Best Pitchers of the 1950s
Warren Spahn & Whitey Ford were Baseball's Top Hurlers of the Decade
In the 1950s, an era that was dominated by hitting, these four Hall of Fame pitchers distinguished themselves from the pack.
The 1950s are often referred to as the Golden Age of Baseball. It was a decade dominated by great hitting that featured such legendary batsmen as Mickey Mantle, Stan Musial, Willie Mays and Duke Snider, all of whom won MVP awards. But the 1950s also featured some great pitchers. Here are the best pitchers of the decade.
Warren Spahn, Milwaukee Braves
Spahn was probably the best of the bunch. During the 1950s, he made eight National League All-Star teams and finished in the top 5 in MVP voting five years. In 1957, Spahn captured the Cy Young Award at a time when only one trophy was given for both Major Leagues. That year, he won 22 games and helped lead the Braves to the World Series championship over the New York Yankees.
The lefthander also topped 20 wins eight times, a feat that hadn't been accomplished since Walter "the Big Train" Johnson won 20 or more games every season from 1910-1919. Truly a baseball legend, Spahn, a member of the 300 win club, won a total of 363 games in his career, the fifth most in baseball history. He was elected to the Hall of Fame in 1973.
Robin Roberts, Philadelphia Phillies
Roberts came to fame as a 23-year old starter who won 20 games and helped lead the "Whiz Kid" 1950 Phillies to the National League championship. Although Philadelphia wouldn't reach the heights they attained in 1950 for another 30 years, Roberts's success continued on for many years. He won 20 or more games six years in a row from 1950 to 1955, and then recorded 19, 17, and 15 wins to close out the decade.
Roberts had his greatest season in 1952, when he logged a 28-7 record and posted a 2.59 ERA. He finished runner-up to the Cubs' Hank Sauer for the National League Most Valuable Player in the second closest MVP vote in baseball history. Roberts retired in 1966 with 286 wins and was inducted into the National Baseball Hall of Fame in 1976.
Whitey Ford, New York Yankees
Much different from Spahn and Roberts, the man who was known as the Chairman of the Board never had a 20-win season during the 1950s. It really wasn't his fault, though. Casey Stengel was to blame. A brilliant innovator who was the first manager to popularize platooning of players, Stengel was also one of the first skippers to employ a five-man pitching rotation. To make matters worse, Stengel often gave Ford as much as six days rest during the regular season to preserve his arm for the postseason. As a result, Whitey only averaged 26 starts a season during the decade.
Yet, Ford was still able to average 15 wins and only 6 losses per season during the eight seasons he pitched in the decade (he was in military service in 1951 and '52). His .713 winning percentage (121-50) was the best ever for a starter in a single decade. His top season in the '50s was 1956, when he went 19-6 with a 2.47 ERA. He also pitched for four World Series Champions ('50, 53, '56 and '58), winning a total of six World Series games.
Stengel was fired after the Yankees lost the 1960 World Series to the Pirates, and was replaced by the Yankees with Ralph Houk. The new skipper employed a four-man starting staff, and Ford went on to average 37 starts and 20 wins a season from 1961 through 1965.
Ford concluded his career in 1967 with a 236-106 record. One can only wonder how many more wins Ford would have racked up if Stengel should have used the four man rotation.
Early Wynn, Cleveland Indians and Chicago White Sox
In 1954, the Indians won 111 games, an American League record that stood until the 1998 New York Yankees won 114. The leader of their pitching staff that season was future Hall of Famer Early Wynn, who went 23-11 with a 2.79 ERA.
Wynn continued to dominate American League hitters for the rest of the decade, winning 20 or more games five times and taking home the 1959 Cy Young Award while pitching for the Chicago White Sox at the age of 40. Wynn won a total of 300 games in his career and was elected to the Hall of Fame in 1972.
In a decade known for offense, these four Hall of Fame pitchers were still able to dominate.
To learn more about the game's greatest pitchers, click here and here.
