Welcome to the Baseball History Podcast: Featuring This Week in Baseball History, baseball dictionary and a tour of baseball cities. I’m your game announcer Bob Wright.
This is game 51 of the 2006 baseball season
In the first inning let’s take a look at This Week in Baseball History for the 5 week of August.
August 31
1931 In his attempt to break Walter Johnson’s consecutive game winning streak of 17 games, Lefty Grove loses as Browns’ hurler Dick Coffman throws a three-hit shutout against the A’s. Reserve Jimmy Moore, playing in place of the absent Al Simmons, misjudges a fly ball which leads to the decisive run and subsequently to Lefty’s meltdown in the locker room.
Robert Moses “Lefty” Grove was born March 6, 1900 in Lonaconing, Maryland.
He had a blazing fastball and a temper to match. He led the American League in strikeouts seven consecutive years, victories four times, Earned Run Average nine times, and winning percentage five times. Grove also led in shredded uniforms, kicked buckets, ripped-apart lockers, and alienated teammates.
Grove joined the minor league Baltimore Orioles in 1920 and embarked on an epic minor league career which saw him regarded by some as one of the best pitchers in baseball, even before he ever threw a pitch in the majors. Breaking into the team’s pitching rotation at midseason, Grove posted a 12-2 record. Over the next four seasons, he posted marks of 25-10, 18-8, 27-10 and 27-6, leading the International League in strikeouts every season.
Grove remained in the minor leagues through 1924 because team owner Dunn, who ran an independent operation with no major-league affiliation, refused several offers from the majors to acquire him. Finally, early in 1925, Dunn agreed to sell Grove’s rights to Connie Mack of the Philadelphia Athletics for $106,000, the highest amount ever paid for a player at the time.
Grove tested the patience of Mack, who won his last three pennants mostly by handing Grove the ball. Eventually, Grove gained control over himself and the ball. As a rookie, he led the league in walks as well as strikeouts. Later, he learned to win with pinpoint control and guile.
He battled injuries as a rookie and posted only a 10-13 record, despite leading the league in strikeouts. Grove then settled down in 1926 and won the first of his record nine earned run average titles with a mark of 2.51. In 1927, Grove won 20 games for the first time and a year later, he led the league in wins with 24.
In that 1928 season, Grove twice struck out the side on 9 pitches. On August 23, he did it in win over the Cleveland Indians to become the third American League pitcher and seventh pitcher in Major League history to accomplish the nine-strike/three-strikeout half-inning. On September 27, he did it in another win over the Chicago White Sox, becoming the first pitcher in Major League history to accomplish the feat twice in a career; since then, only Sandy Koufax and Nolan Ryan have joined him. Grove, however, remains the only pitcher to ever do it twice in the same season, just one month and four days apart.
The Athletics won the pennant in three successive seasons from 1929 through 1931. In two of those years, 1929 and 1930, they won two straight World Championships. During the Athletics championship run, Grove led the way as the league’s top pitcher, posting records of 20-6, 28-5 and 31-4 in those years. Grove led the league in wins, Earned Run Average at 2.06, strikeouts with 175, winning percentage, complete games and shutouts. He was also chosen as league Most Valuable Player in 1931.
The Athletics continued to contend for the next two seasons, but finished second in 1932 and third in 1933. Following the 1933 season, team owner Connie Mack sold Grove to the Boston Red Sox. The suddenly rich Red Sox new owner, Tom Yawkey, was buying up star players.
Though Grove had led the league with 24 wins in 1933, his first year with Boston, 1934, was a sore-armed struggle.
At the time, the Red Sox were a bad team, and Grove didn’t help much his first year, when an arm injury held him to an 8-8 record. He bounced back in 1935 with his final 20-victory season, by craftily working hitters. That same year he had a league-leading 2.70 Earned Run Average.
Grove won his eighth Earned Run Average title a year later, and also led the league in that category and winning percentage in 1938. Grove did not win as many games in Boston as he did in Philadelphia, as managers protected his arm as he aged. Nevertheless, Grove continued to post outstanding records, including 14-4 in 1938 and 15-4 in 1939.
Grove retired in 1941 with a career record of 300-141. His .680 lifetime winning percentage is still eighth all-time; however, none of the seven men ahead of him won more than 236 games.
Grove was elected to the Baseball Hall of Fame in 1947.
He died May 22, 1975 in Norwalk, Ohio.
In this inning we’ll open up the Baseball Dictionary
Under the letter: G
golden sombrero
A mythical award given to a batter who strikes out four times in a game.
And now for the ninth inning…
Continuing our trip around baseball cities…
This team from history was a part of the Negro Baseball Leagues.
Newark Eagles
Abe Manley acquired ownership of two floundering teams, the Brooklyn Eagles and the Newark Dodgers, and consolidated the two franchises into the Newark Eagles. The Eagles joined the Negro National League in 1936 and remained a highly competitive team until the league’s demise in 1948. The highlight of the franchise’s history was in 1946, when they won the Negro National League pennant and defeated the Kansas City Monarchs in a hard-fought 7-game World Series. The next season they again started strong, winning the first-half title, but lost Larry Doby to organized baseball and slumped in the second half, losing the pennant to the New York Cubans without a play-off. After the league folded in 1948, the Eagles were sold and moved to Houston.
You can email me at baseballhistory@gmail.com. Transcripts of the game can be found at baseballhistorypodcast.blogspot.com. Well, that’s it for today’s game of Baseball History Podcast. I’ll see you later at the ballpark.
TWIBH- Lefty Grove,
Baseball Dictionary- Golden
Tour- Newark Eagles
]]>
