Nov. 23, 1964 - Warren Spahn, the most successful left‐handed pitcher in baseball history, today joined Yogi Berra as a player‐coach for the New York Mets in 1965.
Spahn was purchased for an unannounced sum from the Milwaukee Braves, the only organization he ever worked for in his 24‐year baseball career until now. The amount the Mets paid for him was probably nominal, since Spahn had made it clear that he wanted to continue as a starting pitcher and the Braves did not have such plans for him. He will be 44 years old next April.
Another factor simplifying the deal was Spahn’s salary. He is one of the highest‐paid players in the game, getting a salary estimated at $85,000 last year. The Mets will pay him something above $65,000, although this figure, too, is unannounced.
Because no other team would be interested in assuming this salary, the Braves had waivers on Spahn and there were no obstacles to making the deal.
Spahn flew from Hawaii to Shea Stadium to appear at today’s news conference to announce his acquisition by the Mets. He is going back to work for his first major league manager — Casey Stengel, who was in charge of the Boston Braves when Spahn first went to spring training with them in 1941. And he will be trying to perform a dual function as coach and pitcher that Whitey Ford tried and abandoned this year.
Spahn said that he was determined to be a starting pitcher first and a coach second. Berra won’t decide until after spring training whether he can make it again as a player. Yogi will be only 40 years old next May, but he broke the continuity of playing while managing the Yankees this year.
Was it possible, therefore, that the Met battery on opening day would be Spahn and Berra against the Los Angeles Dodgers at Shea Stadium?
“With Sandy Koufax pitching for them?” said Yogi, a left‐handed batter whose memories of the 1963 World Series are fresh. “Nothing doing.”
Spahn had not yet spoken to Stengel, but Mets president George Weiss reported that Casey was delighted. Spahn and Stengel had no particularly close contact two decades ago.
“I was just one kid among many, and players were treated a little different in those days,” Spahn recalled. “I saw more of Casey in spring training in 1941, before I was sent out. I came up again for a while at the end of 1942.”
Spahn spent the next three years in the Army, and won only eight games when he returned to the Braves in 1946. His real effectiveness began in 1947, when he won 21 games at the age of 26.
“This is the beginning of a new era for me,” he said today. “I’d like nothing better than to win comeback of the year. I like the enthusiasm of the young club here. And it will be nice to have Roy McMillan behind me again at shortstop — he covered a lot of my mistakes in Milwaukee.
“Physically, I’m sound. You just don’t go from a 23‐game winner to a six‐game winner in one year; you don’t go from a middle‐aged man to an old man in one year—at least I don’t think so. I’m out to prove I can do the job as a starting pitcher.”
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