What he did: I thought of Grove while reading a Baseball Think Factory discussion on my Gavvy Cravath piece last Thursday. One of the forum members noted that Cravath spent several years in the minors because his club, Minneapolis, refused to sell him. The same thing happened with Grove, who went 25-10 with a 2.56 ERA for Baltimore of the International League in 1921 but didn’t make the majors until four years later when he was 25. “It will forever be debated how many major-league games Grove would have won if he hadn’t spent five seasons with the Orioles,” his SABR biography notes. I’m happy to begin that debate anew.

Era he might have thrived in: Grove would benefit from an era where he could make the majors in his early 20s and not burn out in his mid-30s through overuse, as was the case for him. He might thrive on the current San Francisco Giants who play in the pitcher-friendly AT&T Park and whose coaching staff has done good work thus far keeping a staff of bright, young hurlers healthy. With a full career, it doesn’t seem unreasonable to suggest Grove could add 50-100 wins to the 300 he got lifetime.

Why: First off, Grove wouldn’t be held back by Jack Dunn, the Baltimore owner who clutched onto his star so long before finally selling him to the Philadelphia Athletics for $100,600 (Dunn at least sold a 19-year-old Babe Ruth to the Boston Red Sox a decade before.) Growing up in recent decades, Grove would also probably start playing baseball much sooner than 17. Whether that would lead to him being drafted today out of high school or college, Grove would have far better chances as a prospect.

The thought here is that if a 21-year-old Grove could dominate the International League, a circuit just below the majors in its day, he’d be in the show not much later in this era. This could hold especially true on the Giants, where Tim Lincecum debuted at 22, Matt Cain at 20, Jonathan Sanchez at 23, and Madison Bumgarner at 20. Granted, Bumgarner has struggled mightily this season, and Sanchez and Cain have had their ups and downs through their careers, Lincecum as well to a lesser extent, but all have had success with San Francisco. Grove could, too.

Grove had certain things going for him when he played that would serve him well today. He’d probably still have the competitive streak that spurred him to destroy lockers (though never with his pitching hand, as David Halberstam noted in Summer of ’49.) Also, a reader told me awhile back that Grove was one of the first pitchers to throw from a full-body windup, which makes him one of the few classic hurlers I’m willing to project in contemporary times. I’m guessing almost anyone else who pitched before World War II would get rocked in the majors today.

Would Grove lose some things going from the time he played to the present? Sure. He’d miss out on spending his prime seasons with the Philadelphia Athletics of the late 1920s and early ’30s, one of baseball’s all-time best clubs. It’s also unlikely he’d get close to 300 innings or 50 appearances in a season, with 240 innings and 35 starts the standard in baseball today. Still, that might work wonders for his longevity. Seeing as Grove overcame a dead arm in his mid-30s and pitched until he was 41, going 15-4 with an American League-best 2.54 ERA at 39, one can only guess how much longer he might last today.

Any player/Any era is a Thursday feature here that looks at how a player might have done in an era besides his own.

Others in this series: Albert Pujols, Babe Ruth, Bad News Rockies, Barry Bonds, Bob Caruthers, Bob Feller, Bob Watson, Carl Mays, Charles Victory Faust, Denny McLain, Dom DiMaggio, Eddie Lopat, Frank Howard, Fritz Maisel, Gavvy Cravath, George Case, George Weiss, Harmon Killebrew, Harry Walker, Home Run Baker, Honus Wagner, Ichiro Suzuki, Jack Clark, Jackie Robinson, Jimmy Wynn, Joe DiMaggio, Joe Posnanski, Johnny Antonelli, Johnny Frederick, Josh Hamilton, Ken Griffey Jr., Lefty O’Doul, Matty Alou, Michael Jordan, Monte Irvin, Nate Colbert, Paul Derringer, Pete Rose, Prince Fielder, Ralph Kiner, Rickey Henderson, Roberto Clemente, Rogers Hornsby, Sam Thompson, Sandy Koufax, Shoeless Joe Jackson, Stan Musial, Ted Williams, The Meusel Brothers, Ty Cobb, Wally Bunker, Willie Mays

I’ve watched the Scott Cousins-Buster Posey collision dozens of times. My conclusion: if it’s a clean baseball play, it shouldn’t be.

On Tuesday, the Philadelphia Phillies’ Hall of Fame third baseman Mike Schmidt told ESPN’s Mike and Mike that in his opinion Cousins had a clear path to home plate and should have taken it. But, said Schmidt, since sliding is a “lost art,” Cousins barreled into Posey and may have ended the young star’s career.

But did Posey also make the wrong choice when as a Florida State Seminole he switched positions to become a catcher? As a testimony to his versatility, Posey at one time or another at Florida State played all nine positions. In a single game on May 12, 2008 against Savannah State Posey not only played all the field positions but pitched the last inning and struck out the only two batters he faced.

As a freshman in 2006, Posey started at shortstop, hit .346 and won a spot on the Louisville Slugger All American Freshman team. The following year, the Seminoles needed a catcher so associate head coach Jamey Shoupe approached Posey who readily agreed.

According to sources close to the Florida State baseball program, Posey spent the next few months in a catcher’s crouch. Not only did Posey watch television and read textbooks while bent at the knees, he studied Ivan Rodriguez, Jorge Posada and Joe Mauer’s defensive techniques.

After just one season of playing the position, Posey was a finalist for the Johnny Bench Award, awarded to the best catcher in college baseball. In 2008, as a junior, he hit .463 with 26 home runs and 93 RBIs, won the Johnny Bench Award and was named the Collegiate Baseball Player of the Year. The same year Posey won the coveted Dick Howser Trophy, and the Golden Spikes Award given to the best player in amateur baseball.

By all accounts, Posey is not only a great player but also an outstanding young man. FSU fans once serenaded Posey with this tune:

Bus-ter Pose-ee, he’ll hit a home run/Bus-ter Pose-ee, he’ll throw you out/Bus-ter Pose-ee, he’ll strike you out too!

Posey, out for the year, says he wants to return to catching in 2012.

But everything depends on how Posey’s physical rehab progresses. But however this season ends, whether you’re a San Francisco Giants’ fan or not, the Cousins-Posey incident has cast a dark shadow over the game

Knowing that baseball greats like Schmidt think Posey’s injury was avoidable makes coping with its consequences all the harder.

Editor’s note: Due to technical difficulties, Doug Bird’s Tuesday post is going up a day later than usual this week.

_________________

With apologies to spaghetti westerns everywhere, let’s look at the first two months of the 2011 major league baseball season and see some of what and who went right, what and who went wrong and what and who went really wrong . Maybe the title of this week’s column should really be surprises, disappointments and disgusting.

The Good

Cleveland Indians: Although they have started the expected slide, the Cleveland Indians proved that defense and pitching (in that order) are what wins ballgames more often than not.  Having two of your best players back and hitting (Grady Sizemore and Travis Haffner) doesn’t hurt either.  The acquisition of Orlando Cabrera in the winter gave the team a genuine winning player with intangibles which defy his statistical performance.  Almost everywhere Cabrera has played has turned that team into a winner.  Astrubel Cabrera (Cabrera to Cabrera on double plays sure is fun to say and write) has been performing like the player scouts have always said he could be and the young pitching has been solid until it ran into the Boston Red Sox recently.

Tampa Bay Rays: That the Tampa Bay Rays are winning as much as they have been and especially after their horrid start proves that, as Yogi Berra once stated, “90% of this game is half mental”.  Or Joe Maddon.  Maddon has always managed this team emphasizing the importance of very solid fundamental play, no panicking and Evan Longoria. Maddon seems to have a quiet confidence in all of his players and adheres strictly to everyone being equally important.  Half of his team are multi-positional players and defensive minded and his starters strike almost everyone out.  Who says you can’t lose half your roster and still be in the hunt for a playoff spot?  Not me anymore.

Arizona Diamondbacks: They still strike out way too much and don’t like to walk but first year official manager Kirk Gibson has instilled this team with a football type mentality.  Gibson has insisted on intensity every play and every pitch and his players refusing to accept a loss. It sure helps that the totally revamped bullpen has been lights out with come back finally from injury closer J.J. Putz securing the back end.

Even once super prospect Sean Burroughs has gotten into the action if only as a reserve player.  Pittsburgh Pirate castoff Zach Duke pitched well in his first start of the season last week and hit a three run homerun.  Shades of Tampa Bay efficiency?

Honorable Mention: Seattle Mariners, Pittsburgh Pirates, Florida Marlins

The Bad

Chicago White Sox: Ozzie Guillen was quiet until a couple of days ago despite the fact that this year so far the team can’t pitch, hit or remember how to play the game.  That all changed after a loss to the Toronto Blue Jays.  The post game meet and greet with the press turned into an Ozzie rant and rave with more “bleeps” than anything.  Not his best work but it was nice to see him finding his groove once again.

Adam Dunn is on pace for 20 homeruns and a .230 batting average and Alex Rios has turned into a player whose only virtue seems to be a strong throwing arm.  If it wasn’t for converted shortstop Sergio Santos, the bullpen would be a complete disaster and John Danks is 0-8. At least Paul Konerko is hitting.

Chicago Cubs: The city by Lake Michigan isn’t having a very good 2011 baseball season.  I still think hiring Mike Quade as manager was the right decision but even he can’t motivate Aramis Ramirez, (two homeruns thus far) and Carlos Pena.  Soriano has continued to make any fly ball to left an adventure and the strangest sight of all, empty seats in Wrigley.  Cub pitching has been only okay but although the Cubs would like to trade (give away) Carlos Zambrano, Rick Dempster no one will touch them except maybe the New York Yankees in September. With their large payroll and poor farm system (why is Josh Vitters still in Double A anyway?) the World champion drought will well into the future.

Minnesota Twins: Is anyone else having trouble getting used to seeing the Twins play poor fundamental baseball and their pitching allow football type scores? I didn’t think so.  Of course injuries have really hurt the club with Joe Mauer hurt again, Justin Morneau still recovering from the concussion he suffered almost one year ago and Joe Nathan hoping his repaired arm can finally heal and allow him rediscover his fastball.

But the signing of Japanese league star Tsuyoshi Nishioka has proven to be a major mistake notwithstanding his injury, the fragility of Francisco Liriano  and Delmon Young having an awful season, the Twins might be in big trouble not only this season but for the foreseeable future.

Dishonorable Mention: New York Mets, Los Angeles Dodgers

A few weeks ago, a reader emailed with a question: Was there any player whose spot in the Hall of Fame was so dependent on the team he played on as Roberto Clemente? The Brooklyn Dodgers signed Clemente as an 18-year-old free agent in 1952, though he went to the Pittsburgh Pirates in the Rule 5 draft two years later. Clemente struggled his first several years in Pittsburgh, before blossoming into a perennial All Star and batting champ in the 1960s. The rest is history.

My reader wrote of Clemente:

He lacked power and lost time due to many nagging injuries that on another club would have made him an ideal candidate for a backup player or a trip to the minors.

Had he stayed with the Dodgers, he would not have been able to break into their starting lineup and might well have gone to either the Mets or Colts in the expansion draft.

With any of the [other second-division teams he could have started for as a young player], his playing time certainly would have been curtailed and limited. He would probably have spent some time back in the minors, or been traded around the league a few times before becoming a well traveled journeyman.

All things considered, with any other team besides the Pirates, not only does he lose about three or four more seasons in the minors and maybe one or two more as a part time player, but there’s absolutely no way he reaches 3000 hits and becomes the Roberto Clemente we now know.

His career, perhaps more than any other shows just how dependent a ballplayer is on so many factors that are all beyond his control.

During Bo Belinsky’s final two years in baseball, his skills were totally shot. In eight games with the Pittsburgh Pirates in 1969 and one with the Cincinnati Reds in 1970 his record was 0-3 with a 4.50 ERA. But in 1962 when he first burst on the scene in Los Angeles with the original Angels, Belinsky looked like he would dominate the American League for years to come.

Belinsky won his first five starts including a May 5 no-hitter against the Baltimore Orioles. Then on May 20, in the second game of a Fenway Park doubleheader, Belinsky reached what was to be his career peak.

Against the Boston, Belinsky pitched a complete game, 2-hitter to dominate the Red Sox, 1-0. For the rest of 1962, the bottom fell out as Belinsky posted an unimpressive 4-10. Then, in the seven following seasons between 1963 and 1970, he was never better than mediocre—and rarely even that.

Off the field, Belinsky dated “B” list Hollywood starlets, drank heavily and made the headlines more often than Angels management liked. The final straw for the Angels came Belinsky started a hotel room fight with elderly Los Angeles Times sportswriter Braven Dyer. The Angels immediately suspended Belinsky, then traded him to the Philadelphia Phillies where opposing batters proved to him that he was washed up. The consensus around the Major Leagues was that Belinsky had totally wasted his considerable talent.

Although his reputation during his playing days was one of a heavy drinking, barroom brawling playboy, toward the end of his life, Belinsky had sobered up and become a born again Christian. In 1973, veteran sportswriter Maury Allen wrote a biography of Belinsky, Bo: Pitching and Wooing, with the uncensored cooperation of Bo Belinsky, in 1973.

Belinsky had come to terms with his lost opportunities.

As he told Allen:

“I came to the Angels as a kid who thought he had been pushed around by life, by minor league baseball. I was selfish and immature in a lot of ways and I tried to cover that up. I went from a major league ballplayer to hanging onto a brown bag under the bridge, but I had my moments and I have my memories. If I had the attitude about life then that I have now, I’d have done a lot of things differently. But you make your rules and you play by them. I knew the bills would come due eventually, and I knew I wouldn’t be able to cover them.”

In 2001, Belinsky died after a long struggle against bladder cancer.

“Double the fun” is a Friday series here that examines one famous doubleheader each week.

What he did: Gavvy Cravath may be something of a forgotten man today, and I’ve confused him with Gabby Hartnett and Gabby Street before. Mostly, Cravath can be remembered as a name that shows up again and again on the National League home run leader boards of the Deadball Era. His 24 homers in 1915 was, to that time, a big league record. But he was slow in the field and played just seven full seasons in the majors. One of my baseball books suggests Cravath was born 55 years too soon, that he could have played into his 40s had the designated hitter position existed in his day. That’s an interesting thought, which I’m happy to expand on here.

Era he might have thrived in: The DH position debuted in 1973 when the New York Yankees made Ron Blomberg baseball’s first full-time hitter. Seeing as Cravath was born in 1881, moving his birth date up 55 years would seem insufficient to extend his career much or boost his Hall of Fame case. He’d perhaps be little more than a glorified version of another slow-moving slugger Frank Howard, who was born in 1936 and got just one season at the end of his career to DH. But if Cravath had been born in say, 1951, he might have been baseball’s first superstar DH.

Why: Cravath’s problem wasn’t that he couldn’t stick in the big leagues once he finally had a starting position. It’s that it took him until he was 31 to get it.

A native of Escondido, California, Cravath began playing in the Pacific Coast League and was 27 when he debuted with the Boston Red Sox in 1908. But he couldn’t penetrate Boston’s vaunted outfield of Harry Hooper, Tris Speaker, and Duffy Lewis, one of baseball’s greatest, and Cravath bounced to a few other American League clubs before returning to the minors. When Cravath finally earned a starting spot with the Philadelphia Phillies in 1912, he quickly made up for lost time and took advantage of his cozy home park, the Baker Bowl, leading the National League in home runs six of the next eight seasons.

Cravath’s 119 home runs were a record when he retired at the dawn of the Live Ball Era in 1920, even if Babe Ruth quickly set this aside. But in the modern era, Cravath could make the majors as a full-time DH in his early 20s, last 15 or 20 seasons, and maybe hit 400-500 home runs. I’m guessing his 1915 season alone, when he clubbed 24 homers, unheard of for those days, might be good for 50 today. And seeing as Cravath played until he was 40, when few lasted that long, I wonder if he’d have even greater durability with modern medicine. The man exuded strength, becoming a no-nonsense judge after baseball. Even his name sounds tough.

Granted, playing in recent decades, Cravath wouldn’t have the 279-foot right field limits of his old stomping grounds, the Baker Bowl, which closed in 1938. Still, as a right-handed hitter with the ability to go to the opposite field, Cravath might thrive in old Yankee Stadium. He’d certainly trump Blomberg who, even with the chance to DH starting at 24, had 52 home runs lifetime and played his final game at 30.

Any player/Any era is a Thursday feature here that looks at how a player might have done in an era besides his own.

Others in this series: Albert Pujols, Babe Ruth, Bad News Rockies, Barry Bonds, Bob Caruthers, Bob Feller, Bob Watson, Carl Mays, Charles Victory Faust, Denny McLain, Dom DiMaggio, Eddie Lopat, Frank Howard, Fritz Maisel, George Case, George Weiss, Harmon Killebrew, Harry Walker, Home Run Baker, Honus Wagner, Ichiro Suzuki, Jack Clark, Jackie Robinson, Jimmy Wynn, Joe DiMaggio, Joe Posnanski, Johnny Antonelli, Johnny Frederick, Josh Hamilton, Ken Griffey Jr., Lefty O’Doul, Matty Alou, Michael Jordan, Monte Irvin, Nate Colbert, Paul Derringer, Pete Rose, Prince Fielder, Ralph Kiner, Rickey Henderson, Roberto Clemente, Rogers Hornsby, Sam Thompson, Sandy Koufax, Shoeless Joe Jackson, Stan Musial, Ted Williams, The Meusel Brothers, Ty Cobb, Wally Bunker, Willie Mays

The early 1950s Pittsburgh Pirates were a ragtag bunch that came and went so fast that fans hardly had a chance to know them. As the Forbes Field program hawkers liked to say, “You can’t tell the players without a score card.”

Maybe anonymity was better for those underachieving Pirates. From 1950 through 1955, the Bucs finished eighth in an eight team league every year except 1951 when they barely squeaked into seventh place but still ended up 32 games behind the pennant winning New York Giants

Although it wasn’t on the diamond, one player from those lowly Pirates eventually went on to great things. John Berardino, a light hitting second baseman for parts of the 1950 and 1952 seasons, left Pittsburgh and returned to his native Los Angeles where in 1961 he originated the role of Dr. Steve Harvey, the chief of internal medicine on the long running General Hospital. Berardino portrayed Harvey until the actor’s death in 1996.

Dr. Harvey became one of daytime television’s most popular and well established characters. In his honor, Berardino’s name is embedded along a stretch of Hollywood and Vine known as the Walk of Stars, a permanent public monument to outstanding achievement in the entertainment industry.

Berardino is the only Pittsburgh Pirate to have received this Hollywood tribute. In his brief stint with the Pirates, Berardino may only have hit .187. But millions of General Hospital fans in Pittsburgh and throughout Western Pennsylvania loved Berardino as Dr. Harvey for nearly 35 years after he hung up his cleats.

Another week and another day of rain.  I can remember a couple of days of sunshine this year so far if I try really hard and it’s putting me and everyone else I know in one of those perpetual bad moods. Even my cat is getting depressed and we both wonder when, if ever, the sun will shine for more than a day or two. Global warming has been replaced by global rain. If my hometown still had its Triple-A baseball team, we would be in line for doubleheaders every day until Christmas. Which I suppose would be only a couple of days after the World Series ended if Bud Selig and Fox had their way.

Ah but let’s cheer up and talk about what has been happening in the majors after almost two months of the 2011 season.

The Cleveland Indians are still winning most of their games and nobody can really figure out how they are doing it unless it’s because  every team which signs Orlando Cabrera seems to do well when they didn’t before  (except for his first team the Montreal Expos). Tampa Bay lost almost all of their players last winter and no one can figure out how they are winning game after game after game.  Can Evan Longoria really be that good? The Cubs look awful even when they win (and  are stuck with some terrible contracts (Fukadome, Soriano, Pena, Ramirez, Zambrano  etc.) and Whitesox manager Ozzie Guillen, despite his team’s troubles, has been quiet.  The Minnesota Twins without bad luck wouldn’t have any luck at all especially with Joe Mauer injured again, Justin Morneau still feeling the effects of last seasons’ concussion, and Joe Nathan with arm trouble again.

I watched the San Diego Padres today and recognized hardly anyone on the team. Albert Pujols is hitting like a mere mortal.  Jose Bautista continues to be the best hitter in baseball  and I keep waiting for him to revert back to the 4 A player he had been before. Jered Weaver continues to throw 120 pitch complete games just like in the olden days.  Atlanta doesn’t give up any runs but can’t score any runs either but their pitching coach has been entertaining. Almost every young pitcher throws near 100 mph and home plate umpires seem to be finally calling true balls and strikes.  No one is talking about the Florida Marlins. No one is going to see the Florida Marlins.

Billionaires Fred Wilpon and Frank McCourt are having money troubles and  the former is publicly criticizing the very players he need s to trade and the latter is threatening major league baseball. Wilpon has sold a minority interest in the New York Mets even though he has billions in real estate holdings and Frank McCourt’s wife is yelling to anyone who will listen that the Dodgers should be sold. Major League Baseball keeps threatening to buy it. Fox wants to buy the Dodgers. Mrs. McCourt keeps yelling. Does this mean the Dodgers will be moving to Puerto Rico next season?

Bryce Harper was found to have had vision problems throughout his career.  What is he going to do now that he can see?  A couple of the potential top draft picks on June 6 have publicly stated that they will not sign with the Pittsburgh Pirates or Kansas City Royals  but would consider it, maybe, for a $30 million contract.  That sounds more than reasonable although the Pirates are near .500 and the Royals recently brought up Eric Hosmer to save the franchise.  He has turned into a Yankee killer much to the delight of non Yankee fans everywhere.  Pete Rose wants to manage again.  Maybe Triple A Las Vegas?

Maybe it’s all the rain and late October type weather but most of the preceding seems to make little sense or is a pleasant surprise to me.  I can’t tell which.  Oh yeah, don’t forget to vote 25 times for the All Star of your choice.  Maybe federal elections should be run the same way.

I must mention, very sadly, the passing of Harmon Killebrew.  Harmon looked like a warehouse worker and hit like a Hall of Famer.  A great player and from all accounts, a wonderful man and ambassador for the game.  He will be missed by everyone.  My condolences to the family.

With Memorial Day-themed posts abounding elsewhere, I figured I’d do something different here. I’ve had an idea for an occasional post examining a random date in baseball past and finding a story in it. Part of the magic of the Web is that such baseball research is made easy by sites like Retrosheet.org, which offers box scores dating to 1871. I looked at the schedule from May 30, 1911, and something stuck out. One hundred years ago today, a troubled, young pitcher named Bugs Raymond won the last game of his big league career. He’d be dead barely a year later.

Fans who’ve read Lawrence Ritter’s The Glory of Their Times or watched the Ken Burns Baseball miniseries, may be familiar with Raymond, who pitched six years in the majors between 1904 and 1911, going 45-57 with a 2.49 ERA. Former New York Giants teammate Fred Snodgrass told Ritter, “Bugs drank too much and came to an early tragic end, but when he was sober, and sometimes when he wasn’t, he was one of the greatest spitball pitchers who ever lived.”

At his peak, Raymond went 18-12 with a 2.47 ERA for the Giants in 1909, though he quit the team six weeks before the season ended to tend bar. Such behavior was emblematic of his short, mercurial career. “Bugs drank a lot, you know, and sometimes it seemed the more he drank the better he pitched,” another Giants teammate, Rube Marquard told Ritter. “They used to say he didn’t spit on the ball; he blew his breath on it, and the ball would come up drunk.”

By 1910, as Raymond’s SABR biography notes, his alcoholism had progressed enough that Giants manager John McGraw hired a former New York City policeman to track Raymond. The ex-cop quit after sustaining a black eye from the pitcher. McGraw became reluctant to give Raymond money for fear it would be spent on alcohol, and fellow Giants were forbidden from loaning to Raymond. McGraw refused even to give Raymond unopened packs of cigarettes, as they could be pawned to buy booze.

Nothing could keep Raymond sober long, not a wife, children, or a promising career, as it so often goes with alcoholics. The Giants sent Raymond off for treatment prior to the 1911 season, though he was kicked out for horseplay. He rallied physically and emotionally for a time, with a couple slips in spring training. Still, Raymond would fully relapse by mid-season and be booted in June from the Giants, who’d win the National League pennant in his absence. As Raymond’s career and life was bottoming out came the brilliance and madness of May 30, 1911.

Raymond got the start that day in the second end of a doubleheader against the Brooklyn Superbas, and he had a one-hit shutout going when he was lifted for Red Ames with two outs and no men on in the fifth. The New York Times reported Raymond had to go to the dressing room with stomach pains because he ate a strawberry sundae before the game (“It begins to look as if ice cream is another dish which Bugs will have to cut from his menu,” the Times noted in its writeup of the game.) Ames blanked Brooklyn the final 4-1/3 innings, giving New York a 3-0 win and Raymond his sixth and final victory that year.

Raymond pitched five more times in the next three weeks, with two losses to drop his record to 6-4. In his final appearance on June 16, Raymond went six innings against St. Louis in relief walking six and allowing four earned runs for the loss. McGraw later dismissed Raymond from the Giants after he disappeared from the bullpen during a game against Pittsburgh and turned up at a nearby saloon. It was the last of many clashes between the two men. When Raymond died, McGraw reportedly said, “That man took seven years off my life.”

Like another oft-inebriated ace from those days, Rube Waddell, Raymond didn’t live long after drinking his way out of the majors. By now separated from his wife, Raymond returned to his boyhood home of Chicago. He played some semi-pro and outlaw baseball, worked as a pressman, and on September 7, 1912, he was found dead in a meager hotel room. Raymond died from a cerebral hemorrhage, thought to be the result of two recent brawls. He was 30.

“On this day in baseball history” is a new, occasional feature here. Today marks the first appearance of this column.

Warren Spahn, the Hall of Fame pitcher who won more games (363) than any left hander in baseball history, was much more than one of the sport’s iconic players. Spahn, who enlisted in the United States Army in December 1942, became a World War II hero. By December 1944, Spahn was sent to Europe with the 1159th Engineer Combat Group. As Spahn recalled it, he served with tough company. In the war years, prisoners were released so that they could be sent into battle.

During World War II, Spahn fought at the Battle of the Bulge and the Ludendorff Bridge battle at Remagen where his combat group was under constant attack from Nazis desperate to prevent the Allies from entering Germany. Spahn was wounded in the foot by shrapnel while working on the Ludendorff.

When the war ended Spahn, who won the Purple Heart and the Bronze Star, was one of its most decorated soldiers. Spahn returned to the Boston Braves in 1946 and in 24 appearances posted an 8-5 record and a fine 2.94 ERA. On the rare occasions that Spahn didn’t pitch up to his high standards, he would joke to teammates that at least he knew no one was going to shoot at him.

To mark his comeback, Spahn registered his first win on July 14 in the opener of a double dip against the Pittsburgh Pirates at Forbes Field

The combat weary Spahn was nonchalant about his pitching challenges. When he looked back on his Army experiences, Spahn said that he never thought of anything he did in baseball as hard work compared to endless days sleeping in frozen tank tracks in enemy territory and going weeks without a change of clothes. Remarked Spahn, “The Army taught me something about challenges and about what’s important and what isn’t. Everything I tackle in baseball and in life I take as a challenge rather than work.”

In 1947 Spahn had the first of thirteen 20-win seasons with several spectacular games along the way. On September 16, 1960, Spahn pitched his first no-hitter against the Phillies. The 4-0 win was his 20th of the season. The following year, five days after his 40^th birthday, Spahn no-hit the Giants 1-0. Then, in 1965 at age 44, Spahn pitched his last major league  game for the San Francisco Giants. That year with the Giants and the New York Mets, Spahn won seven games.

Spahn’s most masterful effort, however, came in Candlestick Park July 2, 1963 when he and fellow Hall of Famer Juan Marichal hooked up in a 16-inning, four hour marathon that ended when the Giants’ Willie Mays hit a home run.

Signed by the Braves in 1940 for $80 a month, Spahn during his 21-year career for was chosen for the All Star team 17 times, more than any other 20^th Century pitcher and, in 1957, was named the National League’s Cy Young winner.

Spahn’s post-retirement life was good. Although he never graduated from high school, Spahn parlayed a modest $500 investment in Oklahoma real estate into a small fortune that included productive oil wells and property in Florida. Warren Spahn Enterprises cashed in on the memorabilia craze. At its peak, Spahn collected $2,000 a day signing autographs.

Thousands of outstanding ball players like Spahn severed with distinction and honor during World War II. On Memorial Day, we honor them and all the other valiant Americans who courageously served our country.