After a number of closely contested voting rounds, this week voters strongly embraced Warren Spahn from the outset and put him on 54 ballots, the most for any candidate in a single round since Mantle and Mays in the 1931 voting. Spahn becomes the 62nd inductee in the High Heat Stats Circle of Greats. More on Warren and the voting, after the jump.

Through 60 rounds of voting, we had inducted only three left-handed pitchers: Steve Carlton, Tom Glavine and Randy Johnson. Now we’ve elected two in two rounds, Sandy Koufax and Spahn. In the world of traditional statistics, Warren Spahn is perhaps best known for having the most career Wins, by a wide margin, of any lefty pitcher in major league history.

Most Regular Season Wins By A Left-handed Pitcher
1. Warren Spahn 363
2. Steve Carlton 329
3. Eddie Plank 326
4. Tom Glavine 305
5. Randy Johnson 303

But forget the left-handed aspect for a moment, and consider who has the most regular seasons Wins over the last 100 seasons, among all pitchers, regardless of pitching hand:

1. Warren Spahn 363
2. Greg Maddux 355
3. Roger Clemens 354
4. Steve Carlton 329
T5. Nolan Ryan and Don Sutton 324

Using more sabermetrically sophisticated stats, Spahn’s numbers are not quite that dominant, but they are still extremely impressive. For example:

Most Pitching Wins Above Replacement (“WAR”, baseball-reference version) in the Majors From 1930 Through 1980
1. Warren Spahn 92.6
2. Tom Seaver 89.0
3. Gaylord Perry 88.8
4. Robin Roberts 83.1
5. Phil Niekro 82.7

And to think Spahn didn’t generate his first positive WAR until his age 25 season:

Most Pitching WAR in NL History, Age 25 Season And After
1. Grover Cleveland Alexander 108.6
2. Warren Spahn 93.2
3. Greg Maddux 90.8
4. Phil Niekro 90.0
5. Cy Young 89.4

Spahn didn’t get into positive WAR territory until he was 25 because he spent his early twenties in the military during World War II, including action under fire in Europe. Many sources report that Spahn was awarded a Bronze Star for his service in battle. For example, both his write-up on the Hall of Fame web site and his obituary in the New York Times refer to his having received the Bronze Star. But Spahn filed, and won, a lawsuit, which at one point made it all the way to the U.S. Supreme Court, in which Spahn argued among other things, that he had not been awarded a Bronze Star. The suit, which was brought against the author and publisher of “The Warren Spahn Story”, with Spahn claiming the book had exaggerated his wartime heroism, is to this day an important precedent for the principle that you can sue for the publication of false information that you find embarrassing even if that information actually puts you in a good light. The trial court judge in the case found that Spahn had not in fact been awarded the Bronze Star, and that “The Warren Spahn Story” had been incorrect when it claimed that he had. Odd then, how the Hall of Fame and the New York Times, among others (including the Army Corps of Engineers website), could get this wrong.

One more Warren Spahn oddity: Although Spahn led the NL eight times (!!) in Wins, not once did he lead his league in pitching WAR. He was second in the league four times: in 1947, he was second (by a tiny fraction) to Ewell Blackwell and in the three seasons from 1951 through 1953 he was second to Robin Roberts in pitching WAR each time.

Most Career Pitching WAR By a Pitcher With No Seasons Leading His League:
1. Warren Spahn 92.6
2. Eddie Plank 86.5
3. Nolan Ryan 83.8
4. Curt Schilling 80.7
5. Don Sutton 68.7

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Notes on the 1921 round:

–The large number of holdovers on this ballot, combined with several viable newcomers and the popular Spahn soaking up many votes, made for a highly contested, and fateful, election on the lower end of the ballot. Two holdovers on the bubble, Richie Ashburn and Larry Doby, fell below the 10% level of support and thus drop off the main ballot. One of the newcomers, Hal Newhouser, fell a single vote short of the 10% level, so Hal, like Ashburn and Doby, will now need to go the redemption round route to get back to the main balloting.

–Voters submitted exactly 70 ballots, so 7 votes was just enough to survive for guys on the bubble. Harmon Killebrew made it through to the next ballot with just that bare minimum. A single additional ballot cast, without Harmon’s name on it, would have sent Killebrew off with Ashburn and Doby. Craig Biggio also received 7 votes, which allowed him to barely retain all three of his current rounds of protected eligibility.

–In addition to Spahn, the 1921 birth year brought us Roy Campanella, who received solid support — appearing on 20% of the ballots, impressive given the crowded ballot and enough for the third most votes this round, behind Spahn and Willie McCovey. No one but Spahn reached the 25% support level this round, as votes on this big ballot were widely spread.

–All three of the guys who returned to the main ballot this round via last week’s Redemption Round, Roberto Alomar, Kevin Brown and Dennis Eckersley, garnered enough votes to hang on for at least another round. Brown and Eckersley each got more votes this round than had gotten in any round in their previous appearances on the main ballot. Eck was previously on for only two rounds, receiving 6 votes once and three the next — this time he got 8 votes. Brown previously had 5 votes and three votes, dropped off, was redeemed, got 9 votes, 7 votes and 7 votes and fell off again. This round he appeared on 12 ballots.

–While Doby and Ashburn now drop off, the addition of Campanella means we will only see a net reduction of one in our long holdover list, from 15 down to 14, for the next round — which may mean another tough battle for votes at the lower end in the upcoming round.

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The full spreadsheet showing this round’s vote tally is here: COG 1921 Vote Tally.

The vote summary for recent Circle of Greats voting rounds is here: COG Vote Summary 2 .  An archive with fuller details of the 1968 through 1939 rounds is here: COG 1968-1939 Vote Summary .  In both cases, raw vote totals for each past round appears on Sheet 1 and the percentage totals for each past round appears on Sheet 2.

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A spreadsheet listing the full membership to date of the Circle of Greats is here: Circle of Greats Membership . You can also now find that same link any time by clicking on “Circle of Greats” at the top of the High Heats Stats home page.