More Baseball Pix To Enjoy This Issue
ALSO: BRAVES PITCHERS WERE TOP WINNERS OF LATEST CENTURY
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HERE’S THE PITCH 2025
Selected and edited by Dan Schlossberg
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Pregame Pepper
Did you know…
In baseball history, only two pitchers allowed fewer base-runners per nine innings than Hall of Fame contender Billy Wagner: Addie Joss and Jacob deGrom . . .
Speaking of Cooperstown, Eras Committee candidate Luis Tiant had a record similar to incumbent Hall of Famer Catfish Hunter . . .
Eddie Mathews was supposed to be the guy who broke Babe Ruth’s home run records but wound up as part of the teammate tandem who hit the most while they were together (Hank Aaron and Mathews hit 863 for the Braves and homered in the same game 75 times, another record) . . .
The list of former managers who’d like another shot includes Brad Ausmus, Joe Girardi, Fredi Gonzalez, Gabe Kapler, Joe Maddon, Don Mattingly, Willie Randolph, David Ross, and Buck Showalter (Dusty Baker will stay retired) . . .
Peter Ueberroth and Bart Giamatti may have had short stints as commissioners but it’s hard to think of anyone who were better in that job during the post-war era (well, okay, maybe Happy Chandler).
Leading Off
…And More Baseball Pix Taken Over The Years
By Dan Schlossberg
Yesterday in this space, I presented a half-dozen profile pictures of the top players at the 2004 All-Star Game.
Today I’m showcasing several others taken during my half-century of covering Major League Baseball. I don’t think they’ll need captions.
Cleaning Up
Braves Dominate Wins List Of Last 100 Years
By Dan Schlossberg
Since the beginning of the Lively Ball Era in 1920, the pitchers most likely to succeed wore the uniform of the Braves — in Boston, Milwaukee, and Atlanta.
Five of the Top 10 winners during that century-plus were Braves.
Warren Spahn, who won more games than any left-handed pitcher and more games than any pitcher after World War 2, tops the list with 363 victories.
Then comes Greg Maddux, with more wins than any living pitcher.
After that are Phil Niekro, Gaylord Perry, and Tom Glavine, also members of the exclusive, 24-member 300 Club.
While none of those men pitched exclusively for the Braves, all but Perry came close.
And that’s not including Don Sutton, another 300-game winner who never threw a pitch for the Braves on the mound but made plenty of them as a broadcaster. He’s even in the Braves Hall of Fame.
As we pay tribute to the sailors who lost their lives on Pearl Harbor Day, it’s important to remind readers that Spahn was the only major-leaguer who won a battlefield commission during the Second World War.
He also lost enough service time to deny his quest to join Cy Young and Walter Johnson as the only 400-game winners in baseball history.
During a career that began when Casey Stengel was managing the Boston Braves, Spahn had 363 wins, just 10 behind Grover Cleveland Alexander and Christy Mathewson on the lifetime list.
That’s pretty heady company, to say the least.
Spahn also had 382 complete games — 19 more completions than victories — because he finished what he started, even in losing efforts. His hitting ability (an NL-record 35 home runs as a pitcher) helped.
In fact, Spahn is one of three players, along with Hank Aaron and Chipper Jones, to homer for the Braves in at least 17 consecutive seasons.
Maddux, Glavine, and Niekro could hit too — and all played long before the National League succumbed to designated hitter fever in 2022.
Glavine had five 20-win seasons, all for the Atlanta Braves, while Niekro — working for the team when its nickname was the Bad-News Braves — once led the NL in wins and losses in the same season.
The right-handed master of the knuckleball made more than 40 starts three years in a row, won five Gold Gloves, and had three 20-win campaigns.
Maddux was the master of consistency, posting a .688 winning percentage and 2.63 ERA during an 11-year run in Atlanta that included three straight Cy Young Awards. He never won more than 20 games in a season but did win at least 15 for a record 17 years in a row — including five with the Cubs before he joined the Braves as a free agent and one after he took the same journey in reverse. He also won 18 Gold Gloves, two more than previous pitcher record-holder Jim Kaat.
Perry only spent one season in Atlanta, posting an 8-9 record in 1981, but included the curly A logo when he made up a hat with emblems of all eight of his big-league employers. His spitball was losing its effectiveness by the time he came to the Braves.
Even tough wins have declined in significance with the rise of relief pitching and emphasis on pitch counts and five-man rotations (or even six), the Braves still retain their old ability to lead the majors in that category.
Spencer Strider, though idled by an elbow brace procedure in 2024, was the only 20-game winner in 2023 and Kyle Wright won 21 in 2022 before injuries knocked him out of the box and prompted his trade to Kansas City.
With writers now considering their Hall of Fame ballots, CC Sabathia, Andy Pettitte, and both Tommy John and Luis Tiant (on the Eras Committee lists) will be judged — fairly or not — by how often they won.
In baseball, it’s obvious that winning is still the bottom line, for pitchers as well as teams.
Former AP sportswriter Dan Schlossberg of Fair Lawn, NJ is weekend editor of Here’s The Pitch, national baseball writer for forbes.com, columnist for Sports Collectors Digest, and contributor to USA TODAY Sports Weekly, Memories & Dreams, and many other outlets. He’s also the author or editor of 42 baseball books. His email is ballauthor@gmail.com.
Timeless Trivia: Free Agent Position Changes
Shane Bieber, who won the Triple Crown of pitching and a Cy Young Award while pitching for Cleveland, surprisingly accepted a one-year deal with a one-year club option Friday from the same club . . .
Alex Bregman, Nolan Arenado, and Willy Adames are among the former All-Star infielders who say they’re willing to try new positions if the money, location, and likely contender status of their next team is acceptable . . .
Matt Chapman, just re-signed by San Francisco, said the same thing and could be moving from third base to shortstop if the Giants can’t find a free agent shortstop . . .
Desperate for outfield help, Atlanta should look no further than Jason Heyward and Joc Pederson, lefty-hitting former Braves who could help while Ronald Acuna, Jr. is still healing from his second knee surgery . . .
Signing both would give Atlanta three lefties in their outfield, with Heyward in right and Pederson in left sandwiched around budding All-Star Michael Harris II . . .
Count on 23-year-old free agent Roki Sasaki jumping from Japan to the Dodgers and grabbing an open spot in the Los Angeles rotation.
Know Your Editors
HERE’S THE PITCH is published daily except Sundays and holidays. Benjamin Chase [gopherben@gmail.com] handles Monday and Tuesday editions, Elizabeth Muratore [nymfan97@gmail.com] does Wednesday and Thursday, and Dan Schlossberg [ballauthor@gmail.com] edits the weekend editions on Friday and Saturday. Readers are encouraged to contribute comments, articles, and letters to the editor. HTP reserves the right to edit for brevity, clarity, and good taste.