Praying For Rain Was A Little In(Sain)

I was reading Joe Posnanski’s blog on Tuesday and one of his italic’d paragraphs caught my attention.

There have been numerous attempts already at the Spahn and Sain rhyme — the best I’ve heard so far is “Gil, Kyle and Zack then hope for a comeback” or “Zack, Kyle and Gil and then wait until.”

This of course is in reference to the rhyme “Spahn and Sain, then pray for rain”. A little background: In September of 1948, a writer for the Boston Post named Gerald V. Hern wrote a poem about the Boston Braves’ two starters Warren Spahn and Johnny Sain. It went like this. “First we’ll use Spahn. Then we’ll use Sain. Then an off day, followed by rain. Back will come Spahn, followed by Sain. And followed we hope by two days of rain.”

/jmorris.

It was supposed to be a slight on all the pitchers on the Braves’ pitching staff not named Spahn or Sain. Humorous, right? Yes it is. In fact it might be the funniest poem ever written about the late 1940’s Boston Braves. But was it fair? Let’s have a look.

Spahn and Sain were teammates throughout the mid-to-late 1940’s. The poem though was written in September of 1948, so I’ll start with that season. Here is a look at the Braves’ starting staff (of guys who started at least 10 games) and their numbers from the 1948 season:

• Johnny Sain – 24-15, 2.60 ERA, 314 IP, 297 hits, 83 BB’s, 137 K’s, 147 ERA+
• Warren Spahn – 15-12, 3.71 ERA, 257 IP, 237 hits, 77 BB’s, 114 K’s, 103 ERA+
• Bill Voiselle – 13-13, 3.63 ERA, 215 IP, 226 hits, 90 BB’s, 89 K’s, 106 ERA+
• Vern Bickford – 11-5, 3.27 ERA, 146 IP, 125 hits, 63 BB’s, 60 K’s, 117 ERA+
• Red Barrett – 7-8, 3.65 ERA, 128 IP, 132 hits, 26 BB’s, 40 K’s, 105 ERA+

Sain was clearly the best pitcher on the staff and Spahn was a workhorse, but performance-wise, the other 3 guys were no slouches. You could even make an argument that Warren Spahn had the worst overall numbers. I wouldn’t make that argument, but somebody could. Also, as a staff, that Braves team gave up the fewest runs in the league. Doesn’t it seem odd to write a poem that ridicules every other pitcher on that team when collectively they were the best pitching staff in the NL? We’re talking about a team that won the pennant! I could see maybe if Spahn and Sain had put up Schilling and Johnson numbers from 2001 while the rest of the staff was Brian Anderson and Robert Ellis, then this poem may have been warranted. But that just was not the case. Maybe I should give the author the benefit of the doubt though. By the time the poem was written, Spahn and Sain could have already put together multiple consecutive seasons where they were the Brave’s best pitchers, so maybe Hern was just a year late. Let’s look at 1947:

• Warren Spahn - 21-10, 2.33 ERA, 289 IP, 245 hits, 84 BB’s, 123 K’s, 168 ERA+
• Johnny Sain – 21-12, 3.52 ERA, 266 IP, 265 hits, 79 BB’s, 132 K’s, 111 ERA+
• Red Barrett - 11-12, 3.55 ERA, 210 IP, 200 hits, 53 BB’s, 53 K’s, 110 ERA+
• Bill Voiselle - 8-7, 4.32 ERA, 131 IP, 146 hits, 51 BB’s, 59 K’s, 90 ERA+
• Si Johnson – 6-8, 4.23 ERA, 112 IP, 124 hits, 34 BB’s, 27 K’s, 92 ERA+

Ah, there you go. Based on those numbers, it seems like Hern’s poem may have been better-served if it had been written one year earlier. Wins were flashy back in those days, so I’m sure that 1947 team was known for their two 20-game winners. Red Barrett seemed like a capable 3rd starter for an 86-win team (despite his K-rate), but Spahn and Sain were clearly the class of that rotation. The last two guys sucked. I’ll do one more year (1946):

• Johnny Sain – 20-14, 2.21 ERA, 265 IP, 225 hits, 87 BB’s, 129 K’s, 156 ERA+
• Mort Cooper - 13-11, 3.12 ERA, 199 IP, 181 hits, 39 BB’s, 83 K’s, 110 ERA+
• Ed Wright - 12-9, 3.52 ERA, 176 IP, 164 hits, 71 BB’s, 44 K’s, 98 ERA+
• Bill Lee - 10-9, 4.18 ERA, 140 IP, 148 hits, 45 BB’s, 32 K’s, 82 ERA+
• Warren Spahn - 8-5, 2.94 ERA, 125 IP, 107 hits, 36 BB’s, 67 K’s, 117 ERA+

See that Mort Cooper guy? You probably don’t know this, but Cooper was a 3-time 20-game winner and 4-time All Star. You’ve never heard of him though because his name was Mort. But trust me, he was good. He was like an Orel Hershiser or Jack McDowell-type, meaning he was never going to make the HOF, but for a few seasons in his 20’s, he pitched at an All-Star level. 1946 would be his last good season, but that detail is not important for this exercise. Sain was excellent again, but Spahn was limited to half a season following WWII.

Okay so that’s 3 years of accumulated stats leading up to a poem that ridiculed 7 or 8 different guys. So what’s my verdict? I think the poem was unfair. The best defense I can give it was that it was written a year late, and if I’m basing this solely on numbers (which is all I can base this on), there’s 4 or 5 guys from those 3 teams who had every right to be pissed.