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Why Legendary MLB Ace Pitcher Warren Spahn Was Blackballed From Managing

The baseball Hall-of-Famer wanted to manage when his playing days were over, but big league teams didn’t want him

Andrew Martin
4 min readNov 25, 2023

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Left-handed pitcher Warren Spahn was a model of consistency and success during a lengthy big league baseball career. A veritable ace for nearly two decades, he remains in the conversation as one of the best hurlers of all time. Unfortunately, his success didn’t always translate into the respect he was due, including his inability to land a major league managing job once his playing days were over.

Over the course of his amazing career, which spanned from 1942; 1946- 1965 (He missed three full seasons due to military service), Spahn amassed an impressive collection of statistics and accomplishments. He was a 17-time All-Star and won the Cy Young Award in 1957, the year the award was first introduced. His devastating fastball was complemented by a sweeping curveball and a crafty changeup, which all helped make him an intimidating force on the mound.

His greatest success came with the Boston/Milwaukee Braves. During his time with them, he reached the milestone of 300 career victories, finishing with an incredible career total of 363 wins, the most by a left-handed pitcher in MLB history…

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Andrew Martin

Dabbler in history, investing & writing. Master’s degree in baseball history. Passionate about history, diversity, culture, sports, film and investing .