Total Baseball (1994 Edition)/Total_Baseball_1994_Edition_Creative_Multimedia_1994.iso/dp/0003/00031.txt

Text File | 1994-02-16 | 32KB | 539 lines

$Unique_ID{BAS00031}
$Title{Lives of the Players:  G}
$Author{}
$Subject{Galvin Gehrig Gehringer Gibson Giles Gomez Goslin Gossage Gowdy
Greenberg Greenlee Grich Griffith Grimes Groh Grove Guidry}
$Log{
Pud Galvin*0023101.scf
Lou Gehrig*0023301.scf
Charlie Gehringer*0023401.scf
Bob "Hoot" Gibson*0023601.scf
Josh Gibson*0023701.scf
Lefty Gomez*0024201.scf
Joe Gordon*0024401.scf
Henry Gowdy*0024701.scf
Hank Greenberg*0025001.scf
Bobby Grich*0025301.scf
Burleigh Grimes*0025101.scf
Lefty Grove*0025601.scf
Ron Guidry*0025701.scf}

Total Baseball:  The Players


Lives of the Players:  G


Jim "Pud" Galvin
Pitcher, StL (NA) 1875, Buf (N) 1879-85, Pit (AA) 1885-86, Pit (N) 1887-89,
1891-92, Pit (P) 1890, StL (N) 1892.  Manager, Buf (N) 1885

Supposedly Galvin picked up the nickname "Pud" for making "pudding" out of
batters.  On the other hand, the five-eight pitcher checked in at 190 pounds
at his lightest and once ballooned to 320.  When he ran, what did he jiggle
like a bowl of?
     He was the greatest fat pitcher, and the hardest-working.  In the early
1880s, when pound-for-pound Galvin was as good as any pitcher around, slabmen
threw underhand from a shorter distance.  Usually two pitchers worked every
other game, and regulars always had high numbers.  But Galvin was ridiculous.
     One year he pitched 656 innings, the next year 636.  He had one
593-inning season and six more over 400.  He was effective, too.  Although his
teams ran from fair to rotten, he had two seasons with 46 wins, one with 37,
and seven years with from 20 to 29.  He pitched 2 no-hitters and 57 shutouts.
He walked almost no one--1.13 per nine innings.  And he had the greatest
pick-off move of his day--once nailing three baserunners in the same inning!
     In fourteen seasons, he won 361 games to rank sixth all-time.  His 307
losses are the second-most ever.  He's also second all-time in innings pitched
(5,941) and complete games (639).
     A placid, gentle man, Galvin opened a saloon in Pittsburgh after he
retired from baseball.  Reportedly the place was always packed, but he went
broke anyway.  Then the nine bartenders he'd hired each opened a bar.
     In 1965 he was named to the Hall of Fame.


Lou Gehrig
First Baseman, NY (A) 1923-39

Gehrig played in the shadow of Ruth and, later, DiMaggio.  He played in an era
of great first basemen--Foxx, Mize, Greenberg, and Terry.  He also played a
record 2,130 straight games, and became in his quiet way perhaps the best
first baseman ever.  They called him "The Iron Horse"; he hauled the Yankees
to seven pennants.
     "I'm not a headline guy," Lou said.  When he hit .545 in the 1928 World
Series, Ruth hit .625.  When Gehrig hit a home run in the 1932 Series, Ruth
had just hit his "called shot" homer ahead of him.  When Lou slugged 4 home
runs in one game, John McGraw retired the same day to steal the headlines.
     When Gehrig was voted MVP in 1927, he was paid $6,000.  Ruth got
$80,000.  That was the year Babe hit 60 homers to 47 for Lou.
     But Lou set some marks even Babe couldn't touch--184 RBIs in 1931. That
year Lou produced 301 runs (runs scored plus RBIs, minus home runs), the
all-time record.  His 23 grand slams are also a record.  In the 1932 World
Series, Lou was truly Ruthian.  In four games he hit 3 home runs, batted
.529, and knocked in a four-game record eight runs.
     Before Lou's death at the age of thirty-seven, he had hit 493 homers,
then the third-highest ever, behind Ruth and Foxx.  Some old-timers say
Gehrig hit the ball as hard as they did, but he hit it on a line with
overspin; they lifted it into the air for greater distance. Gehrig had 1,991
RBIs, third behind Ruth and Aaron.  Of course, Babe was on base to score a lot
of those runs.  On the other hand, Gehrig often came up with the bases empty
after Babe had cleared them.  Yankee Stadium didn't help him--he actually hit
better on the road.  He led the AL in RBIs five times. Gehrig won the Triple
Crown in 1934 (.363, 49 homers, 165 RBIs) but finished only fifth in the MVP
voting.  He won the award in 1936 with 49 home runs, 167 runs scored, and 152
RBIs. In 1939 Gehrig finally took himself out of the lineup.  With death
approaching, he told sixty-one thousand fans in Yankee Stadium, "I consider
myself the luckiest man on the face of the earth." The normal waiting period
was waived and he was elected to the Baseball Hall of Fame in 1939.


Charlie Gehringer
Second Baseman, Det (A) 1924-42

A lefthanded hitter, Gehringer slapped hits to all fields.  He made 2,839 base
hits over nineteen years, including 184 home runs, 146 triples, and--tenth
all-time--574 doubles.  He topped .300 in thirteen of his sixteen full
seasons, led the AL with a .371 mark in 1937 to earn MVP honors, drove in
100-plus runs seven times and 1,427 for his career.
     In the field his hallmarks were grace and efficiency.  He made even the
hardest plays look easy.  Seven times he led AL second basemen in assists,
nine times in fielding average.
     He was tough in World Series play.  His home run in the fifth game in
1934 beat Dizzy Dean of the Cardinals.  A year later he singled in the ninth
against the Cubs and scored the winning run that gave Detroit the
championship.
     But he hardly ever showed emotion or said anything about anything.
Reporters liked to quote him--". . ."  They called him the "Mechanical Man."
He was as colorful as a glass of water.
     He was elected to the Baseball Hall of Fame in 1949.


Bob "Hoot" Gibson
Pitcher, StL (N) 1959-75

In 1968 Gibson registered the lowest ERA in NL history, 1.12; hurled 13
shutouts, second-best in NL annals; went 22-9; and then fanned a record 35 in
the World Series, including 17 in one game to shut out the Tigers and 31-game
winner Denny McLain.  It was a pitcher's year, but wow!
     A fire-breathing, flame-throwing competitor, Bob was the best righthanded
pitcher of the power-pitching 1960s.  He won two Cy Youngs and one MVP.
     In three World Series Bob was 7-2, had a 1.89 ERA, and struck out 92 men
in 81 innings.  In his first Series, against the Yanks in 1964, he lost the
second game, then came back to win games Five and Seven.  Three years later,
1967, Gibson broke his leg in midseason but threw away his crutches to win 3
against Boston that fall, a six-hitter, a five-hitter, and a three-hitter, in
that order.
     The broken leg in 1967 came after two 20-win seasons and before three
more 20-win years.  He also won 19 twice.  In 1971 he threw a no-hitter
against Pittsburgh, the world champions that year.  When Gibson retired, he
was the winningest pitcher in St Louis history (251-174) and second all-time
in strikeouts (3,117).
     Immensely intimidating on the mound, Bob put every ounce of power into
his pitches--primarily a fastball and slider.  He had a reputation as a
headhunter, but insists he "hardly ever threw at a batter."  Nevertheless, he
has been heard to admit, "When I did, I hit 'em."
     He was elected to the Baseball Hall of Fame in 1981.


Josh Gibson
Catcher, Negro Leagues, 1930-46, Homestead Grays, Pittsburgh Crawfords

"There is a catcher," said Walter Johnson, the Hall of Fame pitcher, "that any
big league club would like to buy for $200,000.  His name is Gibson.  He can
do everything.  He hits the ball a mile, catches so easily he might as well be
in a rocking chair, throws like a bullet.  Bill Dickey isn't as good a
catcher. Too bad this Gibson is a colored fellow."
     Because black players were barred from the white major leagues during
Gibson's time, there is no way to know for certain that he was the best
catcher of all time.  He may have been only one of the half dozen best.  No
lower ranking seems possible for the man they called "the Black Babe Ruth."
     Actually accounts of his catching skills vary.  Some say he was a little
weak on pop fouls, but everyone agrees he had a good arm.
     There's no dispute about his hitting.  It was magnificent.  The
barrel-chested, 215-pound slugger hit home runs of tremendous length.  One was
measured with a tape at 575 feet, but it may not have been his longest.  He
also hit them often.  One estimate, including barnstorming, Mexican League,
Caribbean, and semipro games, puts his total at about 950.  In Negro League
and semi-pro games he was credited with 75 homers in 1931 and 69 in 1934.  His
batting average for seventeen years with the Homestead Grays and Pittsburgh
Crawfords was over .350.  He topped .400 at least twice.  Combining with Buck
Leonard in a "Ruth-Gehrig" tandem, Gibson led the Grays to nine straight
pennants (1937-1945).
     A warm, fun-loving man, Gibson was popular everywhere he played and, next
to Satchel Paige, the Negro Leagues' greatest drawing card.  For a time, he
and Paige were battery mates.
     Gibson was thirty-three years old when Jackie Robinson signed to play for
the Dodgers.  Reportedly he was bitter at having been passed over.  Many
believe he would have been signed by a white major league team in 1947, but he
died of a brain hemorrhage in January of that year.
     In 1972 he became the second Negro League player elected to the Hall of
Fame.


Warren Giles
National League President, 1951-69

Wounded as a lieutenant in World War One, Giles was elected president of the
Moline (Illinois) team in the Three-I League in 1919, to start a baseball
career that spanned fifty years.  He helped Branch Rickey build the Cardinals'
farm system into baseball's best.  In 1937 he took over as general manager of
the last-place Cincinnati Reds.  Two years later he had them in the World
Series.  In 1940 they were world champions.
     As NL president, Giles oversaw league expansion to the West Coast, the
attendance boom that followed the Vietnam War, and the battles with the
players' union.
     He was elected to the Hall of Fame in 1979.


Vernon "Lefty" Gomez
Pitcher, NY (A) 1930-42, Was (A) 1943

"Goofy" Gomez, inventor of the revolving goldfish bowl for tired goldfish, is
one of the wittiest men ever to pitch a baseball.  He entertained his
teammates with his antics and one-liners.  And sometimes--when he wasn't
pitching--drew a smile from the opposition.  His credo was "I'd rather be
lucky than good." Actually he was both.
     He was lucky to pitch for powerful Yankees' teams of the 1930s.  They
gave him baseball's most consistent support with their bats and gloves and
enabled him to pitch in five World Series.  And he was lucky to pitch half the
time in Yankee Stadium, where "Death Valley" in the left field power alley
swallowed up long drives from righthanded hitters.
     But he was good too--one of the best lefthanders of the century.  He won
20 games four times, including a sensational 26-5 year in 1934.  He led the AL
in strikeouts three times, with a top mark of 194 in 1938.  He won 189 and
lost 102.  And in five World Series, he won six without a single loss.
     He took his pitching seriously, but he had the ability to laugh at
himself.  He said the secret of his success was "clean living and a fast
outfield--I'm the guy who made Joe DiMaggio famous."
     Gomez was elected to the Hall of Fame in 1972.


Joe Gordon
Second Baseman, NY (A) 1938-43, 1946, Cle (A) 1947-50.  Manager,
Cle (A) 1958-60, Det (A) 1960, KC (A) 1961, 1969

Anyone with Gordon's surname is likely to be nicknamed "Flash," but Joe lived
up to the label with his acrobatic defensive skills.  He ranged over the
Yankee infield, making plays that other second basemen dream about.  One game
he made eleven assists.  He was at the head of AL second sackers in assists
four times.  Of course, the flip side was that in getting to balls others
couldn't, he sometimes fumbled them.  He led or tied in errors four times too.
It was worth the price.  In the first six years he cavorted at second base for
the Yankees, they went to five World Series.
     He seldom hit for average, but he had home run power.  The one year he
topped .300--.322 in 1942--he was named AL MVP.  After he returned from
military service, he struggled though a .210 season, and the Yankees, figuring
he was washed up, dealt him to Cleveland.  There he combined with Lou Boudreau
to form what many still consider the most deadly double-play combination ever.
     In 1948 he had his greatest season, batting .280, with 32 homers and 124
RBIs, as the Indians won the world championship.  He completed his career with
253 home runs and 975 RBIs.


Leon "Goose" Goslin
Outfield, Was (A) 1921-30, 1933, 1938, StL (A) 1930-32, Det (A) 1934-37

Except for the years Ted Williams managed the team, Goslin was the best hitter
ever to wear a Washington uniform.  He was with the Senators for all of the
1920s and looked in on them twice in the 1930s, slumming.  The Senators were a
pretty terrible team through most of their stay in the AL.  Everybody knows
the line:  "Washington:  first in war, first in peace, and last in the
American League."  But actually they weren't so awful when Goslin was with
them; they won three pennants, the only ones they'd ever win.
     Goslin showed up at the end of the 1921 season, and by the next year he
was a fixture in left field.  "Fixture" is a little harsh.  He was neither the
worst nor the slowest outfielder in the AL, just sort of lumbering.
     But when he had the lumber in his hands, he was a star.  He hit .300 or
over in his first seven full years as a Senator.  In 1924 he led the AL in
RBIs with 129, hit .344 and knocked 12 homers, which was a fair number for
anyone playing half his games in cavernous Griffith Stadium.  The Senators won
their first pennant and only World Series, as Goslin at one point set a record
with 6 consecutive hits.  The next year the Senators won their second pennant,
as Goslin led the AL in triples, while hitting .334 with 18 homers and 113
RBIs.  He hit .354 and .334 in the next two seasons, then topped the AL in
1928 with a .379 mark in the closest batting race in AL history; Goose singled
in his last at-bat of the season to edge Heinie Manush by .001.
     He hurt his arm horsing around in 1929, and for a time it looked like
curtains.  The Senators dealt him to the Browns ("St. Louis:  Gateway to the
West and to the bottom of the American League") and his arm came back.  After
a couple of good years in St. Louis (the Brownies even finished fifth in
1931), he was sent back to Washington with thanks in 1933.  And darned if the
Senators didn't win their third and last-ever pennant that year!
     Next, it was off to Detroit for Goose and pennants in 1934 and 1935,
something they hadn't seen in Detroit since 1909.
     Goslin finished up with a career batting average of .316 and 248 home
runs, but his best thing was batting in runs--1,609.
     He was elected to the Hall of Fame in 1968.


Rich "Goose" Gossage
Pitcher, Chi (A) 1972-76, Pit (N) 1977, NY (A) 1978-83, 1989, SD (N) 1984-87,
Chi (N) 1988, SF (N) 1989, NY (A) 1989, Tex (A) 1991, Oak (A) 1992-

In his heyday, 1975-86, the big, mustachioed Goose glowered at the hitters,
then blew his fastball by them. He didn't have a whole lot more than heat and
intimidation, but for an inning or two he was devastating. He led the AL in
saves with the fifth-place White Sox in 1975. The next year, desperate for
starters, the Sox put him into the rotation. He struggled to 9-17 and was
traded to Pittsburgh. Returned to his natural habitat, the bullpen, he saved
26, won 11, and set an NL record for relievers with 151 strikeouts.
     In 1978 Goose signed with the Yankees as a free agent. He led the AL
with 27 saves and won 10 as New York caught Boston on the last day of the
season and then won the pennant in a playoff. Gossage spent six seasons in
New York, earning a reputation as one of the top relievers in the game. In
1984 he moved again as a free agent, this time to San Diego, where he helped
the Padres to their first pennant.


Hank Gowdy
Catcher, NY (N) 1910-11, 1923-25, Bos (N) 1911-17, 1919-23, 1929-30

A quality catcher and fair hitter.  Gowdy was the first major league player to
enter military service in World War One.  He was the regular receiver for the
"Miracle Braves" of 1914.  In the four-game World Series sweep over the A's,
he hit .545, with three doubles, a triple, and a home run.
     Ten years later, catching for the Giants in the 1924 Series, he was a
goat in the final game.  Hank tripped over his face mask on an easy pop foul
by Muddy Ruel, who then doubled and scored the winning run.


Hank Greenberg
First Baseman, Det (A) 1930, 1933-41, 1945-46, Pit (N) 1947

One of the most fearsome home run hitters of all time, Greenberg played only
nine full seasons, yet amassed 331 homers and 1,276 RBIs.  Although he was an
impressive six-four and 210 pounds, his success stemmed more from hard work
than natural gifts.  Thought too tall and awkward to play baseball, he applied
himself with diligence and made himself into an adequate defensive first
baseman.  In 1940, when the Tigers wanted to get Rudy York's bat into the
lineup, Hank went to left field, and did the job well enough that the Tigers
won the pennant.
     In 1934 he led the Tigers to the World Series with 26 homers, 139 RBIs,
and a league-leading 63 doubles.  In 1935 he was even better, winning his
first MVP Award with 36 home runs and 170 RBIs, both leading the AL.  The
Tigers were world champions,
     The following year a broken wrist limited him to 12 games, but in 1937 he
came back with 40 home runs and 183 RBIs, the third-highest RBI total ever.
Perhaps his 1938 season is his most famous.  That year he chased Babe Ruth's
record down to the wire, finishing with 58 home runs.  No righthanded hitter
has ever exceeded that total.  He had a knack for hitting more than one in a
game, accomplishing that eleven times during the year.  Two years later, as
the Tigers' new left fielder, he won his second MVP on 41 homers and 150 RBIs,
and the Tigers again won the pennant.
     Then in 1941, only 19 games into the season, Greenberg was inducted into
the Army.  He was thirty-one.  He did not return to the Tigers until midway
through 1945.  Fittingly his ninth-inning grand slam on the final day of the
season won Detroit another pennant.  After once more leading the AL in homers
(with 44) and RBIs (with 127) in 1946, he was sold to Pittsburgh before the
1947 season for $75,000.  The Pirates shortened the distant left field fence
at Forbes Field in his honor by erecting a bullpen, quickly labeled "Greenberg
Gardens."  Hank hit 25 homers in 1947, then retired, but the Pirates' young
slugger, Ralph Kiner, who'd been Greenberg's roommate on the Pirates, credited
Greenberg's instruction and example with much of his subsequent success as a
home run hitter.
     Greenberg was elected to the Hall of Fame in 1956.


Gus Greenlee
Owner, Negro League

The flamboyant Greenlee, cigar-chomping Pittsburgh racketeer and numbers lord,
never would have passed Judge Landis' scrutiny as a white owner.  But he may
have saved black baseball in the dreary days of the Depression.
     Gus owned the Pittsburgh Crawfords, acclaimed by many as the best black
team of all time, with Satchel Paige, Josh Gibson, Oscar Charleston, Cool Papa
Bell, Judy Johnson, and other greats of black baseball.  He waged a spirited
war against Homestead Grays' owner Cum Posey for supremacy in Pittsburgh.  Cum
got his own racketeer to bankroll him, and the two fought both in the park and
out.
     Greenlee signed Paige from Birmingham and promoted him into the greatest
drawing card in black ball.  He also publicized Pepper Bassett, who caught
Satch sitting in a rocking chair.
     In 1933 Gus helped revive the Negro National League after the Depression
had put it out for a year.  He served as league president from 1933 to 1937.
He also provided the inspiration for the East-West or All-Star Game, played in
Comiskey Park a month after the first white All-Star Game there.  It proved a
financial life-saver, with upwards of 50,000 fans some years.  The only profit
many black clubs made all year was their share of receipts from that one game.
     Gus also owned a stable of boxers, including world light-heavyweight
champ John Henry Lewis.  Like the ball team, the hobby lost money but was a
cover for his numbers activities.
     In 1937 Dominican dictator Rafael Trujillo bought Gus' stars out from
under him, the Pittsburgh police finally raided his numbers store, and Gus at
last was on the ropes.


Bobby Grich
Second Baseman, Bal (A) 1970-76, Cal (A) 1977-86

One of the most underrated players in the game, Grich was an outstanding
all-around player who was generally thought of as only a glove man.  His
fielding, of course, was exceptional.  In 1985 he made only two errors all
season, to set a new standard for second basemen with a .997 fielding average.
In 1973 he had a .995 mark.  His career percentage of .984 is also the record.
He won four Gold Gloves.
     What was often overlooked was his hitting.  He hit .304 in 1981 and got
into the .290s a couple of times, but he was more comfortable at .250-.260.
Nevertheless his ability to draw walks--twice over 100--kept him on base and
allowed him to score 1,033 runs. He had good home run power with 224 career
round-trippers.  In the strike-shortened 1981 season he tied for the AL homer
title with 22.  Two years earlier he blasted 30 and drove in 101 runs.
     Part of Grich's image problem was his postseason play.  With Baltimore
and California he appeared in five LCS's, always on the losing side.  And in
24 LCS games he hit only .182.


Clark Griffith
Pitcher, StL (AA) 1891, Bos (AA) 1891, Chi (N) 1893-1900, Chi (A) 1901-02,
NY (A) 1903-07, Cin (N) 1909-10, Was (A) 1912-14.  Manager, Chi (A) 1901-02,
NY (A) 1903-08, Cin (N) 1909-11, Was (A) 1912-20

"The Old Fox," Griffith was elected to the Hall of Fame in 1946 as one of the
game's pioneers.  He could just as easily have gone in for his pitching.  And
he wasn't a bad manager either.  Clark was born in a Missouri log cabin.  His
father was shot and killed when Clark was two.  The boy held Jesse James'
horse, was a trapper, cowpuncher, faro dealer, and singer in frontier saloons
before taking up baseball.
     Only five-eight, he learned to use guile from Old Hoss Radbourn, another
great little man.  He got the hitters out with brains, a primitive slider (Cy
Young called it a "dinky-dinky pitch")--and a little scuffing of the ball.  He
won 20 or more games for Chicago six straight years, from 1894 through 1899.
Jumping to the AL in 1901, Griff pitched (24-7) and managed the White Sox to
the first flag in the new league's history.  He took over as the Yankees (then
known as the Highlanders) first manager when the club moved to New York in
1903.  It was his last season as a full-time pitcher.  His career mark was a
sparkling 240-141.
     Although the Highlanders nearly won the 1904 American League pennant, and
finished second again in 1906, Griff was let go in mid-1908.  He always felt
he'd been mistreated by the New York owners, fans, and press.  It led to his
life-long loathing of the Yankees.
     After managing Cincinnati for three years, AL president Ban Johnson
prevailed upon him to help rescue the failing Washington franchise in 1912.
Griffith became manager and mortgaged his ranch to buy 10 percent of the
stock.  With Walter Johnson pitching and Griffith managing, the Senators
finished second two years in a row, then began a slow drift toward the second
division as financial problems continued to beset the team.
     In 1920 Griffith purchased controlling interest in the Senators, resigned
as field manager, and took over as president.  Although the team won a world
championship in 1924 and pennants in 1925 and 1933, it was always financially
strapped.  Unable to compete with the richer AL clubs, Griffith was often
forced to sell his better players to keep operating.  In 1934 he even had to
sell his manager-shortstop and son-in-law, Joe Cronin, for $225,000.  Griffith
was a leader in popularizing night games, the use of on-field entertainers
such as Al Schacht, and in the signing of Latin players--all dictated by the
constant financial woes of the Senators.  Perhaps his greatest achievement was
keeping baseball in the nation's capital during his lifetime. He should
receive accolades for his off-field friendships with James A. Farley,
Postmaster-General, and President Franklin D. Roosevelt; these friendships
were responsible for the famous "Green Light" to wartime baseball.


Burleigh Grimes
Pitcher, Pit (N) 1916-17, 1928-29, 1934, Bkn (N) 1918-26, NY (N) 1927,
Bos (N) 1930, StL (N) 1930-31, 1933-34, Chi (N) 1932-33, NY (A) 1934.
Manager, Bkn (N) 1937-38

Grimes threw the last legal spitball in 1934.  But "Old Stubblebeard"--a
nickname derived from his habit of not shaving on days he pitched-won games
as much on willpower as "wetpower."  Pitching for the Cardinals in the 1931
World Series, he threw a two-hitter in Game Three to beat Lefty Grove.  Came
the final game, he had an inflamed appendix.  The trainer put ice packs on his
stomach between innings while Grimes shut out Philadelphia for eight innings.
He weakened in the ninth, but still got two outs before a reliever nailed down
the win.
     "Boiley," as they called him in Brooklyn, was a workhorse who led the NL
in innings pitched three times and topped 300 innings in five different
seasons.  A gruff, hard-bitten type he was only too willing to knock down any
batter with the temerity to dig in at the plate.
     His greatest seasons were with Brooklyn, where he four times won 20 games
between 1918 and 1926.  In 1920 he helped the Dodgers to a pennant with a
23-11 mark.
     In the World Series that year, he shut out Cleveland on seven hits in
Game Two, but Game Five is the one everyone remembers.  Cleveland loaded the
bases in the first inning; the scouting report said to throw the Indians'
outfielder Elmer Smith spitballs.  Grimes did and Smith took issue with the
scouting report by hitting the first grand-slam home run in Series history.
In the fourth inning Grimes gave up the first Series home run by a pitcher, to
Cleveland's Jim Bagby.  The weirdness wasn't over.  Grimes was replaced by
Clarence Mitchell, who then batted in the fifth inning and lined the ball to
Tribe second baseman Bill Wambsganss, who turned it into an unassisted triple
play!
     After leaving Brooklyn, Grimes was 19-8 for the Giants in 1927 and 25-14
for Pittsburgh in 1928.  He got to St. Louis in 1930 and helped them win two
straight pennants.
     One of the small group identified as spitballers and allowed to keep
throwing the pitch after it was outlawed in 1920, Grimes both lasted longer
than the rest and won more games.  He finished up in 1934 with a 270-212 mark.
His career ERA of 3.53 was acquired in an age of heavy hitting, when any
season mark under 4.00 was hot pitching.
     He was elected to the Hall of Fame in 1964.


Henry "Heinie" Groh
Third Baseman, NY (N) 1912-13, 1922-26, Cin (N) 1913-21, Pit (N) 1927.
Manager, Cin (N) 1918

Only five-eight, Heinie was famous for his bat, shaped like a big milk bottle.
Its handle ballooned into a thick barrel, which he held high over his right
shoulder.  He looked sort of like a cartoon.  But don't laugh.  In the 1922
World Series, he used it to hit .474.  The next year Heinie reportedly drove
around with license plate P474.
     The Giants picked up Groh in 1922 from Cincinnati, where he'd been an
outstanding third baseman for years, and he helped them win pennants for three
straight years.  A good fielder and dangerous hitter (.292 lifetime), he
believed his odd bat gave him better control on bunts.


Robert "Lefty" Grove
Pitcher, Phi (A) 1925-33, Bos (A) 1934-41

Grove boggles the mind, to say nothing of how he boggled AL batters.  The
consensus pick as best lefthander in history, Lefty might also have been the
best pitcher, period.  Some hitters insist he was faster than Johnson or
Feller.  His ball didn't have a hop at all--but still they couldn't hit it.
     He was terrific from the day in 1920 when he first began pitching for
Jack Dunn's Baltimore Orioles of the International League.  But Dunn wasn't
about to sell him to a major league team until he got his price--and the price
went up every year.  By the close of the 1924 season, Grove had won 108 games
for Dunn and had yet to pitch in the majors.  Connie Mack finally came up with
$100,600, a new record.  Grove was twenty-five when he pitched his first game
for the A's.
     Although it took him a couple of years to begin rolling up big victory
totals, Lefty led the AL in strikeouts as a rookie. In walks, too--earning a
reputation for wildness that was unmerited after that first season.  He was,
however, wild after a loss.  He set new records for clubhouse tantrums, but it
was noted he always punched lockers with his right hand.  His theory on
kicking water buckets was "Always be sure the bucket is empty."
     After leading the league in ERA and strikeouts in 1926, he really got
rolling.  In the next seven seasons, he won 20 or more seven times, led in
wins four times, led in winning percentage four times, in ERA four, in
strikeouts five, and in shutouts twice.  Death and taxes are less consistent.
His 31-4 record in 1931 is his gaudiest season and earned him the MVP.
     The A's won pennants from 1929 through 1931, but by 1934 the Depression
was killing attendance and Connie Mack needed money.  He sold Grove to the Red
Sox for $125,000 (a $24,400 capital gain).  Lefty's fabled fastball was a
memory, and it took him an 8-8 season to change over to a "curves and control"
pitcher.  Then he won 20 for the eighth time and followed with a couple of
17-win seasons.  He also took four more ERA titles.  On July 25, 1941, he
became the sixth modern pitcher to win 300 games.  At 300-141 his .680 career
percentage ranks fourth all-time but doesn't include his 55 saves.  His
lifetime ERA of 3.06, when normalized to the league average and adjusted for
home park, was the best ever--even topping Walter Johnson's.
     In 1947 he was named to the Hall of Fame.


Ron Guidry
Pitcher, NY (A) 1975-88

In 1978 Guidry had one of the most effective years of any pitcher any time any
place.  The slightly built Louisiana lefthander was 25-3, to lead the AL in
both wins and percentage.  Also tops were his 1.74 ERA and 9 shutouts.  In 273
innings, he allowed a skimpy 187 hits.  He struck out 248 but walked only 72.
Led by Guidry, the Yankees moved from 10 1/2 games back on July 24 to tie the
fading Red Sox on the last day of the season, then won the playoff on Bucky
Dent's homer.  Naturally it had to be Ron, on short rest, who started and won
the playoff victory.  He added two more wins in the postseason.
     He won the Cy Young Award hands down and finished second in the MVP
voting.
     "Louisiana Lightning" was never quite the same world-beater again, though
he had several fine seasons, including 21-9 in 1983 and 22-6 in 1985.