Now I know what my dad was thinking all those years.

Growing up as a Yankees fan (I've since recanted) I could never understand his fascination with Warren Spahn.

In my father's world, pitching wisdom and excellence began and ended with the Braves lefty. My value system, of course, rated Whitey Ford higher.

So, today I'd planned to thunder away about the woes caused by baseball's mini-strike zone. I went off in search of a WarrenSpahn quote on the matter to support me. I never got back on track.

There was just far too much Warren Spahn to ignore. Warren Spahn, the soldier, was fascinating.

"Hell, in the Bulge they were running out of officers," he told author Roger Kahn in 2003 while discussing his battlefield commission. "After you've tried to sleep in frozen tank ruts within the range of Nazi guns, every day you get to play baseball is a breeze."

Warren Spahn, the pitcher, was transfixing.

"Home plate is 17 inches wide, but I ignore the middle 12 inches," he was quoted as saying. "I pitch to the two-and-a-half inches on each side."

Warren Spahn, the crusty old-timer, could be spellbinding.

"Some non-pitcher came up with the idea pitchers should go out there every fifth day instead of every fourth," Spahn told reporter JimThielman long after his retirement. "… Ijust think some of these people are trying to put baseball into a test tube and make a name for themselves."

Truly, baseball lost a treasure when Spahn died in 2003 at 82 years of age.

Heck, there was a time when it appeared "The Invincible One" might well be pitching at age 82. He won 202 games in his 30s and 75 more in his 40s. After the age of 35, he had eight seasons of 30 or more starts, pitched at least 250 innings seven times and threw two no-hitters.

While playing, Hall of Fame great Stan Musial reportedly once mused that Spahn would never be enshrined at Cooperstown.

"I don't think he will ever get into the Hall of Fame," Musial was quoted as saying. "He'll never stop pitching."

It seemed that way because Spahn made the transition from fastballer to cunning pitcher so smoothly.

From 1949 through 1952 he led the National League in strikeouts, a feat he would never again perform. Yet his effectiveness never diminished. By incorporating a slider and screwball into his repertoire as he aged, Spahn remained one tough cookie. For 18 straight seasons his WHIPremained 1.28 or under and in 17 of those seasons it was 1.25 or better.

The Braves ace, hardly imposing at 6-foot and 175 pounds, was never afraid to take the ball. He won 14 or more games from 1947 through 1963, thirteen times reaching the 20-win mark.

During that same 17-season span he went to the hill for 250 or more innings - except once.

After eight straight seasons of 250-plus innings he took a vacation in 1955, pitching a mere 2452/3 frames. Then he resumed his workhorse load for eight more years.

The rhyme "Spahn and Sain and pray for rain," penned during the 1948 National League pennant race, testified to his durability.

Perhaps Spahn's greatest display of stamina came in 1963, when he was on the way to 23 wins at age 42. He lost 1-0 to the Giants in a four-hour, 16-inning marathon in which he and mound opponent Juan Marichal went the distance. Spahn threw 201 pitches that night Marichal 227.

Hall of fame left-hander Carl Hubbell, who attended the game, responded "(Spahn) ought to will his body to medical science."

Spahn signed with the BostonBraves in 1940 at age 19 and went 41-22 in three minor league seasons. He pitched 152/3 innings for the Braves in April of 1942, was demoted to Hartford, Mass., of Class A, and enlisted in the Army.

He fought in Europe, was wounded and decorated with a Bronze Star in the Battle of the Bulge. He earned a battlefield commission and didn't return to baseball until 1945.

Spahn finally won his first big league game at age 25 in 1946 and was on his way to a 363-245 record. He started 665 big league games (31.7 per season), hurled 382 complete games (18.2 per season) and pitched 63 shutouts.

Through it all, he never overlooked his good fortune.

"Iloved the game, and I loved being around it," he told Thielman. "WhenI got back from the service, God what a great way to make a living. No one was going to shoot me. If I got dirty, Icould take a shower and put on clean clothes. The world had a rosy glow."

To Johnny Podres, the late long-time pitcher and pitching coach, watching Spahn pitch was like attending a clinic.

"He was a master of his trade," Podres told author Donald Honig. "Icouldn't take my eyes off him. Watching him was an education."

Whitlow Wyatt, Spahn's pitching coach in Milwaukee, had a similar viewpoint: "He makes my job easy. Every pitch he throws has an idea behind it."

Some more vintage baseball - and life - attributed to Warren Edward Spahn:

n NO-HITTERS:"No-hitters aren't that much fun," he said to Thielman. "Every pitch you make can blow it, and you go out there in the ninth inning and look around and all the infielders are scared because they're afraid they're going to screw it up."

n ARMPROBLEMS:"A sore arm is like a headache or a toothache. It can make you feel bad, but if you just forget about it and do what you have to do it will go go away. If you really like to pitch and want to pitch, that's what you'll do."

n THE20THWIN:"The difference between winning 19 games and winning 20 for a pitcher is bigger than anyone out of baseball realizes. It's the same for hitters - someone who hits .300 looks back on the guy who batted .295 and says 'tough luck, buddy.'"

n STANMUSIAL: "Once he timed your fastball, your infielders were in jeopardy."

n MUSIAL,AGAIN:"Musial was the hardest man to fool," Spahn said. "He had an average of .314 against me, but I never brooded when Stan hit me. The time to worry was when some .250 hitter knocked my cap off with a line drive."

n WORLDWARII:"People say my absence from the big leagues may have cost me a chance to win 400 games. But I don't know about that. Imatured a lot in three years, and I think I was better equipped to handle major league hitters at 25 than I was at 22. Also, I pitched until I was 44. Maybe I wouldn't have been able to do that otherwise."

n MILITARYSERVICE:"After what I went through overseas, I never thought of anything Iwas told to do in baseball as hard work. … The Army taught me something about challenges and about what's important and what isn't. Everything I tackle in baseball and in life Itake as a challenge rather than work."

n APITCHER'SMIND:"Hitting is timing.Pitching is upsetting timing."

n DEFENSE:When I throw a ground ball, I expect it to be an out, maybe two."

n HITTERS:"What is life, after all, but a challenge? And what better challenge can there be than the one between the pitcher and the hitter."

(Steve Thomas is a Tribune sportswriter)