Burleigh grimes biography of abraham

Burleigh Grimes was the last legal spitball pitcher in the majors. In a year career that ended inhe often faked the spitter to keep batters guessing. Grimes never shaved on days he pitched, because the slippery elm he chewed to increase saliva irritated his skin. The belligerent pitcher never permitted a batter to dig in at the plate.

During the s, Grimes was a standout, twice leading the league in victories and five times topping the win mark.

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Wagner Wallace Ward Wells Yount. Rice A. Simmons Stargell Wheat B. Williams T. Williams Yastrzemski. Ashburn Averill Bell W. Waner H. Jackson Kaline Keeler K. Kelly Klein T. Rice F. Waner Winfield Youngs. Baines E. Alston Anderson Cox Durocher R. Johnson Kuhn Landis La. MacPhail Le. White Wilkinson G. Wright H. Wright Yawkey. Branch Rickey.

Louis Cardinals World Series champions. Regular season. Pittsburgh Pirates Opening Day starting pitchers. National League season wins leaders.

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Cooper M. Jackson Koufax Koufax M. Niekro Seaver R. Jones Carlton Perry J. National League season strikeout leaders. Walter O'Malley Branch Rickey. Los Angeles Dodgers managers. Authority control databases. United States. From the bench and the field, the Robins watched their catcher and pitcher carefully to see if they could discover the tipoff.

They even suspected a spy with binoculars had been planted in the scoreboard at Baker Bowl. When Grimes faked the spitter, the peak of his cap never moved. When he actually moistened the ball, however, the peak wiggled slightly.

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Early inthe Brooklyn batboy finally solved the mystery. Burleigh got a cap a half size larger, and the Phillies were no problem that season as Grimes went against them. In the Dodgers rebounded and found themselves in a pennant race for the first time since their championship year of With Dazzy Vance coming into his own, the Dazzler and Grimes won 50 games between them.

The Daffiness Boys that year were a hard-drinking, hard-fighting, high-living crew, but they combined good baseball with their highjinks. Grimes did not live as high or drink as much as some of the others, because he always kept himself in top-notch physical shape. Of course, he fought as hard as anyone and occasionally he shared in their extracurricular fun.

But when crunch time came, Burleigh was all business. In September the Robins were in danger of falling out of the chase for the pennant. On the 24th, when Grimes was scheduled to take the mound against the Chicago Cubs, who had defeated Brooklyn the previous day, the sturdy pitcher addressed his teammates in the clubhouse. This will be the toughest game you ever played in.

Is that clear? Brooklyn catcher Zack Taylor said it was the most harrowing day he spent in baseball. Burleigh threw behind them and at their feet. Grimes won the game, In the fifth inning he made one of the strangest plays ever seen at Ebbets Field. Seeing the ball get past the catcher, the speedy Weis headed for home. Grimes was quickly off the mound.

The ball rebounded in front of the plate and the spitballer scooped it up, dived for the plate, and tagged Weis just before he could score. Thus, Grimes made an unassisted putout on his own wild pitch. Brooklyn did not win the pennant in but their second-place finish was the closest they would come for many years. Grimes led the league in innings pitched, tied his teammate Vance for the lead in complete games, and was second to Vance in both wins and strikeouts.

Grimes failed to win as many games as he lost during either of the next two years. The most memorable event of the season was one he would have preferred to forget. On September 22 in a inning, loss to the Chicago Cubs, Grimes pitched well enough but was woeful at the bat. In his first three trips to the plate he brought about seven outs, which matched the record for futility responsibility for seven outs in three times at bat set by Clarence Mitchell during Game Five of the World Series.

Burleigh ended the burleigh grime biography of abraham and sixth innings by hitting into double plays, and outdid that by hitting into a triple play in the eighth. With runners on first and third, Grimes grounded to the shortstop, who tossed to the second baseman, who rifled the ball to the first baseman, who heaved the ball home to catch the runner trying to score from third.

The burly one was a good batter and was used occasionally as a pinch-hitter. Pinch-hitting one day, Grimes hit a double and moved to third on a groundout. The next batter hit a routine fly to the outfield. Grimes did not tag up and attempt to score. The next batter made the final out of the inning. You should have put in a pinch-runner for me.

When you asked me to bat, I did and I got a hit. You should have replaced me then. In Burleigh won 12 games and lost On September 9 at Baker Bowl in Philadelphia, his teammates came off the bench in an amazing display of pinch-hitting to save Grimes another loss. Grimes had given up ten hits and was trailing,after the sixth inning ended. The Phillies added another run in the bottom of the inning and went into the ninth leading In the top of the final inning Butler led off with a double, and Dick Cox pinch-hit safely, driving in Butler.

Then came three hits and two bases on balls, along with a groundout, and Cox came to bat for the second time in the inning. Before the carnage was over the Dodgers had won the gamegetting Grimes off the hook. Under present rules Cox would be credited with only one pinch hit, as he would be considered batting for himself the second time around and would no longer be a pinch-hitter.

Besides, they were tired of constantly bickering over his salary. Henline was then traded to Brooklyn for Grimes. The Phillies sent two players to Buffalo, the Giants agreed to option two players to the Bisons and the Robins agreed to do the same with a pitcher, these players to be named at the conclusion of spring training. Sportswriter James B.

Harrison wrote that baseball men were inclined to agree that the Giants got the better of the deal. Events proved the baseball men right. Grimes won 19 games, including 13 wins in a row, and lost only 8 during the season. He had the third best winning percentage of all National League pitchers and ranked fourth in strikeouts. He continued to ask and give no quarter.

He snapped and snarled at his teammates if they failed to give their best. On February 11,the Giants traded Grimes to Pittsburgh for pitcher Vic Aldridge in a straight player transaction, no cash or convoluted deals with other players involved. The newspapers said that the Pirates got the better of the deal.

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Once again the newspapers were right. The trade turned out to be much more lopsided than the scribes had predicted. In the remainder of his major-league career Aldridge was to win only four games while losing seven. On the other hand Grimes, at the age of 34, still had some of his best years ahead of him. In Grimes won 25 games for Pittsburgh, leading the league in innings pitched and tying for the lead in wins.

In a July 20,game against the Giants, Grimes fired a fastball toward the plate. Bill Terry lined it back to the mound like a bullet. The smash was too hot to handle, but Grimes instinctively put up his hands. The ball struck the thumb of his pitching hand, then caromed off. Grimes picked up the ball and threw to first, then walked off the field.

With 16 victories already under his belt, he had hoped to win 30 that year for the first time in his career. Those hopes were gone; he won only one more game in He finished the year with a record of for a winning percentage of. In his early years Burleigh had relied so much on his spitter that Billy Evans feared he would not be nearly so effective if he was not allowed to continue using it after He still faked a spitter on every pitch, of course, and threw a lot of spitters, but Burleigh had a live fastball for most of his career, developed a good curve, and had excellent control.

No doubt it is. But the spitter has its drawbacks. The slider was thrown by only a few, among whom Burleigh Grimes was the most successful. In addition, he had many years of experience. I know the batters. I know myself. I understand better what I can do myself and what the opposition is likely to do. A pitcher is like a good oak log. He needs seasoning.

I work hard. I bear down all the time. Any ball will hurt your arm if you put everything you have behind it. But, after all, spitters and fast balls are easy deliveries compared with curve pitching. Why should I be old? One of these physical culture experts told me that a man reached his prime, in physical strength, at thirty, but declined very little until he was forty or older.

During the season I lose perhaps ten pounds. So I go to a camp I have up in Wisconsin, where I spend the winter. I tramp miles every day in the snow with my gun. I breathe crisp, frosty air burleigh grimes biography of abraham hours out of the twenty-four. I eat a lot of wholesome, well-cooked food. I go to bed early and sleep like a badger in a burrow.

For two years with Pittsburgh, Grimes was arguably the best pitcher in the league, but after the thumb injury he was not quite the same again. He still had a few good years left, however, even if they did not match his seasons of greatness. He was also the last of a dying breed in baseball. Byonly four of the 17 exempt pitchers remained in the big leagues.

On September 20,Grimes made his last appearance as a relief pitcher in a loss to the Brooklyn Dodgers at Ebbets Field. He would retire that season as the last legal spitballer in major league history. Grimes spent another 35 years in baseball as a manager and scout for various teams before retiring for good in at the age of He died on December 6,in his hometown of Clear Lake, Wisconsin.

He might not be a household name, but Burleigh Grimes was undoubtedly the last great spitballer to take the field. Burleigh Grimes photographed in —and probably thinking about throwing at the photographer. Baseball's Last Spitball Pitcher by J. Pressley First published: May 7, Burleigh Grimes retired in as the last pitcher in baseball who could legally throw a spitball.