The Pecan Park Eagle

Warren Spahn

Back on June 28, 1963, in the 17th season of his 21-year big league career, 42-year old future HOF pitcher Warren Spahn took another  giant step in the direction of tying one MLB pitching record and moving forward in hot pursuit of another.

The records of importance in pursuit were these: (1) Most 20-win seasons in a single career; the current record at mid-season 1963 was held by Christy Mathewson and Grover Alexander at 13 seasons each; and (2) Passing Christy Mathewson and Grover Alexander eventually for 3rd place in career wins at 373, the place where those same two deceased greats were still tied.

Spahn’s 1-0 shutout of the Los Angeles Dodgers on June 28, 1963 was the 11th win for him on the year.

Spahn would finish the 1963 season with a record of 23-7, with a 2.60 ERA, tying Mathewson and Alexander for the most 20-win seasons at 13 each. Over even more time, he would fall short of the other goal. After finishing 1963 with a total of 343 wins, the almost ageless Spahn would pitch another four seasons beyond his 42nd birthday, but he would win only 6, 7, 4, and 3 more wins for a 20-win sub-total that boosted his final career grand total to 363 wins – and 10 wins shy of the Christy and Grover totals. 363 wins were still a mighty feat by the biggest lefty winner in MLB history – Warren Edward Spahn.

Warren Spahn was inducted into the Hall of Fame in 1973. He passed away at age 82 on November 24, 2003.

Here’s the box score of Spahn’s 1-0 shutout against Don Drysdale and the Los Angeles Dodgers on June 28, 1963. Curiously, it was Spahn’s first on-the-road win over any Dodger team since 1948:

Milwaukee Braves 1, Los Angeles Dodgers 0
Game played on Friday, June 28, 1963 at Dodger Stadium
Milwaukee Braves ab   r   h rbi Maye lf 4 1 2 0 Mathews 3b 3 0 0 0 Aaron rf 4 0 2 0 Torre c 3 0 2 1 Jones cf 3 0 1 0   Dillard cf 1 0 0 0 Bolling 2b 4 0 0 0 Larker 1b 4 0 0 0 Menke ss 4 0 0 0 Spahn p 3 0 0 0 Totals 33 1 7 1	Los Angeles Dodgers ab   r   h rbi Wills 3b,ss 4 0 1 0 Gilliam 2b,3b 4 0 1 0 Davis W. cf 3 0 0 0 Davis T. lf 3 0 0 0 Howard rf 3 0 1 0   Oliver pr,2b 0 0 0 0 Fairly 1b 2 0 0 0 Camilli c 3 0 0 0 Tracewski ss 2 0 0 0   Walls ph,rf 1 0 0 0 Drysdale p 2 0 0 0   Skowron ph 1 0 0 0 Totals 28 0 3 0
Milwaukee 1 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 – 1 7 1 Los Angeles 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 – 0 3 1   Milwaukee Braves IP H R ER BB SO Spahn  W (11-3) 9.0 3 0 0 0 2 Totals 9.0 3 0 0 0 2   Los Angeles Dodgers IP H R ER BB SO Drysdale  L (9-9) 9.0 7 1 1 1 7 Totals 9.0 7 1 1 1 7 E–Bolling (7), Wills (12).  DP–Milwaukee 1.  2B–Milwaukee Torre (8,off Drysdale).  3B–Milwaukee H Aaron (2,off Drysdale).  SF–Torre (3,off Drysdale).  Team LOB–7.  SH–Fairly (9,off Spahn).  Team–2.  CS–Wills (8,2nd base by Spahn/Torre).  U-HP–Ed Vargo, 1B–Doug Harvey, 2B–Lee Weyer, 3B–Al Barlick.  T–2:02.  A–44,894.
Game played on Friday, June 28, 1963 at Dodger Stadium
Baseball Almanac Box Score |

Tags: Warren Spahn

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