View source for Johnny Sain

{{Short description|American baseball player (1917–2006)}}
{{Use mdy dates|date=June 2019}}
{{Infobox baseball biography
|name=Johnny Sain
|position=[[Pitcher]]
|image=Johnnysain.jpg
|caption=Sain in 1953
|bats=Right
|throws=Right
|birth_date={{birth date|1917|9|25}}
|birth_place=[[Havana, Arkansas]], U.S.
|death_date={{death date and age|2006|11|7|1917|9|25}}
|death_place=[[Downers Grove, Illinois]], U.S.
|debutleague = MLB
|debutdate=April 17<!-- thebaseballcube.com indicates April 24, but retrosheet.org indicates April 17 [https://www.retrosheet.org/boxesetc/1942/B04170BSN1942.htm boxscore] -->
|debutyear=1942
|debutteam=Boston Braves
|finalleague = MLB
|finaldate=July 15
|finalyear=1955
|finalteam=Kansas City Athletics
|statleague = MLB
|stat1label=[[Win–loss record (pitching)|Win–loss record]]
|stat1value=139–116
|stat2label=[[Earned run average]]
|stat2value=3.49
|stat3label=[[Strikeout]]s
|stat3value=910
|teams=
'''As player'''
* [[Boston Braves (baseball)|Boston Braves]] ({{baseball year|1942}}, {{baseball year|1946}}–{{baseball year|1951}})
* [[New York Yankees]] ({{baseball year|1951}}–{{baseball year|1955}})
* [[Kansas City Athletics]] ({{baseball year|1955}})
'''As coach'''
* [[Kansas City Athletics]] ({{baseball year|1959}})
* [[New York Yankees]] ({{baseball year|1961}}–{{baseball year|1963}})
* [[Minnesota Twins]] ({{baseball year|1965}}–{{baseball year|1966}})
* [[Detroit Tigers]] ({{baseball year|1967}}–{{baseball year|1969}})
* [[Chicago White Sox]] ({{baseball year|1971}}–{{baseball year|1975}})
* [[Atlanta Braves]] ({{baseball year|1977}}, {{baseball year|1985}}–{{baseball year|1986}})
|highlights=
* 3× [[Major League Baseball All-Star Game|All-Star]] ([[1947 Major League Baseball All-Star Game|1947]], [[1948 Major League Baseball All-Star Game|1948]], [[1953 Major League Baseball All-Star Game|1953]])
* 6× [[World Series champion]] ({{wsy|1951}}–{{wsy|1953}}, {{wsy|1961}}, {{wsy|1962}}, {{wsy|1968}})
* [[List of Major League Baseball annual wins leaders|NL wins leader]] (1948)
* [[Ivan Allen Jr. Braves Museum and Hall of Fame|Braves Hall of Fame]]
}}

'''John Franklin Sain''' (September 25, 1917 &ndash; November 7, 2006) was an American right-handed [[pitcher]] in [[Major League Baseball]] who was best known for teaming with left-hander [[Warren Spahn]] on the [[Boston Braves (baseball)|Boston Braves]] teams from 1946 to 1951. He was the runner-up for the [[National League (baseball)|National League]]'s [[MLB Most Valuable Player Award|Most Valuable Player Award]] in the Braves' pennant-winning season of 1948, after leading the [[National League (baseball)|National League]] in [[win (baseball)|wins]], [[complete game]]s and [[innings pitched]]. He later became further well known as one of the top [[coach (baseball)|pitching coaches]] in the majors.

==Military service==
Beginning in late 1942, Sain served in the [[United States Navy]] during [[World War II]].<ref name="sabr">{{cite web |url=https://sabr.org/bioproj/person/johnny-sain/ |title=Johnny Sain |first1=Jan |last1=Finkel |website=sabr.org |publisher=[[Society for American Baseball Research]] |access-date=June 10, 2019}}</ref> As a navy pilot, he spent the next three years stateside, while also playing baseball on the navy bases.<ref name="BiW">{{cite web |url=http://baseballinwartime.com/player_biographies/sain_johnny.htm |title=Baseball in Wartime – Johnny Sain |website=BaseballinWartime.com |access-date=June 10, 2019}}</ref> He was discharged in November 1945.<ref name="BiW"/>

==Pitching star of post-war Boston Braves==
Born in [[Havana, Arkansas]], Sain pitched for 11 years, winning 139 games and losing 116 in his career and compiled an [[earned run average]] of 3.49. His best years were those immediately after World War II, when he won 100 games for the [[Boston Braves (baseball)|Boston Braves]], before being traded to the [[New York Yankees]] during the 1951 season for [[Lew Burdette]] and cash.

Sain had the distinction of being the first pitcher in the [[Major League Baseball|Major Leagues]] to face [[Jackie Robinson]].  In 1943, while participating in a benefit game for the [[Red Cross]], Sain became the last man to pitch against [[Babe Ruth]] in organized baseball.<ref>{{cite web |url=https://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2006/11/08/AR2006110802284.html |first1=Matt |last1=Schudel |title=Pitcher Johnny Sain, 89, Hurled His Way Into History |newspaper=The Washington Post |date=November 9, 2006 |access-date=June 10, 2019}}</ref><ref>''Opening Day: The Story of Jackie Robinson's First Season'', p. 57, Jonathan Eig, Simon & Schuster, 2007, New York, {{ISBN|978-0-7432-9461-4}}</ref>

In 1948, Sain won 24 games against 15 losses and finished second in the voting for the Most Valuable Player Award behind the [[St. Louis Cardinals]]' [[Stan Musial]], who had won two legs of the [[Major League Baseball Triple Crown|Triple Crown]]. Sain and teammate Spahn achieved joint immortality that year when their feats were the subject of sports editor Gerald V. Hern's poem in the ''[[Boston Post]]'' which was eventually shortened to the epigram "[[Pray for Rain (poem)|Spahn and Sain and Pray for Rain]]" According to the ''Baseball Almanac'', the original doggerel appeared in Hern's column on September 14, 1948:

<poem style="margin-left: 2em">
First we'll use Spahn
then we'll use Sain
Then an off day
followed by rain
Back will come Spahn
followed by Sain
And followed
we hope
by two days of rain.
</poem>
[[File:Johnny Sain and Warren Spahn.png|thumb|left|200px|Sain (left) with [[Warren Spahn]] in 1951.]]
The poem was inspired by the performance of Sain and Spahn during the Braves' 1948 pennant drive.  The team swept a [[Labor Day]] [[Doubleheader (baseball)|doubleheader]], with Spahn throwing a complete game 14-inning win in the opener, and Sain pitching a shutout in the second game.  Following two off days, it did rain.  Spahn won the next day, and Sain won the day after that.  Three days later, Spahn won again.  Sain won the next day.  After one more off day, the two pitchers were brought back, and won another doubleheader.  The two pitchers had gone 8–0 in twelve days' time.<ref>[http://www.baseballhistorian.com/html/american_heroes.cfm?page=57 Baseball Historian – Part of the Sports Historian Network<!-- Bot generated title -->] {{webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20081230030303/http://www.baseballhistorian.com/html/american_heroes.cfm?page=57 |date=December 30, 2008 }}</ref>

That year, the Boston Braves won their second, latter [[National League (baseball)|National League]] pennant of the post-1901 era, but fell in six games to the [[Cleveland Indians]] in the [[1948 World Series]]. Sain won the first game of the Series, a 1–0 shutout at [[Braves Field]] that included a memorable play in which Boston [[catcher]] [[Phil Masi]] was called safe after an apparent [[pickoff]] at second base. Masi went on to score the game's only run.

With the Yankees, Sain became a [[relief pitcher]] and enjoyed late-career success, leading the [[American League]] in [[save (baseball)|saves]] with 22 in 1954. He finished his career in 1955 with the [[Kansas City Athletics]].

When Sain was pitching, he thought that merely throwing the ball was not enough to get the ball to vary its course as it travelled to home plate. In order to throw a pitch such as a [[curveball]] or a [[screwball]], he had to snap his wrist.<ref>{{cite book|last1=John|first1=Tommy|last2=Valenti|first2=Dan|title=TJ: My Twenty-Six Years in Baseball|publisher=Bantam|location=New York|year=1991|isbn=0-553-07184-X|page=56}}</ref>

A very good hitting pitcher in his 11 year major league career, Sain posted a .245 [[batting average (baseball)|batting average]] with 69 [[run (baseball)|runs]], 3 [[home runs]] and 101 [[Run batted in|RBI]].

==Pitching coach==
After retiring as a player, Sain spent many years as a well-regarded and outspoken pitching coach for the [[Kansas City Athletics]], [[New York Yankees]], [[Minnesota Twins]], [[Detroit Tigers]], [[Chicago White Sox]] and [[Atlanta Braves]]. During the 1960s, Sain coached the pitchers of five of the [[American League]]'s ten pennant-winning teams.

While serving as the Yankees pitching coach, Sain picked up an apple one day and poked a broken car antenna through it. Spinning the apple, Sain came to the idea that he could do the same with a baseball by inserting a wooden rod into it, enabling him to spin the ball differently, imitating the spins used for different pitches. Sain eventually patented the idea and sold his product from his home in Arkansas.<ref name=K>{{cite book |last1=Kepner |first1=Tyler |title=K: A History of Baseball in Ten Pitches |date=2019 |publisher=Doubleday |location=New York |isbn=9780385541015 |pages=7–10 |url=https://www.penguinrandomhouse.com/books/532815/k-a-history-of-baseball-in-ten-pitches-by-tyler-kepner/}}</ref>

An independent thinker among coaches, Sain tended to be admired by his pitchers, although he battled with at least two of his managers—[[Sam Mele]] of the Twins and [[Mayo Smith]] of the Tigers—when he disagreed with them. In each case, Sain was fired, but the manager's dismissal soon followed when his pitching staff suffered from Sain's absence. Sain did not make friends among owners and [[general manager (baseball)|general managers]], either, when he would advise pitchers to "climb those golden stairs" to their teams' front offices to demand more money in salary talks. Sain was also well known for ignoring running drills most pitchers despised. He frequently told pitchers and managers "You don't run the damn ball across the plate. If running did it, they'd look for pitchers on track teams."<ref>{{cite book |last1=Bouton |first1=Jim |title=Ball Four |date=1970 |publisher=World Publishing |location=New York |isbn=0-02-030665-2 |page=[https://archive.org/details/ballfour00bout/page/122 122] |url=https://archive.org/details/ballfour00bout/page/122 }}</ref>

[[Jim Bouton]], in his book ''Ball Four'', expressed unreserved admiration for Sain, who had been his pitching tutor in New York during his first two Major League seasons, 1962 and 1963. Bouton openly wished to pitch for the 1969 Tigers in order to have yet another opportunity to benefit from Sain's coaching. Sain and Bouton were briefly reunited in the Atlanta Braves system in 1978. [[Ned Garver]] said Sain was the best pitching coach he ever encountered. "If he had an idea that he thought could be of value to you, he would tell you about it to try to help you, but by the time he finished visiting with you about it, you would think that you'd thought of it yourself," Garver described Sain's approach.<ref name="Garver">{{cite book|last1=Garver|first1=Ned|last2=Bozman|first2=Bill|last3=Joyner|first3=Ronnie|title=Touching All the Bases|publisher=Pepperpot Productions, Inc.|year=2003|asin=B00B6JBVV6|page=101}}</ref>

[[Tommy John]], on the other hand, had trouble working with Sain, who kept trying to get the pitcher to throw a slider, a pitch which always gave John trouble. "Sain could show you how to throw any pitch in the book, but he couldn't look at your motion and tell if your mechanics were off," recalled John. "For a sinkerballer [which John was], that spells trouble."<ref>John and Valenti, p. 119</ref><ref name="SABR">{{cite web|last=Fallon|first=Michael|url=https://sabr.org/bioproj/person/cb280268|title=Tommy John|work=SABR|access-date=March 31, 2020}}</ref>

Pitchers who won 20 or more games under Sain's coaching include [[Jim Kaat]], [[Whitey Ford]], [[Mudcat Grant]], [[Denny McLain]], [[Jim Bouton]], [[Al Downing (baseball)|Al Downing]], [[Jim Perry (baseball)|Jim Perry]], [[Wilbur Wood]], and [[Stan Bahnsen]].<ref name=K/>

==Personal life==

Sain was married twice.  His first wife was Doris May McBride of Dallas.  They were married on October 1, 1945 and had four children: John Jr., Sharyl, Ronda and Randy.  The couple divorced in 1970.  Sain's second wife was Mary Ann Zaremba, whom he married on August 24, 1972.  They had no children together.  Sain was disabled by a stroke in 2002.  He died at age 89 in [[Downers Grove, Illinois]], on November 7, 2006.  At the time of his death, Sain had 11 grandchildren.<ref>[https://www.nytimes.com/2006/11/09/sports/baseball/09sain.html Johnny Sain, 89, Who Inspired Baseball Rhyme, Dies]</ref>

==See also==
{{Portal|Biography|Baseball}}
* [[List of Major League Baseball annual saves leaders]]
* [[List of Major League Baseball annual wins leaders]]
* [[Sporting News Pitcher of the Year Award|Pitcher of the Year Award]]

== References ==
{{Reflist}}

==External links==
{{Commons category}}
{{Baseballstats |mlb=121623 |espn= |br=s/sainjo01 |fangraphs=|brm=sain--001joh |retro=Psainj101 }}
*{{sabrbio|johnny-sain}}
*{{Find a Grave}}

{{s-start}}
{{s-sports}}
{{succession box | title=[[Kansas City Athletics]] [[coach (baseball)|Pitching Coach]] | before=[[Spud Chandler]] | years=1959| after= [[Freddie Fitzsimmons]]}}
{{succession box | title=[[New York Yankees]] [[coach (baseball)|Pitching Coach]] | before=[[Eddie Lopat]] | years=1961–1963| after= [[Whitey Ford]]}}
{{succession box | title=[[Minnesota Twins]] [[coach (baseball)|Pitching Coach]] | before=[[Gordon Maltzberger]] | years=1965–1966| after= [[Early Wynn]]}}
{{succession box | title=[[Detroit Tigers]] [[coach (baseball)|Pitching Coach]] | before=[[Stubby Overmire]] | years=1967–1969| after= [[Mike Roarke]]}}
{{succession box | title=[[Chicago White Sox]] [[coach (baseball)|Pitching Coach]] | before=[[Hugh Mulcahy]] | years=1971–1975| after= [[Ken Silvestri]]}}
{{succession box | title=[[Atlanta Braves]] [[coach (baseball)|Pitching Coach]] | before=[[Herm Starrette]]<br>[[Rube Walker]] | years=1977<br>1985–1986| after= [[Cloyd Boyer]]<br>[[Bruce Dal Canton]]}}
{{s-end}}

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{{Braves Hall of Fame}}
{{NL wins champions}}
{{Sporting News NL Pitcher of the Year Award}}
{{Willie, Mickey and the Duke Award}}
}}

{{DEFAULTSORT:Sain, Johnny}}
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