Lefty Grove
Robert Moses "Lefty" Grove (March 6, 1900 – May 22, 1975) was a professional baseball pitcher. After having success in the minor leagues during the early 1920s, Grove became a star in Major League Baseball with the American League's Philadelphia Athletics and Boston Red Sox, winning 300 games in his 17-year MLB career. He was elected to the National Baseball Hall of Fame in 1947.
One of the greatest left-handed pitchers in major league history, Grove led the American League in wins in four separate seasons, in strikeouts seven years in a row, and had the league's lowest earned run average a record nine times. Over the course of the three years from 1929 to 1931 he twice won the pitcher's Triple Crown, leading the league in wins, strikeouts, and ERA, while amassing a 79-15 record as the ace for the Athletics' dynasty teams.
Early life
Born in Allegany County, Maryland's Lonaconing to John Robert Grove, (1865-1957), and Emma Catherine Beeman, (1872-1959), Grove was a sandlot star in the Baltimore area during the 1910s. Grove didn't play organized baseball until he was 19 years old. In 1920, he made his professional debut with the Martinsburg Mountaineers of the class-D Blue Ridge League, where he appeared in six games. In 59 innings pitched, Grove gave up just 30 hits, and he had an earned run average (ERA) of 1.68. His performance attracted the attention of Jack Dunn, Sr., (1878-1928), the manager/owner of the minor league Baltimore Orioles, who also discovered George Herman ("Babe") Ruth, (1895-1948), out of a local Roman Catholic industrial school and unfortunately was forced to sell him to the Boston Red Sox in 1914 after only a few months with the Orioles (later also became a "Hall-of-Famer" with the New York Yankees).
