Today In Brewer History: Sending Out Spahn

Warren Spahn is arguably the best pitcher ever to play home games in Milwaukee, if not the best left-handed pitcher in baseball history. The Boston Braves signed Spahn as an amateur free agent in 1940 and 24 years later he was still with the team, having won 356 games and made 14 All Star appearances.

By 1964, though, Spahn's skills had started to deteriorate. In his age 43 season Spahn posted a 5.29 ERA over 38 appearances (25 starts), failing to pitch 200 innings for the first time since 1946. 48 years ago today the Braves moved on, selling Spahn to the Mets.

Spahn pitched just one more major league season split between the Mets and Giants before calling it a career. His 363 career wins and 5243.2 innings pitched are still the sixth and eighth highest in major league history, respectively.

With help from the B-Ref Play Index, happy birthday today to:

• 1986-91 Brewer and 2008 Brewer manager Dale Sveum, who turns 49. We covered his birthday in this space last year.
• 1971 Brewer Frank Tepedino, who turns 65.