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. While still in school Jansen started his baseball career playing semi-pro ball. In 1940 Jansen was discovered by a scout and started playing for the Salt Lake City Bees, a Class C club at that time. Jansen married the former Eileen Vandehey that year, and they had 10 children. In 1941, he started playing for the San Francisco Seals in the Pacific Coast League, but in 1943, given the choice between being drafted to fight in World War II or taking a deferment to work on the family dairy farm back in Oregon, he chose the latter. He played semi-pro ball there part-time and returned to the Seals late in the 1945 season.\n', '

Breaking in as a 27-year old rookie, Jansen became a key member of the New York Giants\' starting rotation from 1947 to 1953, twice winning more than 20 games. He was purchased from the AAA San Francisco Seals after leading the Pacific Coast League in wins (30), earned run average (1.57) and winning percentage (.833) in 1946. In his rookie major league season in 1947, Jansen won 21 of 26 decisions, leading the National League in winning percentage (.808), and finished second in the voting for Rookie of the Year behind the Brooklyn Dodgers\' Jackie Robinson.\n', '

He pitched five innings of one-hit scoreless baseball in the 1950 All-Star Game, which lasted 14 innings.\n', '

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