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Warren Spahn: A Biography of the Legendary Lefty
With 363 victories, Warren Spahn is the winningest left-handed pitcher in baseball history. During his 21-year career, Spahn won 20+ games thirteen times, was a 17-time All Star, a Cy Young–award winner, and was elected to the National Baseball Hall of Fame in 1973. In addition, Spahn was also a war hero, serving in World War II and awarded the Purple Heart.
To say Spahn lived a storied life is an understatement.
In Warren Spahn, author Lew Freedman tells the story of this incredible lefty. Known for his supremely high leg kick, Spahn became one of the greatest pitchers in baseball history. However, the road wasn’t as easy as it would seem.
Struggling in his major-league debut at age twenty, manager Casey Stengel demoted the young left. It would be four years before Spahn would return to the diamond, as he received a calling of a different kind―one from his country.
Enlisting in the Army, Spahn would serve with distinction, seeing action in the Battle of the Bulge and the Ludendorff Bridge, and was awarded a battlefield commission, along with a Purple Heart.
Upon his return to the game, he would take the league by storm. Spahn dominated for over two decades, spending twenty years with the Braves (both Boston and Milwaukee), as well as a season with the New York Mets and San Francisco Giants. Pitching into his mid-forties, he would throw two no-hitters at the advanced ages of thirty-nine and forty.
From his early days in Buffalo and young career, through his time and the military and all the way to the 1948 Braves and “Spahn and Sain and Pray for Rain,” author Lew Freedman leaves no stone unturned in sharing the incredible life of this pitching icon, who is still considered the greatest left-handed pitcher to ever play the game.
To say Spahn lived a storied life is an understatement.
In Warren Spahn, author Lew Freedman tells the story of this incredible lefty. Known for his supremely high leg kick, Spahn became one of the greatest pitchers in baseball history. However, the road wasn’t as easy as it would seem.
Struggling in his major-league debut at age twenty, manager Casey Stengel demoted the young left. It would be four years before Spahn would return to the diamond, as he received a calling of a different kind―one from his country.
Enlisting in the Army, Spahn would serve with distinction, seeing action in the Battle of the Bulge and the Ludendorff Bridge, and was awarded a battlefield commission, along with a Purple Heart.
Upon his return to the game, he would take the league by storm. Spahn dominated for over two decades, spending twenty years with the Braves (both Boston and Milwaukee), as well as a season with the New York Mets and San Francisco Giants. Pitching into his mid-forties, he would throw two no-hitters at the advanced ages of thirty-nine and forty.
From his early days in Buffalo and young career, through his time and the military and all the way to the 1948 Braves and “Spahn and Sain and Pray for Rain,” author Lew Freedman leaves no stone unturned in sharing the incredible life of this pitching icon, who is still considered the greatest left-handed pitcher to ever play the game.
336 pages, Hardcover
First published May 22, 2018
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Displaying 1 - 16 of 16 reviews
April 3, 2019
A pretty good biography on the longtime left-handed pitcher of the Boston and Milwaukee Braves, Warren Spahn. I actually knew Spahn was a great pitcher, but didn't realize how good until reading this. He won at least 20 games a total of 13 times in his career, including six years in a row. His win total is sixth most ever and the most for a lefty. That being said, I still believe he might even be underrated a little bit, maybe because he didn't pitch in a huge market for the better part of his career. This book isn't only about Spahn but also it's about all the teams he played for including the 1957 World Champion Braves and the 1958 pennant winners that lost to the Yankees. If you're a fan of baseball, especially the 1950s or Milwaukee, this book is for you. Good stuff by Lew Freedman.
March 31, 2023
** RICK “SHAQ” GOLDSTEIN SAYS: MOST WINS BY A LEFTY IN MLB HISTORY… BUT AUTHOR THROWS A NUMBER OF WILD PITCHES.
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Warren Spahn won 363 games in his Major League career… which is the most in Major League history by a southpaw. He is both a Hall of Fame pitcher… and a World War II decorated hero. As a young baseball fan growing up… I was constantly amazed that “Old-Spahnie”... seemed to get better the older he got. He won over twenty games in a season an incredible thirteen times! Seven of those times were when Warren was thirty-five years or older! He pitched two no-hitters… one when he was thirty-nine-years-old… and one when he was forty! He was also involved in perhaps the best pitched game of all-time a sixteen inning 1-0 game against Juan Marichal and the San Francisco Giants. They both went all the way… and as fate may have it… the righty Marichal was known for his high-kicking delivery… as was Spahn for his high-kicking lefty delivery. The future would result in both high-kicking Hall of Famers immortalized forever in those dramatic poses outside their home teams ballparks. (In my semi-biased opinion perhaps the second greatest game ever pitched was when Sandy Koufax pitched a perfect game against the Chicago Cubs… for his fourth no-hitter in four consecutive years… while the opposing pitcher Bob Hendley of the Cubs gave up only one hit.
Unfortunately… and it saddens me to have to point the following out… but the author makes several mistakes in his writing. I would like to emphasize first… why it saddens me… above and beyond the mistaken facts. The author Lew Freedman… has an extremely warm writing “personality”… that makes an old-school baseball fan… feel right at home… as if you’re talking baseball with an old friend. Perhaps the author should send me a pre-release copy of his next baseball book to proof read.
Mistakes: On page 23 the author states that Mickey Lolich imbibed twenty-five Pepsi’s per day. Actually the feat of drinking a case of Pepsi a day was Lolich’s teammate Denny McClain.
On page 61 the author says that in 1946 Brooklyn Dodger manager Charlie Dressen belittled Spahn. Dressen WAS NOT THE MANAGER OF THE DODGERS IN 1946… IT WAS LEO DUROCHER.
On pages 94-95 when describing a game in the 1948 World Series it first says the score is 3-3… then shortly thereafter he writes…. “In the eighth inning of Game Six, Spahn gave up three straight singles, and although he picked Thurman Tucker off of first base, the Indians punched home a run to lead 4-1.”
In the photo section in the middle of the book… one picture of Spahn and an older gentleman wearing Brave uniform #7 is subtitled… “Spahn talking baseball with old friend Sibby Sisti”… that is a mistake. The man in the picture #7 is Braves manager Charlie Dressen.
On page 207… the author in discussing the 1957 St. Louis Cardinals says… “Wally Moon had come over from the Dodgers.” This is wrong. Moon was already on the Cardinals for a few years… he went from the Cardinals TO THE DODGERS IN 1959.
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Warren Spahn won 363 games in his Major League career… which is the most in Major League history by a southpaw. He is both a Hall of Fame pitcher… and a World War II decorated hero. As a young baseball fan growing up… I was constantly amazed that “Old-Spahnie”... seemed to get better the older he got. He won over twenty games in a season an incredible thirteen times! Seven of those times were when Warren was thirty-five years or older! He pitched two no-hitters… one when he was thirty-nine-years-old… and one when he was forty! He was also involved in perhaps the best pitched game of all-time a sixteen inning 1-0 game against Juan Marichal and the San Francisco Giants. They both went all the way… and as fate may have it… the righty Marichal was known for his high-kicking delivery… as was Spahn for his high-kicking lefty delivery. The future would result in both high-kicking Hall of Famers immortalized forever in those dramatic poses outside their home teams ballparks. (In my semi-biased opinion perhaps the second greatest game ever pitched was when Sandy Koufax pitched a perfect game against the Chicago Cubs… for his fourth no-hitter in four consecutive years… while the opposing pitcher Bob Hendley of the Cubs gave up only one hit.
Unfortunately… and it saddens me to have to point the following out… but the author makes several mistakes in his writing. I would like to emphasize first… why it saddens me… above and beyond the mistaken facts. The author Lew Freedman… has an extremely warm writing “personality”… that makes an old-school baseball fan… feel right at home… as if you’re talking baseball with an old friend. Perhaps the author should send me a pre-release copy of his next baseball book to proof read.
Mistakes: On page 23 the author states that Mickey Lolich imbibed twenty-five Pepsi’s per day. Actually the feat of drinking a case of Pepsi a day was Lolich’s teammate Denny McClain.
On page 61 the author says that in 1946 Brooklyn Dodger manager Charlie Dressen belittled Spahn. Dressen WAS NOT THE MANAGER OF THE DODGERS IN 1946… IT WAS LEO DUROCHER.
On pages 94-95 when describing a game in the 1948 World Series it first says the score is 3-3… then shortly thereafter he writes…. “In the eighth inning of Game Six, Spahn gave up three straight singles, and although he picked Thurman Tucker off of first base, the Indians punched home a run to lead 4-1.”
In the photo section in the middle of the book… one picture of Spahn and an older gentleman wearing Brave uniform #7 is subtitled… “Spahn talking baseball with old friend Sibby Sisti”… that is a mistake. The man in the picture #7 is Braves manager Charlie Dressen.
On page 207… the author in discussing the 1957 St. Louis Cardinals says… “Wally Moon had come over from the Dodgers.” This is wrong. Moon was already on the Cardinals for a few years… he went from the Cardinals TO THE DODGERS IN 1959.
November 22, 2022
The longtime veteran journalist Lew Freedman has written a book on the legendary pitcher Warren Spahn which leaves me wanting more. Spahn won 363 games during a career that lasted from 1942 to 1965, making him the all time leader in wins by a lefthanded pitcher. Although he grew up in a family of meager resources in Buffalo, he honed his pitching skills by working with his father, eventually developing a high leg kick that helped to distract batters and disguise his grips on the baseball from them. Despite not being the hardest thrower, he retired batters with extraordinary consistency (winning 20 games in a season 13 times) through his variety of pitches and the movement and control he could place on them. Along the way, he also took a break from his baseball career to serve in the Battle of the Bulge during World War II.
The book delves into numerous details on the players who suited up for the Boston and Milwaukee Braves with him and the successes and struggles they went through from year to year. But I think Freedman drifts away from his subject too much and tells too much of a simplistic story. He could have offered more analysis of how Spahn succeeded on the mound, what he did off the field, his personality, and his life following his retirement. The book is too limited in sources and analysis for me to call it great, but I still found it to be a worthwhile read.
The book delves into numerous details on the players who suited up for the Boston and Milwaukee Braves with him and the successes and struggles they went through from year to year. But I think Freedman drifts away from his subject too much and tells too much of a simplistic story. He could have offered more analysis of how Spahn succeeded on the mound, what he did off the field, his personality, and his life following his retirement. The book is too limited in sources and analysis for me to call it great, but I still found it to be a worthwhile read.
November 2, 2023
I make no jest when I say this is by far the worst sports biography I’ve ever read. For one, it’s mostly about Spahn. Mostly. A not insignificant portion is devoted to other players, and there’s a weird three pages about Red Schoendeist and his illness before a season. I don’t know. I don’t normally mind this, but It felt really unfocused here.
The biggest sin by far is the writing. It is uninteresting, wooden, and littered with meaningless sentences.
To wit: “The Braves were back in town, not to attend a Broadway show, but to put on their own show at Yankee Stadium” (224). If this is an attempt at humor, it isn’t funny or cutesy. If it is an attempt at creative writing, stop. If it is meant to add flavor, it only elicits the flavor of nausea. And there are dozens of sentences like this. Oh and there are a ton of repeated facts- career wins (363), number of 20 win seasons (13), again and again.
As a result, I feel like I learned next to nothing about Spahn, and a bunch of forgettable stuff about the Braves. In fact, Warren Spahn comes across as unfathomably wooden and uninteresting, which is pretty damning for a biography. To say this was a slog is to undersell its magnificent dullness.
The biggest sin by far is the writing. It is uninteresting, wooden, and littered with meaningless sentences.
To wit: “The Braves were back in town, not to attend a Broadway show, but to put on their own show at Yankee Stadium” (224). If this is an attempt at humor, it isn’t funny or cutesy. If it is an attempt at creative writing, stop. If it is meant to add flavor, it only elicits the flavor of nausea. And there are dozens of sentences like this. Oh and there are a ton of repeated facts- career wins (363), number of 20 win seasons (13), again and again.
As a result, I feel like I learned next to nothing about Spahn, and a bunch of forgettable stuff about the Braves. In fact, Warren Spahn comes across as unfathomably wooden and uninteresting, which is pretty damning for a biography. To say this was a slog is to undersell its magnificent dullness.
May 10, 2023
I've been a Braves fan since shortly after TBS started broadcasting Braves games, so probably by 1980/81 I watched every game I was able to view. Living in New York State I always hated the Yankees and wasn't too crazy about the Mets either, so it was wonderful finding the Atlanta Braves. That said I always pick up books about the Braves when I see them no matter what era. As far as this book goes, I don't think there was anything in here about Warren Spahn that I have not already read in another book or magazine article. It seemed like a lackluster attempt at best. Sure, all the stats and important events are there, but the book was haphazardly and poorly written. From what I understand there are a lot of mistakes in the book. Warren Spahn deserves a better book than this.
July 24, 2020
Warren Spahn pitched the bulk of his career before my time. I started watching the Game of the Week on Saturdays in the mid-1960s just as Spahn was finishing up. My brother-in-law has a black and white photograph of Warren Spahn looking at a baseball on his mantle - now I know why. I didn't know that he was from nearby Buffalo NY. His thirteen 20-win seasons will never be repeated. A well written and well-researched book that gave me insight on the best left-handed pitcher of all time. I am at the same point in my life as Spahn was at the end of his career - older, but not quite ready for retirement.
February 20, 2021
A nice biography of Spahn that cover the highlights of his career. I had read most of the information through the years including many of Freedman sources. I felt more could have been presented on Spahn's life off the field. For example, Freedman comments that Spahn opened a restaurant in Boston just before the Braves moved to Milwaukee and he had to decide about his investment. Then there was no more information: did he get out? did the restaurant close?
Not much information on Spahn as a coach or minor league manager except he did it.
One odd thing about the book is that I would have expected an appendix with Spahn's baseball stats.
Not much information on Spahn as a coach or minor league manager except he did it.
One odd thing about the book is that I would have expected an appendix with Spahn's baseball stats.
October 24, 2022
He was a childhood hero
I wanted to read this as my first baseball team of my childhood was the Milwaukee Braves. It was fun to read about the players who were heroes to me at that time. Spahn was one of these, and some of the stories in this book were new to me. But it felt like some items were repeated like it was a combination of newspaper articles that needed to repeat items in each day’s paper in case the reader only read one article. I enjoyed the book, and was happy to finish it on the same day that my current team, the Philadelphia Phillies, qualified for the 2022 World Series.
I wanted to read this as my first baseball team of my childhood was the Milwaukee Braves. It was fun to read about the players who were heroes to me at that time. Spahn was one of these, and some of the stories in this book were new to me. But it felt like some items were repeated like it was a combination of newspaper articles that needed to repeat items in each day’s paper in case the reader only read one article. I enjoyed the book, and was happy to finish it on the same day that my current team, the Philadelphia Phillies, qualified for the 2022 World Series.
January 21, 2022
This is a very nicely written book, ideal for fans of the sport. It properly profiles Warren Spahn, one of the greatest pitchers of all time, but also describes the season-by-season progress of the Braves. The reader becomes familiar with Bill Bruton, Joe Adcock, Hank Aaron and other Braves stars, even lending some insights on Casey Stengel and the move from Boston to Milwaukee. It's an easy read; baseball expertise is not required. Recommended.
December 30, 2022
Spahn for the ages
This book is for any kid who grew up following the Braves in the fifties and '60s. Spawn Matthews Aaron or my heroes. I collected the headline that said spawn Wins Game 300. This book brings back all of those memories. If you love baseball you will you will love this book. The author does repeat himself at times, but for Baseball fans it is a book of memories. Baseball fans will enjoy the book.
This book is for any kid who grew up following the Braves in the fifties and '60s. Spawn Matthews Aaron or my heroes. I collected the headline that said spawn Wins Game 300. This book brings back all of those memories. If you love baseball you will you will love this book. The author does repeat himself at times, but for Baseball fans it is a book of memories. Baseball fans will enjoy the book.
June 29, 2020
A look into the life of Warren Spahn, who unlike pitchers now a day expected
to pitch at least nine innings of a ball game.
Spahn had that famous leg kick which you don't see in today game.
A nice read, waiting for baseball to start.
to pitch at least nine innings of a ball game.
Spahn had that famous leg kick which you don't see in today game.
A nice read, waiting for baseball to start.
September 10, 2020
Good read about a great lefty!
When I played in the little league at age 10 every kid wanted to be a pitcher like Warren Spahn even the right handed kids. If the game of the week was the Braves on Saturday afternoon on tv, all the kids were watching him.
When I played in the little league at age 10 every kid wanted to be a pitcher like Warren Spahn even the right handed kids. If the game of the week was the Braves on Saturday afternoon on tv, all the kids were watching him.
July 9, 2022
3 1/2 stars, rounded up. A well-written biography if Warren Spahn and the Milwaukee Braves, primarily. It was fun reading about the players I watched when growing up in St. Louis. Even though he was a hated Brave, I always liked Warren Spahn.
September 29, 2022
If you want to read a book about Warren Spahn don't read this one. If you want to read a book about the Milwaukee Braves who had a pitcher named Warren Spahn this might be the book. It starts out well but quickly loses sight of just who this book is about. Not at all what I expected.
November 17, 2023
A solid biography of an often overlooked star. Nothing great -- not as good some other biographies I've read -- but solid.
November 30, 2023
Stud
The maestro of left hander pitchers! No one in the foreseeable future will catch him for the stats he produced.
The maestro of left hander pitchers! No one in the foreseeable future will catch him for the stats he produced.
Displaying 1 - 16 of 16 reviews