Left Out

Warren Spahn, 44, is the best left-handed pitcher in baseball history, but history is passing him by. For a long time, Spahn defied old age with remarkable success. He was 40 when he pitched the second no-hit, no-run game of his career, remarking later: "A fellow my age has no right to do that." At 42, he compiled a season record of 23 victories against only seven losses, thus winning 20 or more games a season for the 13th time. Last year Milwaukee Manager Bobby Bragan decided that Spahn had lost his touch, relegated him to the bullpen. Spahn ended the season with six wins and 13 losses.

After the season, the Braves were only too happy to give him to the last-place New York Mets. The Mets' only obligation was to meet Spahn's high salary demands, about $70,000, and to get their money's worth, they appointed him pitching coach as well as a pitcher. Snapped Spahn: "First, I'm a pitcher. Then I'm a coach." An obsessive chaser of the record books, Spahn looked on the Mets as perhaps his last chance to advance his name in baseball annals. He boldly predicted that he would win 20 games in 1965.

By May he had built a respectable 4-4 record and moved into a tie (360 victories) with Kid Nichols as the sixth most successful pitcher in baseball history. Now he wanted to overtake Jim Galvin at 365 and then to pass Christy Mathewson and Grover Cleveland Alexander (both 373), leaving only Walter Johnson (416) and Cy Young (511) ahead of him as the record holders.

Spahn's ambition backfired with No. 360. His fastball lost its flash, his sliders hung like floaters. Just about everyone, including opposing pitchers, tore him apart. "They jump on him so fast I can't do anything," sighed Manager Casey Stengel. Spahn lost eight games straight, and other Met pitchers complained as well that he pulled rank as coach to take extra turns on the mound in his vain attempt for a victory.

Finally, Stengel summoned Spahn for a talk in his office. Just about everyone in the club house heard the angry rumble as Spahn refused to step aside as a regular pitcher and join the bullpen staff. "I feel I can still pitch," he insisted. Perhaps so. But not with the Mets. Last week the Mets put Spahn up for sale. Price: $1. So far, he has not been bowled over with offers. By week's end, in fact, there had been none, and Spahn hurried off to try his hand at broadcasting baseball for TV.

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