| Johnny Sain | |
|---|---|
 Sain in 1953 | |
| Pitcher | |
| Born:(1917-09-25)September 25, 1917 Havana, Arkansas, U.S. | |
| Died: November 7, 2006(2006-11-07) (aged 89) Downers Grove, Illinois, U.S. | |
Batted: Right Threw: Right | |
| MLB debut | |
| April 17, 1942, for the Boston Braves | |
| Last MLB appearance | |
| July 15, 1955, for the Kansas City Athletics | |
| MLB statistics | |
| Win–loss record | 139–116 |
| Earned run average | 3.49 |
| Strikeouts | 910 |
Stats atBaseball Reference  | |
| Teams | |
| As player As coach | |
| Career highlights and awards | |
John Franklin Sain (September 25, 1917 – November 7, 2006) was an American right-handedpitcher inMajor League Baseball who was best known for teaming with left-handerWarren Spahn on theBoston Braves teams from 1946 to 1951. He was the runner-up for theNational League'sMost Valuable Player Award in the Braves' pennant-winning season of 1948, after leading theNational League inwins,complete games andinnings pitched. He later became further well known as one of the toppitching coaches in the majors.
Beginning in late 1942, Sain served in theUnited States Navy duringWorld War II.[1] As a navy pilot, he spent the next three years stateside, while also playing baseball on the navy bases.[2] He was discharged in November 1945.[2]
Born inHavana, Arkansas, Sain pitched for 11 years, winning 139 games and losing 116 in his career and compiled anearned run average of 3.49. His best years were those immediately after World War II, when he won 100 games for theBoston Braves, before being traded to theNew York Yankees during the 1951 season forLew Burdette and cash.
Sain had the distinction of being the first pitcher in theMajor Leagues to faceJackie Robinson. In 1943, while participating in a benefit game for theRed Cross, Sain became the last man to pitch againstBabe Ruth in organized baseball.[3][4]
In 1948, Sain won 24 games against 15 losses and finished second in the voting for the Most Valuable Player Award behind theSt. Louis Cardinals'Stan Musial, who had won two legs of theTriple Crown. Sain and teammate Spahn achieved joint immortality that year when their feats were the subject of sports editor Gerald V. Hern's poem in theBoston Post which was eventually shortened to the epigram "Spahn and Sain and Pray for Rain" According to theBaseball Almanac, the original doggerel appeared in Hern's column on September 14, 1948:
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.
The poem was inspired by the performance of Sain and Spahn during the Braves' 1948 pennant drive. The team swept aLabor Daydoubleheader, with Spahn throwing a complete game 14-inning win in the opener, and Sain pitching a shutout in the second game. Following two off days, it did rain. Spahn won the next day, and Sain won the day after that. Three days later, Spahn won again. Sain won the next day. After one more off day, the two pitchers were brought back, and won another doubleheader. The two pitchers had gone 8–0 in twelve days' time.[5]
That year, the Boston Braves won their second, latterNational League pennant of the post-1901 era, but fell in six games to theCleveland Indians in the1948 World Series. Sain won the first game of the Series, a 1–0 shutout atBraves Field that included a memorable play in which BostoncatcherPhil Masi was called safe after an apparentpickoff at second base. Masi went on to score the game's only run.
With the Yankees, Sain became arelief pitcher and enjoyed late-career success, leading theAmerican League insaves with 22 in 1954. He finished his career in 1955 with theKansas City Athletics.
When Sain was pitching, he thought that merely throwing the ball was not enough to get the ball to vary its course as it travelled to home plate. In order to throw a pitch such as acurveball or ascrewball, he had to snap his wrist.[6]
A very good hitting pitcher in his 11 year major league career, Sain posted a .245batting average with 69runs, 3home runs and 101RBI.
After retiring as a player, Sain spent many years as a well-regarded and outspoken pitching coach for theKansas City Athletics,New York Yankees,Minnesota Twins,Detroit Tigers,Chicago White Sox andAtlanta Braves. During the 1960s, Sain coached the pitchers of five of theAmerican League's ten pennant-winning teams.
While serving as the Yankees pitching coach, Sain picked up an apple one day and poked a broken car antenna through it. Spinning the apple, Sain came to the idea that he could do the same with a baseball by inserting a wooden rod into it, enabling him to spin the ball differently, imitating the spins used for different pitches. Sain eventually patented the idea and sold his product from his home in Arkansas.[7]
An independent thinker among coaches, Sain tended to be admired by his pitchers, although he battled with at least two of his managers—Sam Mele of the Twins andMayo Smith of the Tigers—when he disagreed with them. In each case, Sain was fired, but the manager's dismissal soon followed when his pitching staff suffered from Sain's absence. Sain did not make friends among owners andgeneral managers, either, when he would advise pitchers to "climb those golden stairs" to their teams' front offices to demand more money in salary talks. Sain was also well known for ignoring running drills most pitchers despised. He frequently told pitchers and managers "You don't run the damn ball across the plate. If running did it, they'd look for pitchers on track teams."[8]
Jim Bouton, in his bookBall Four, expressed unreserved admiration for Sain, who had been his pitching tutor in New York during his first two Major League seasons, 1962 and 1963. Bouton openly wished to pitch for the 1969 Tigers in order to have yet another opportunity to benefit from Sain's coaching. Sain and Bouton were briefly reunited in the Atlanta Braves system in 1978.Ned Garver said Sain was the best pitching coach he ever encountered. "If he had an idea that he thought could be of value to you, he would tell you about it to try to help you, but by the time he finished visiting with you about it, you would think that you'd thought of it yourself," Garver described Sain's approach.[9]
Tommy John, on the other hand, had trouble working with Sain, who kept trying to get the pitcher to throw a slider, a pitch which always gave John trouble. "Sain could show you how to throw any pitch in the book, but he couldn't look at your motion and tell if your mechanics were off," recalled John. "For a sinkerballer [which John was], that spells trouble."[10][11]
Pitchers who won 20 or more games under Sain's coaching includeJim Kaat,Whitey Ford,Mudcat Grant,Denny McLain,Jim Bouton,Al Downing,Jim Perry,Wilbur Wood, andStan Bahnsen.[7]
Sain was married twice. His first wife was Doris May McBride of Dallas. They were married on October 1, 1945 and had four children: John Jr., Sharyl, Ronda and Randy. The couple divorced in 1970. Sain's second wife was Mary Ann Zaremba, whom he married on August 24, 1972. They had no children together. Sain was disabled by a stroke in 2002. He died at age 89 inDowners Grove, Illinois, on November 7, 2006. At the time of his death, Sain had 11 grandchildren.[12]
· Baseball Reference · Baseball Reference (Minors) · Retrosheet · Baseball Almanac| Sporting positions | ||
|---|---|---|
| Preceded by | Kansas City AthleticsPitching Coach 1959 | Succeeded by |
| Preceded by | New York YankeesPitching Coach 1961–1963 | Succeeded by |
| Preceded by | Minnesota TwinsPitching Coach 1965–1966 | Succeeded by |
| Preceded by | Detroit TigersPitching Coach 1967–1969 | Succeeded by |
| Preceded by | Chicago White SoxPitching Coach 1971–1975 | Succeeded by |
| Preceded by | Atlanta BravesPitching Coach 1977 1985–1986 | Succeeded by |
