RIP Lew Burdette

You were on the money.

http://www.retrosheet.org/boxesetc/B07020SFN1963.htm

July 2, 1963. Giants 1, Braves 0.

Mays ended it with a homer with one out in the 16th at Candlestick.

25-year-old Marichal's line: 16 IP, 8 H, 0 R, 4 BB, 10 K
42-year-old(!) Spahn's line: 15.1 IP, 9 H, 1 R, 1 BB, 2 K

 

Holy Christ! I wonder what their arms felt like the next day?

I do know Spahn won 23 games that year (!!), so it couldn't have held him down for too long.

The durability of guys like that, not to mention the fact that most of them pitched on three days rest, is why no one will ever convince me that any modern-day pitcher should ever be considered the greatest of all time.

 

Put it this way:

Five days later, on July 7, Spahn went out and threw a shutout to beat Houston. 9 IP, 5 H, 0 R, 1 BB, 4 K.

Now, he did miss two weeks after that (partly during the All-Star break) -- I can't be too sure if it was due to injury -- but after he made his next start on July 25 (8 IP, 8 H, 3 R, 2 ER, 0 BB, 1 K vs. STL), he went out and threw 8 straight complete games. Didn't give up more than 3 runs in any of 'em.

There wasn't a single ML pitcher who had 8 CGs last season. Spahn, at age 42, led the league with 22 CGs. Two more than Koufax. Amazing.

***

One more postscript to that: Between June 28-July 7, Spahn threw 33.1 IP and allowed ... one run -- the Mays home run to beat him in the 16th on July 2.

He bookended that game with a shutout at L.A. and another shutout vs. Houston.

 

You're right. Amazing.

But...but....Roger Clemens is the best pitcher ever!!

STFU. Clemens couldn't carry Warren Spahn's jock, and he sure as hell isn't big enough to wear it either.

 

I do agree with you.

But I do believe that the truly great pitchers -- Clemens, Maddux, Johnson -- would be great in any era.

Blame Stengel for taking out his starters at the first sign of trouble. Blame La Russa for encouraging (and using) half of his staff as specialists.

Blame the kids for not playing sandlot ball all day long, building up their arm strength so that they could go 15 innings and come back to throw a shutout on four days' rest in the National League.

Can't really blame Maddux and Clemens for the environment they excel in. They didn't create it -- they just take advantage of it.

 

Denigrating current pitchers for failing to match that workload is like denigrating NFL players because they don't play both ways like they did in another era.

I'll bet a lot of current NFL players <i>could</i> play on both offense and defense...but that's not the way things are done these days.

 

I think that argument applies to all sports. Johnny U would win a Super Bowl with these Colts just as surely as Peyton Manning would win one with the '58 Colts. The game is always different -- but great players are always great players.

 

I think Spahn was 26 or 27 before he made the majors full-time, and he'd also served in WWII and was honored for his service in the Battle of the Bulge. Born and raised in the South Park section of Buffalo, then lived on a ranch in Texas or Oklahoma in retirement. A true baseball great.

 

If I remember correctly, Burdette never pitched in high school.
He often returned to W.Va to play in a annual celebrity golf tournament at Scarlet Oaks CC. He used to bring a lot of his buddies (like Spahn) into play.
Scarlett Oaks is far-removed from a nice course.
But Lew was faithful about playing.

Fuck a buncha JR House!

 

I interviewed Burdette once, and he jokingly, but with a grain of truth, said, "Do you know how well I had to pitch to shut out a team when the other guy was pitching a perfect game?"

Echo the other statements. A good guy. RIP Lou.