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T EThat was his pitch. That is why he lasted so long.
Nolan Ryan struck out a gazillion hitters, fired 49 (okay, what was it, seven?) no-hitters, etc, but he is not an all-time great. Deserves to be in the Hall of Fame? Of course. But you can't list him in your top ten or whatever.
Spahnnie could not beat the one team he needed to beat, the Dodgers, to save his life. Yes, it is true, almost nobody beat the Dodgers back then. But couldn't he win ONE game in 1959 against them? 1957?
All right, now that I am done bashing Spahn, I would be remiss not to point out, if it hasn't been pointed out already on this thread, that if not for World War Two, Spahnnie would certainly have won well over 400 games, I guess that would kind of shut my mouth!
Edited to add-I see Howard mentioned that right at the top of this thread...
The Grove point with Mack is interesting one, I'd like to see the numbers, unfortunately, I don't have enough old Redbooks and greenbooks, the annual pubs put out by the two leagues.