Larry Jansen

American baseball player

Lawrence Joseph Jansen (July 16, 1920 – October 10, 2009) was an American right handed pitcher and coach in Major League Baseball. A native of Oregon, he played minor league baseball in the early 1940s before starting his Major League career in 1947 with the New York Giants. Jansen played nine seasons in the big leagues, and was twice an All Star, winning 122 games in all. He later coached in the Major Leagues and minor leagues. Jansen is a member of the Oregon Sports Hall of Fame and the Pacific Coast League Hall of Fame.

Lawrence Jansen was born in Verboort, Oregon, on July 16, 1920. He was raised in the community of Verboort located near Forest Grove in Washington County where he graduated from Verboort High School in 1938. Jansen remained as pitching coach for eleven seasons, and helped to develop future Hall of Famers Juan Marichal and Gaylord Perry. During his tenure, the Giants made appearances in the 1962 World Series and 1971 National League Championship Series. He then moved on to his final MLB coaching job, handling pitchers for the Chicago Cubs in –73, working for his old Giants manager, Leo Durocher, and then former teammate Whitey Lockman.

In retirement, Larry Jansen (along with his co author, George Jansen MD and illustrator Karl van Loo) left behind in book form his accumulated wisdom on every aspect of pitching in professional baseball: The Craft of Pitching (Masters Press, 1977). Previously, Jansen had contributed a section on pitching in The Sporting News 1951 publication How to Play Baseball. Besides Jansen, the publication had other authors on specific topics: "Catching by Ray Schalk; Batting by Rogers Hornsby; Base Running by Bernie DeViveiros; First Base by George Sisler; Second Base by Rogers Hornsby; Shortstop by Honus Wagner; Third Base by George Kell; Outfield by Joe DiMaggio; and How to Umpire by George Barr."

Jansen was inducted into the Oregon Sports Hall of Fame in 1980. Sports Illustrated selected Jansen as one of Oregon's Fifty Greatest Athletes in 2004.

After retiring from baseball, he returned to his hometown Verboort, Oregon, where he sold real estate and lived the remainder of his life in the house he had built in 1951. Lawrence Jansen died in his sleep in Verboort at the age of 89 on October 10, 2009. The cause of death was congestive heart failure and pneumonia. Jansen was survived by his wife Eileen, their ten children and their families.