On September 14, 1948, in the midst of a pennant race, the Boston Post publishes a four-line poem by Gerry Hern calling on pitchers Warren Spahn and Johnny Sain to bear the pitching burden, resting on off days and – if luck is with the Braves – when it rains. The rhyme is shortened by Braves fans to “Spahn and Sain and pray for rain.”
Boston Post (09-14-1948)
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.
Warren Spahn once commented, “Guys who were kids forty years ago learned it as a nursery rhyme. Now they meet me and say, ‘Oh, you’re that Spahn.'”
Why did Gerald Hern write the poem? He had heard Billy Southworth, manager of the Boston Braves, say, “From here on I will rotate my pitching staff. Spahn one day, Sain the next.”
They two immortalized teammates were on the team together they combined to win two-hundred twelve games.
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