Columnist Jeff German: Spahn a true sports hero

Wednesday, Nov. 26, 2003 | 11:01 a.m.

I haven't had many sports heroes in my life, but when I was a kid growing up in Milwaukee, Warren Spahn was one of them.

His death this week in Oklahoma at the age of 82 brought back fond memories of visits to Milwaukee County Stadium when the legendary left-handed pitcher and the rest of the dominant Milwaukee Braves were in their prime. Life was so much fun when Spahn, with his unusual wind up and high leg kick, was on the mound giving fits to the opposing team's batters. Spahn would befuddle the opponents with his array of pitches while the likes of Eddie Mathews, Hank Aaron and Joe Adcock would dazzle them with their bats.

When Spahn and the Braves were at the top of their game, Milwaukee seemed like a special place in the summertime, and it made me feel special.

In those days baseball was all that mattered to me when school let out for the summer. I played in softball leagues, collected baseball cards and spent hours at a time throwing a rubber ball at a makeshift strike zone I had drawn on a brick wall in the alley. I pretended that I was Spahn and his fellow Braves pitching stars, Lew Burdette and Bob Buhl, looking to strike out Mickey Mantle and the rest of the Yankees in the World Series.

I was so enamored of Spahn and the Braves that, when people stood up before a ballgame to sing the national anthem, I thought they were chanting the team's song. For a long time, as a kid, I thought the "Star Spangled Banner" ended with the phrase, "And the home ... of the Braves." And that's the way I sang it. My father didn't have the heart to set me straight until I figured it out for myself.

Spahn's passing reminded me that there are very few heroes like him in sports today.

His baseball career, which began with the old Boston Braves in 1942, was interrupted for three years when he served in World War II. He fought at the Battle of the Bulge and later was awarded the Bronze Star for bravery in the European theater.

After the war Spahn resumed his major league career in Boston and stayed with the Braves when the team moved to Milwaukee in 1953.

Four years later Spahn led the Braves to victory in the 1957 World Series over the New York Yankees and won the Cy Young Award as baseball's best pitcher.

He played at a high level throughout his 21 seasons, pitching a no-hitter at the age of 40 and winning 23 games when he was 42.

Baseball's winningest left-hander was the product of a simpler era -- before professional athletes became marketing giants.

In his day major leaguers were looked up to because of what they accomplished on the field, not away from it.

You never saw Spahn pitching beer or anything in television commercials. The only thing you saw him pitching was a fastball or a curve to the likes of Willie Mays and Ernie Banks.

He was baseball, pure and simple.

And now he's gone.

But I'll always remember him for showing me and, I'm sure, thousands of other impressionable kids growing up in Milwaukee what it's like to be the best at what you do.

I'll always remember Warren Spahn as an example of what every sports hero should be.