Warren Spahn Bowman 1948
 

I have a friend that is a big Warren Spahn fan and recently noticed his 1948 Bowman rookie card. Spahn was born in 1921 and would have been 27 years old in 1948 and spent some tough months fighting in WWII. The photo from 1948 looks like he is 17 years old.
Can anyone provide insight into what photo was chosen by Bowman for his 1948 card? Thanks

Dunno, but at age 27 he had 29 big league wins. I doubt many people thought he would end up with 363. It never fails to baffle me that the hobby doesn't seem to care about him, but it's gaga over Koufax who won 150 or so.

Koufax was Jewish; that's one reason. He also had a crazy good peak, despite the short career.

Koufax pitched for the Dodgers, who like the Yankees, have long had a huge fan base. Spahn pitched for the small-fan-base Braves. If Spahn's career had been with the Yankees, I suspect his collector popularity would equal or exceed Koufax's.

Aaron played for the same team and while he's not Mantle, he's pretty popular. I don't think it's a stretch to say Spahn was as good a pitcher as Aaron was a hitter -- both probably rank somewhere around 10th all time in their respective categories. Maybe even a bit higher.

Spahn per Baseball Reference.


Hall of Fame Statistics





Black Ink
Pitching - 101 (5), Average HOFer ≈ 40

Gray Ink
Pitching - 374 (3), Average HOFer ≈ 185

Hall of Fame Monitor
Pitching - 260 (8), Likely HOFer ≈ 100

Hall of Fame Standards
Pitching - 66 (10), Average HOFer ≈ 50

Its also worth mentioning that in addition to 29 wins, Spahn had also fought at the Battle of the Bulge, been awarded a bronze star and a purple heart after being wounded by shrapnel, and been given a battlefield commission by the time he appeared on that 1948 Leaf card.


Players today (or even in Koufax's generation) don't know how good they have it.

No doubt that Spahn does not get the recognition that he deserves. However, the pitcher who I think is most overlooked is Kid Nichols. The stat that I like to look at is career WAR/# years played. Amongst all HOF pitchers, Nichols is number one all time in this measure. Let me repeat that, better than Johnson, Mathewson, Young, and everyone else.

Career WAR/Years Played

Nichols———-7.77
Young————7.52
Johnson———7.22
Grove————6.66
Mathewson—-5.74
Spahn————4.40

I think that there are s number of factors that work against Spann

1. He was amazingly consistent - look as his numbers he went 21 and 10 ever year with a 3.00 era. While I am exaggerating a bit his numbers are very similar ever year. This means that while he didn’t have any bad years he also didn’t have any crazy good years where he went 27-5 with a 1.98 era

2. The braves should have been a dynasty and they were not. If the braves win one more game in 1956 and if Red Schoendient doesn’t get tuberculosis in the winter of 1958 there is a very good chance that the braves win the national league every year from 1956-1960. Instead that only win two years and one series

3. Milwaukee was not a small market in the 1950’s- it was a minor league market. Before I get angry responses - I am born and raised and still work in Milwaukee and we are a great baseball town. But until 1953 we where a aaa town for 50 years. When the Braves won the title in 1957 the team chose for its championship program a cover image where there was a sign saying “bushville wins”

4. Though few seem to think about it now - Spahn was a funny looking guy and he was a jokester - a bit like Yogi but without all of the malapropisms. Guy like this never get the credit as superstars- even with yogi we think more often of the clown and forget that he may have been the best offensive catcher ever


All of these factors cloud and image of what should really be considered the best lefty ever

I think one is comparing Spahn to an exception. Some people are, for whatever reason, unusually popular for their accomplishments-- Elvis, Mickey Mantle, James Dean, Joe Namath, etc. So you're comparing 'regular' to an exception. As with rock n roll and movies, sports is entertainment so there's always an entertainment/movie star quality involved with our heroes. A better comparison would be with, say, Steve Carleton or Greg Maddux.

Though i do think Spahn trends to the underestimated, while, for various factors including good looks and bias towards peaks, Koufax is overestimated.

I sat in front of Spahn at County Stadium in the 70s while attending a Brewers game.

His hobby value was subsequently tarnished.:eek:

As would be anyone's :)