OT -- why does Spahn get no love?

[Exhibitman]

Shh! You're letting out a secret. Spahn is one of those hidden collecting gems.

[cardsfan73]

Huge Warren Spahn fan here! In my opinion one of the top 3 lefthanders of all time and I wouldn't argue if you wanted to throw him in the top 10 pitchers of all time. That's not to shabby company in my opinion.


"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."

[deadballfreaK]

Spahn quotes from a SABR article by Jim Kaplan:

“After what I went through overseas, I never thought of anything I was told to do in baseball as hard work,” he insisted. “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 what’s important and what isn’t.”

“I matured a lot in those [war] years,” he said. “If I had not had that maturity, I wouldn’t have pitched until I was 45.”

[itjclarke]

I'm a huge Spahn fan as well... as a young left handed pitching kid, hearing stories about his 15 or 16 inning 1-0 duel with Juan Marichal, looking at his ridiculous stats (I think 13 20 win seasons), or hearing about his WWII service in the Battle of the Bulge, has made him someone I've always held in high esteem.

Can't speak fully for lack of interest/demand in Spahn items, but as noted in many of the "Mays vs Mantle" type threads- it seems clear that on field performance is often only a part, even a smallish part in dictating demand. The Joe Ds, Mantles, Joe Namath and Jeter had "the look", max exposure, and an off field panache to go along with great play. Not sure if Spahn had any of those off field collecting intagibles.

That said, he's the man! Feel very lucky to have snagged this gem off BST last week.. mine is on the left

[ls7plus]

Originally Posted by Exhibitman

Shh! You're letting out a secret. Spahn is one of those hidden collecting gems.

And a very tough rookie find in the '47 Tip Top Bread set, in any condition!

Highest regards,

Larry