Word: spahn
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...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...
...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...
...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...
...Three. Trouble was, San Francisco's Giants and Milwaukee's Braves were also seeing dollar signs. When the Dodgers blew a 12-2 game on the next-to-last day of the season, canny old (38) Warren Spahn curved the Braves into a first-place tie with a 3-2 victory over the Phils, to win the 267th game of his 15-season major-league career. The Giants' Sad Sam ("Toothpick") Jones. 33 (TIME, Sept. 21), had pitched so often that his battered right arm swung like a pendulum. But somehow Sam managed...