| Larry Jansen | |
|---|---|
 Jansen in 1953. | |
| Pitcher | |
| Born:(1920-07-16)July 16, 1920 Verboort, Oregon, U.S. | |
| Died: October 10, 2009(2009-10-10) (aged 89) Verboort, Oregon, U.S. | |
Batted: Right Threw: Right | |
| MLB debut | |
| April 17, 1947, for the New York Giants | |
| Last MLB appearance | |
| September 25, 1956, for the Cincinnati Redlegs | |
| MLB statistics | |
| Win–loss record | 122–89 |
| Earned run average | 3.58 |
| Strikeouts | 842 |
Stats atBaseball Reference  | |
| Teams | |
| Career highlights and awards | |
| |
Lawrence Joseph Jansen (July 16, 1920 – October 10, 2009) was an American right-handedpitcher andcoach inMajor League Baseball. A native ofOregon, he played minor league baseball in the early 1940s before starting his Major League career in 1947 with the New York Giants. Jansen played nine seasons in the big leagues, and was twice anAll-Star, winning 122 games in all. He later coached in the Major Leagues and minor leagues. Jansen is a member of theOregon Sports Hall of Fame and thePacific Coast League Hall of Fame.
Lawrence Jansen was born in Verboort, Oregon, on July 16, 1920.[1] He was raised in the community of Verboort located nearForest Grove inWashington County where he graduated from Verboort High School in 1938.[1] While still in school Jansen started his baseball career playing semi-pro ball. In 1940 Jansen was discovered by a scout and started playing for theSalt Lake City Bees, a Class C club at that time.[1] Jansen married the former Eileen Vandehey that year, and they had 10 children.[1] In 1941, he started playing for theSan Francisco Seals in thePacific Coast League, but in 1943, given the choice between being drafted to fight in World War II or taking a deferment to work on the family dairy farm back in Oregon, he chose the latter. He played semi-pro ball there part-time and returned to the Seals late in the 1945 season.
Breaking in as a 27-year old rookie, Jansen became a key member of theNew York Giants starting rotation from 1947 to 1953, twice winning more than 20 games. He was purchased from theTriple-A Seals after leading the Pacific Coast League in wins (30),earned run average (1.57) andwinning percentage (.833) in 1946. In his rookie major league season in1947, Jansen won 21 of 26 decisions, leading theNational League in winning percentage (.808), and finished second in the voting forRookie of the Year behind theBrooklyn Dodgers'Jackie Robinson.[1]
He pitched five innings of one-hit scoreless baseball in the1950 All-Star Game, which lasted 14 innings.
In1951, he paced the NL-champion Giants with 23 victories and helped lead their improbable August and September comeback against the Dodgers. Jansen was the winning pitcher in the famous game on October 3, 1951, featuring theShot Heard 'Round the World. Jansen, however, lost his only two decisions in the1951 World Series. Jansen also won 19 games (1950) and 18 games (1948) for the New York club.
As an indication of the low salaries of even accomplished players in the mid-twentieth century, Jansen worked in a hardware store in Forest Grove, Oregon, during the off-seasons of his best years.
Arm miseries kept Jansen from a major role in the Giants'1954world championship; he spent part of that season inactive, as a coach. His playing career ended after eight appearances with the 1956Cincinnati Redlegs. During his nine-year NL career, Jansen won 122 games and lost 89 (.578) with an ERA of 3.58. He had five 15-win seasons and two 20-win seasons.[citation needed]
Jansen returned to the Pacific Coast League as a player-coach withSeattle (1955 and 1957) andPortland (1958–60). After a call from former teammateAlvin Dark, Jansen returned to the Major Leagues as pitching coach for theSan Francisco Giants in1961, with Dark as manager.[1][2] Jansen remained as pitching coach for eleven seasons, and helped to develop futureHall-of-FamersJuan Marichal andGaylord Perry.[3] During his tenure, the Giants made appearances in the1962 World Series and1971 National League Championship Series. He then moved on to his final MLB coaching job, handling pitchers for theChicago Cubs in1972–73, working for his old Giants manager,Leo Durocher, and then former teammateWhitey Lockman.
In retirement, Larry Jansen (along with his co-author, George Jansen MD and illustrator Karl van Loo) left behind in book form his accumulated wisdom on every aspect of pitching in professional baseball:The Craft of Pitching (Masters Press, 1977).
Previously, Jansen had contributed a section on pitching inThe Sporting News 1951 publicationHow to Play Baseball. Besides Jansen, the publication had other authors on specific topics: "Catching byRay Schalk; Batting byRogers Hornsby; Base Running byBernie DeViveiros; First Base byGeorge Sisler; Second Base by Rogers Hornsby; Shortstop byHonus Wagner; Third Base byGeorge Kell; Outfield byJoe DiMaggio; and How to Umpire byGeorge Barr."[4]
Jansen was inducted into theOregon Sports Hall of Fame in 1980.[5]Sports Illustrated selected Jansen as one of Oregon's Fifty Greatest Athletes in 2004.[2]
In 2010, Jansen was inducted into thePacific Coast League Hall of Fame.[6]
After retiring from baseball, he returned to his hometown Verboort,Oregon, where he sold real estate and lived the remainder of his life in the house he had built in 1951.[1][2]
Lawrence Jansen died in his sleep in Verboort at the age of 89 on October 10, 2009. The cause of death wascongestive heart failure andpneumonia. Jansen was survived by his wife Eileen, their ten children and their families.[1][3]
| Preceded by | San Francisco Giantspitching coach 1961–1971 | Succeeded by |
| Preceded by | Chicago Cubspitching coach 1972–1973 | Succeeded by |
| International | |
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| National | |
| Other | |