Spahn and Sain and Pray for Rookie Cards
Sometimes air-quote RCs are better than no RCs at all
TCMA 1946 Play Ball Reprint Johnny Sain - Card of the Day
Spahn and Sain and pray for rain!
That was the refrain for Boston Braves fans in the late 1940s and (very) early 1950s. Coming out of World War II, the Braves managed to shake off their losing ways by going 81-72 in 1946, their first time over .500 since 1938.
Second-year man Johnny Sain, 28 that summer, led the charge from the mound with a 20-14 record and a tiny 2.21 ERA. Meanwhile, 25-year-old rookie Warren Spahn went 8-5 with a 2.94 ERA. Both men had lost three years to the war, but both were raring to get the show on the road in The Show.
The rest of the Boston rotation — Mort Cooper, Ed Wright, and Bill Lee — were a combination of old and adequate but not spectacular.
A year later, manager Billy Southworth reshaped that lineup of arms to include just four men: Spahn, Sain, Red Barrett, and Bill Voiselle. Those first two guys both won 21 games, while the bottom half was even more mediocre than in 1946, and six other pitchers made at least two starts each.
Even so, Boston moved up from fourth place to third and looked like they might contend for real in 1948…if only they could beef up the lower reaches of the pitching staff.
Turns out, they couldn’t.
Sain kept plugging away in 1948, though, leading the majors with 24 victories, to go along with a 2.60 ERA. Meanwhile, Spahn slid back toward the mediocre Boston pack with a 15-13, 3.71 ERA.
Despite a less than eye-popping collective mound performance, though, the Braves entered September up half a game on the Brooklyn Dodgers for the top spot in the National League, with the Pirates and Cardinals hot on their trails. They dropped into a tie in the early days, and Boston fans were biting their nails.
Even though Spahn had struggled by his own standards, everyone knew he was still a key to the team’s postseason hopes. On September 14, with Boston up by 2.5 games,the Boston Post codified that idea when they published a poem from the pen of Gerald Hern that laid out a formula to ensure the Braves would keep winning: start Spahn one game, start Sain the next, have an off day after that, have a rainout on the fourth day, rinse and repeat.
The idea stuck, and it’s been repeated thousands of times in various baseball settings and with various name permutations over the years since.
As for that 1948 Braves team, they won the pennant by 6.5 games, then lost the World Series in six games to the Cleveland Indians (who haven’t won one since).
Spahn, of course, went on to put up a Hall of Fame career as one of the greatest left-handers of all time.
Sain had a down year in 1949 before rebounding with another 20 wins in 1950. The Braves traded him to the Yankees for Lew Burdette in August of 1951, and he won three World Series in the Bronx before finishing up with the A’s in July of 1955.
By then, the Braves were in Milwaukee, but “Spahn and Sain” would forever be part of the team’s lore, no matter where they played.
What wasn’t part of Braves lore, or part of the hobby, was a true Sain rookie card. He did appear in the black-and-white 1948 Bowman set, but he was two years removed from his rookie season and six from his debut by then.
All collectors had to do was wait another 29 years, though. In 1984, TCMA rolled out their 1946 Play Ball “reprint” set featuring 45 old-time players, including — finally — a Johnny Sain “rookie card.”
That new, fan-fiction card is now 40 years old, a mere child when you consider that Sain himself was born 107 years ago today.
Spahn and Spahn … and Spahn … and Spahn … and …
Spahn may have gotten a late-ish start to his big league career, but he made up for it by pitching basically forever. His last Braves card captured most of his glory and even left his hairline to the imagination, which is more than you can say for the follow-up.
Full story at 11 in this blog post from a while back.
—
Did you know the 2010s and 2020s Reds had a similar motto to “Spahn and Sain and pray for rain”?
As I recall, it went “Votto and…get blotto and play the lotto.” Us teetotalers found little comfort or hope in that, uh, motto.
Thanks for reading.
—Adam
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