of 39, Spahn earned his 11th 20-win season with a no-hitter against the Phillies. Spahn also set a Milwaukee club record with 15 strikeouts in the victory...

On October 5, 1958 Spahn shut out the Yankees on two hits in Game Four of the World Series. In that game, Spahn stopped Hank Bauer's 17-game World Series hitting streak.

Five days past his 40th birthday, on April 28, 1961, Spahn became the second-oldest pitcher (after Cy Young) to hurl a no-hitter, blanking the Giants 1-0. Hank Aaron drove in the only run off loser Sam Jones. It was Spahn's 290th win and 52nd shutout.

On August 11, 1961, Spahn's 2-1 victory against the Cubs made him the 13th 300-game winner.

In 1963, at the age of 42, Spahn became the oldest 20-game winner. It was his 13th 20-win season, tying Christy Mathewson.

Tom Glavine, Warren Spahn, and Early Wynn are the only pitchers in history to win 300 games despite never striking out 200 batters in any season.

Game of the Day:

Historic Days!

Johnny Dickshot was born on January 24, 1910, was born and raised in Waukegan, Illinois, Dickshot began his professional career in the early 1930s playing for the Milwaukee Brewers, which was then a minor league team. He entered the majors with the Pittsburgh Pirates in 1935. In a time before baseball salaries took off, Dickshot worked at a North Chicago steel mill in the off-season.

He won the nickname “Ugly” because of his self-proclaimed status as the “ugliest man in baseball”

January 24, 1939, the baseball writers select Eddie Collins, Willie Keeler and George Sisler to the Hall of Fame. Sisler set a major league season-record (later broken by Ichiro Suzuki) with 257 hits in 1920 and batted .420 in 1922 on his way to a .340 career batting average. Collins batted an even .333 for his career, collected 3,315 hits and stole 744 bases as a member of four World Series Champions. Keeler, who “hit ’em where they ain’t”, batted .341 and collected 2,932 hits.

January 24 1980 — Nelson Doubleday and Fred Wilpon head a group of investors who purchase the New York Mets from the DeRoulet family for a reported $21.1 million, the highest price paid for a major league franchise up to that time. Doubleday, whose publishing company supplies 80 percent of the purchase price, and is also a relative of Abner Doubleday, will serve as chairman of the board, while Wilpon, a former teammate of Sandy Koufax’s at Brooklyn’s Lafayette High School, will serve as team president and chief operating officer.

January 24, 1938 – Babe Ruth and Joe DiMaggio meet for the first time on at a sports banquet in New York City and in 2006 — More than 1,000 items of Joe DiMaggio memorabilia, including his 1947 American League MVP Award plaque and a signed photo of Marilyn Monroe, will be auctioned in May.

Quote of the day:

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.

Hall of Famer - Warren Spahn

TRIVIA

Spahn with 35 homeruns is third all time in homeruns as a pitcher. As noted above Willie Mays hit his first career homerun off Warren Spahn. What other Hall of Famer also hit their first off Spahn?

Sandy Koufax

Don Drysdale

Rick Wise

Answer in tomorrows newsletter

 ANSWER TO YESTERDAY’S TRIVIA

BILLY GOODMAN 

-  Batted .354 in 1950 to lead the AL and in fact, to lead the majors.  Boston’s Pete Runnels won batting titles in 1960 & 62.  Williams won in 1941, 42, 47, 48, 57 & 58.

-  624 G @ 2b; 406 G @ 1b; 330 @ 3b

-  1^st HR 29-Jul-1948

-  He is one of the Red Sox depicted in the Rockwell painting “The Rookie”

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