Lefty Grove

Lefty Grove

Birthdate	3/6/1900
Death Date	5/22/1975
Debut Year	1925
Year of Induction	1947
Teams	Athletics, Red Sox
Position	Pitcher

The American League leader in strikeouts in each of his first seven seasons, Lefty Grove recorded the AL’s lowest ERA a record nine times.

Lefty Grove was one of the greatest pitchers in history

Lefty Grove won the pitcher’s Triple Crown in back-to-back seasons in 1930 and 1931. The AL wins leader in four seasons, Grove also led the league in strikeouts seven times and ERA nine times. Grove’s best season came in 1931 when he went 31-4 with a 2.06 ERA to win the American League M

Lefty Grove got the save in the first All Star Game in 1933

In 1933 baseball began the tradition of playing an All Star Game between the best players in each league. The inaugural contest was an instant classic. Fittingly, Babe Ruth hit the Mid Summer Classic’s first long ball. The American League beat their NL counterparts 4-2. Lefty Grove pitched thr

Lefty Grove won an MLB-best 257 games from 1928-1947

Lefty Grove was one of the most dominant pitchers of his era. Indeed he was one of the best of any era. An 8-time 20-game winner, Grove won a career high 31 games in 1931. From 1928-1947 Grove won 247 games, the most in all of baseball. Shown here is a 3×5 card handwritten by Indians great Mel

Lefty Grove's contemporaries had great respect for his work on the mound

Lefty Grove is in the conversation of the game’s greatest southpaws. He won 20 or more games 7 times. Grove also eclipsed the 30-win plateau when he earned his second straight pitching Triple Crown in 1931. Eight times he led the Junior circuit in earned run average. In this letter from 1982,

After retirement, Lefty Grove was a mainstay at old timers' games for decades

The Yankee Old Timer’s Game was a star-studded affair during the 1960s. Here 300-game winner Lefty Grove accepts Bob Fishel’s invitation to the game via this telegram. A back-to-back World Series champion with the Philadelphia Athletics, Grove was selected to Major League Baseball’

When Warren Spahn tied Grove on the wins list, the league presidents offered their congratulations

Lefty Grove retired with exactly 300 wins. It was quite a feat for a man who didn’t throw a big league pitch until he was 25 years old. Grove reached the milestone on July 25, 1941 with a complete game, 6-strikeout performance against the Indians. Twenty years later Warren Spahn joined the 300

A Story about Lefty Grove

Bill James called Connie Mack’s move in the 1929 World Series, “the most brilliant managerial stratagem in the history of baseball”

October 12th, 2022 Leave a comment

Connie Mack’s 1929 Philadelphia Athletics were one of the greatest teams in baseball history. With a lineup that included Hall of Famers Jimmie Foxx, Mickey Cochrane, and Al Simmons, they finished 18 1/2 games ahead of the second-place Yankee team that won 6 of the previous 8 American League pennants. The Athletics pitching staff boasted a pair of aces with the left-right combination of 20-game winner Lefty Grove and 24-game winner George Earnshaw. For good measure, Mack’s #3 starter Rube Walberg had 18 wins of his own. On May 12th Philadelphia moved into a first-place tie with the Yankees and never relinquished the top spot. By the end of the month the A’s were five games up. Their lead swelled to 10 1/2 games on August 1st behind Earnshaw’s 17th win of the season. The margin remained at double digits the rest of the way. As Philadelphia cruised toward the AL pennant, the Cubs did the same in the National League. When Charlie Root shut down the Giants at the Polo Grounds on August 21st, the Cubs’ lead stretched to 10 1/2 games and never diminished. The two teams were on a collision course for the World Series. An aging […]