The Oklahoma Sports Museum honors the best left-handed pitcher in Major League baseball each year by presenting them with the Warren Spahn Award. "This year we are pleased to remind fans of the legendary accomplishments of Oklahoman Warren Spahn by honoring the most dominant pitcher in baseball," said Richard Hendricks, OSM president. "Spahn pitched some dominant World Series wins against the New York Yankees. (Randy) Johnson pitched a dominant World Series in 2001 and won his first mythical pitching Triple Crown this past year."
Since the award's inception in 1999 to honor the legacy of Oklahoman Warren Spahn, who is the winningest lefty ever, it has been dominated by one particular left-handed "Unit", but in 2003 a new southpaw is king. The recipients of the Warren Spahn Award appear below, in chronological order, as researched by Baseball Almanac.
"Randy Johnson and Warren Spahn are left-handers forever linked by their pitching prowess and epic numbers." - Bloom, Barry. Miami Herald Sportswriter. Meet The Press. 2 January 2003.
The actual award given to the winner is a 2-foot-2 bronze statue of Warren Spahn in his famous high kicking windup that has an estimated value of $10,000. When Randy Johnson won the award in 1999, he mentioned to the media that the photos did not do the beautiful award justice.
Do you agree with the selections — was Blake Snell truly the BEST lefty in 2023? Was The Big Unit the BEST left-handed pitcher in ALL of Major League Baseball from 1999 through 2002? Tell us on our Baseball Almanac Facebook Group, on Baseball Almanac Twitter, via Baseball Almanac Messenger, or our baseball forum — Baseball Fever.
In 2002, Randy Johnson completed the pitcher's Triple Crown (led his league in wins, earned run average, and strikeouts) and became the first National League pitcher to do that since since Dwight Gooden did it in 1985.