Ted Williams, Bob Feller, and seasons lost to military service

[J.McMurry]

Dont forget Spahn, he would have had 400+ wins if not for the years lost to military service.

[calvindog]

Spahn's call up was at the very beginning of his career and I would say the impact was not nearly as pronounced as military service was to the careers of Williams (who was called up twice) and Feller. Feller would have won 330+ games and Williams would have had probably close to 700 HRs and maybe 3500 hits.

[J.McMurry]

I see your point, and I don't disagree.
I'm just presenting Spahns' case solely from the point of becoming the 3rd pitcher in the history of the game to have 400 wins.

[calvindog]

Originally Posted by J.McMurry

I see your point, and I don't disagree.
I'm just presenting Spahns' case solely from the point of becoming the 3rd pitcher in the history of the game to have 400 wins.

I would say that there is a very high probability that he would have gotten to 400, I agree. Spahn would have been in a much different place historically had he won 400.

[dennis]

big john mize,phil rizzuto and enos slaughter all hall of famers all lost 3 prime years to the military. joe gordon 2. no one would question rizzuto as a hall of famer if he had those 3 years stats. joe dimaggio and hank greenberg would be 400 HR club members if not for their years lost.and in that year lost to service would stan musial have got 25 homers to put him in the 500 HR club? also,IMO, 3 prime years stats would put the other dimaggio brother, dom into the baseball hall of fame.

[FrankWakefield]

I think George Archie probably lost as many or more days in a major league uniform than any of the great players mentioned above. Those guys up there lost some playing time.

I like to think Mr. Musial would have gotten over the 500 mark in home runs, and reached 2000+ with runs and RBIs. Spahn gets 400 wins. Ted W adds to his stelar numbers. And George Archie builds a career to the extent that some folks would have heard of him. As it was, he had a pretty good batting eye, could field a bit, and was mired down in the minors of the Tigers system unable to advance because of Hank Greenberg. Landis declared Archie to be free of the Tigers system, although a bit too late... and then came the war.

[Peter_Spaeth]

I have read that when Spahn was asked about that, he always gracefully answered that he would never have been the pitcher he became but for his experiences in the war, so it didn't affect his numbers.

[mybuddyinc]

Let's not forget Lou Brissie, quite a story:

http://sports.espn.go.com/mlb/news/story?id=3101709

Article from 2007, Lou's still with us today !!


Oh, in 1941 he did pretty good for the Savannah Indians:

23-5 record, 1.91 ERA and 278 strike-outs in 254 innings.