Bob Feller Career

[rats60]

Originally Posted by BobC

You can add Warren Spahn to that list with Feller and Williams as well.Spahn had just come onto the Braves team in 1942, and pitched in only four games before going off to the war. He didn't pitch again till he came back in 1946. But what Spahn and Williams did was play long enough to both reach superstar plateaus for their positions. Spahn had over 300 wins and Williams over 500 home runs. Meanwhile, Feller missed both the 300 wins and 3,000 strikeouts milestones for pitchers, both of which he would have probably easily reached had he not served during the war. And that's why I said in an earlier thread he probably got hurt the most of any ballplayer because of the time missed in the war.

What's interesting for Spahn is that had he not missed almost four seasons to WWII, he would easily have reached 400 wins, and probably had over 3,000 strikeouts as well.

And for Williams it is even possibly more insane. Unlike Feller and Spahn, Williams played the entire 1942 season, and only missed 3 seasons to WWII, not the almost 4 seasons that Feller and Spahn lost. However, what a lot of people forget, or never knew to begin with, was that Williams went back into the service during the Korean War. He only played in 6 games in the beginning of the 1952 season before heading off to the Korean War, and came back in late 1953 to play in 37 games to finish out that season. So, Williams basically lost almost 5 years fighting in wars. Had he not gone off to fight, he most likely would have gone from #7 to #1 on the all-time career offensive WAR list, surpassing both Ruth and Cobb, easily top 3,000 career hits and actually go towards 4,000, likely take the all-time MLB walks record from Barry Bonds, easily top 600 home runs and probably close in on 700, likely take the all-time RBI crown from Aaron, and the all-time runs scored record from Henderson, while probably keeping his all-time OBP record. And lord knows what all other records could have become his, or if he could have had a 3rd batting triple crown (or even more), or possibly even another .400 average season.

Lot of what ifs for these guys who went off to war.

The bolded is not true. Spahn pitched 4 games in the majors in 1942 at age 21 and was sent back to the minors. Spahn won zero games and had 5.74 ERA in the majors. At the A level, he pitched 33 games going 17-12 with a 1.96 ERA. Spahn went to the military the next year.

Spahn has said the best thing for his major league career was serving in the military. It gave him a chance to mature and he was better equipped to pitch in the majors when he returned at age 25. Ted Williams won the triple crown in 1942 after hitting .406 in 1941. Feller finished 3rd in MVP voting behind DiMaggio and Williams in 1941 before enlisting. Williams and Feller lost prime years to WWII service. Spahn did not. It is only speculation how much Spahn would have even pitched in the majors in 1943-1945 given his 1942 performance.

[jingram058]

Signed MCI Ambassadors of Baseball card, USS Independence CV-62, 1993 I believe. Johnny Vander Meer also, post card size photo.

[BobC]

Originally Posted by rats60

The bolded is not true. Spahn pitched 4 games in the majors in 1942 at age 21 and was sent back to the minors. Spahn won zero games and had 5.74 ERA in the majors. At the A level, he pitched 33 games going 17-12 with a 1.96 ERA. Spahn went to the military the next year.

Spahn has said the best thing for his major league career was serving in the military. It gave him a chance to mature and he was better equipped to pitch in the majors when he returned at age 25. Ted Williams won the triple crown in 1942 after hitting .406 in 1941. Feller finished 3rd in MVP voting behind DiMaggio and Williams in 1941 before enlisting. Williams and Feller lost prime years to WWII service. Spahn did not. It is only speculation how much Spahn would have even pitched in the majors in 1943-1945 given his 1942 performance.

Rats, thank you, I stand somewhat corrected. I forgot about the stint back to the minors. And I had heard somewhere about Spahn crediting his military service for helping his career as well. But something tells me that because of the type of person he was, and with the talent and ability he had, he would have gotten it figured out long before he turned 25 and been a star pitcher for a few more years in his career had he not lost the years he did. And with 363 career wins and 2,583 career strike outs otherwise, he didn't need 3 or 4 superstar level seasons to reach those 400 win, 3,000 strikeout plateaus.

And that partially missed fourth season I incorrectly attributed to his being in the service, you can probably still count that as he shouldn't have missed it because it is a known fact that in '42 Spahn got into it with then Braves manager Casey Stengel who had ordered him to intentionally throw at a batter, Pee Wee Reese, and in an exhibition game no less. And as I mentioned, being the kind of person he was, Spahn refused to intentionally throw at a batter, especially in an exhibition game, and for that Stengel sent him back to the minors. I believe Stengel was even quoted as admitting at one time much later on that that was the worst managing mistake that he ever made. So the correct statement should be Spahn missed three full seasons to WWII, and much of a fourth to Casey Stengel.