If Brown Is Spahn, Contract Isn’t Insane

I do not want to condone the wisdom of signing any professional player to a seven-year contract. I do take exception to David Goodman’s letter [Dec. 26] in which he listed what he called the “most dominant pitchers of the past half-century.� He omitted a Hall of Fame pitcher who won 363 games during his career and remains the winningest left-handed pitcher in the history of the game.

Warren Spahn turned 34 on April 23, 1955, and during the next nine years he won 184 games. He won 20 or more games in seven of those years while he pitched an average of 273 innings per year and carried an earned-run average of slightly less than 3.00. He led the league in wins five times, complete games six times, innings pitched twice during those nine years. He won 20 or more games 13 times during his career and any mention of great or “dominant� pitchers which doesn’t have Warren Spahn as one of the best is not a valid list.

If Kevin Brown can be as good as Spahn was, maybe it will be a good deal for the Dodgers; but Warren Spahn is a tough act to follow.

MAURY BERNSEN, Long Beach

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I just read that 326 major leaguers made $1 million or more last season.

Wouldn’t it be more manageable to cite the number of non-millionaire ballplayers?

ANDREW J. BYRNE, Alhambra