“Maybe I called it wrong, but it’s official.” — Tom Connolly, HoF Umpire.
Today in baseball history:
“I used to chew slippery elm – the bark, right off the tree. Come spring the bark would get nice and loose and you could slice it free without any trouble. What I checked was the fiber from inside, and that’s what I put on the ball. The ball would break like hell, away from right-handers and in on lefties,” Grimes once said.
Grimes started out in unspectacular fashion, winning 5 and losing 19 in two years with the Pittsburgh Pirates before getting traded to the Dodgers. He was an immediate hit with Brooklyn, going 19-9 his first year and winning another 139 in eight additional years, “while leading the National League in complete games three times (1921, 1923, 1924), innings twice (1923, 1924) and both wins (1921) and strikeouts (1921) once.”
It was during the latter portion of his career that the spitball was outlawed, but Grimes (and 16 other pitchers) was/were grandfathered in and allowed to continue throwing the pitch. He pitched through 1934, and would end up playing for the New York Giants, Pittsburgh Pirates, Boston Braves, St. Louis Cardinals, Chicago Cubs and New York Yankees. His most noteworthy effort came in his second stint with the Pirates in 1928 when he again paced the NL in wins (25), games (48), complete games (28) and innings pitched (330.2). In 1931 as a member of the St, Louis Cardinals, Grimes claimed his first and only championship, as he won both of his starts in the World Series versus the Philadelphia Athletics.(5)
“The only time I was ever scared in my life was one time when Burleigh threw at me on a 3-and-0 count.” — Frankie Frisch (5)
“We saw it as a unique opportunity and faced a clear dilemma: be loyal to Rick or be loyal to the organization. In this business of trying to win a world championship for the first time in 107 years, the organization has priority over any one individual. We decided to pursue Joe.” – THEO EPSTEIN, explaining manager Rick Renteria’s dismissal. (1)
Things are as near to the truth as we can get them. Some of these items spread from site to site without being fact-checked, and that is why we ask for verifiable sources, so that we can help update the records and have documentation.