Lefty Grove deserves a mention in this column and there’s no time like the present.
Grove’s stats are amazing enough but what makes them most unbelievable is that he accomplished them in the batters’ heyday of late 20s and early 30s. When teams were scoring well over 5 runs a game, here’s Grove keeping the opposition to barely 2 runs.
The card above is Lefty Grove’s 1931 APBA card. That year was probably Grove’s best of his career. He led the AL in ERA (2.06), wins (31, the highest of his career) and strikeouts (175). Of course, that was nothing new to Grove. He led the league in those categories many times. He paced the AL in ERA nine times, wins four times, and strikeouts seven times (in a row even!).
| Split | W | L | G | GS | GF | CG | SHO | SV | IP | H | R | ER | BB | IBB | SO | ||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1931 Totals | 31 | 4 | .886 | 2.06 | 41 | 30 | 10 | 27 | 4 | 5 | 288.2 | 249 | 84 | 66 | 62 | 0 | 175 |
Just for kicks, here are Lefty Grove’s hitting stats for 1931. For all his pitching prowess, he wasn’t a half bad hitter either.
| Split | G | GS | PA | AB | R | H | 2B | 3B | HR | RBI | SB | BB | SO | |||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1931 Totals | 41 | 30 | 122 | 115 | 8 | 23 | 3 | 0 | 0 | 12 | 0 | 3 | 48 | .200 | .220 | .226 |
Here’s a piece of interesting trivia: In 1925, his rookie year, Grove walked more batters than he struck out (131 to 116). He soon found the cure to his control issues though and became one the most stingiest pitchers when it came to the base on balls. Starting the next year in 1926, he led the league 8 times in K/BB ratio. After 1926, he never walked more than 83.
This card pitched my only perfect game. It happened in my first year of my “Fossil League” (All Time Greats)in 1979. At the time I thought that the game wasn’t as accurate. How can a perfect game be completed so quickly. Boy was I wrong. I’m now on season 38 and have had 8 no hitters but no Perfect Game, although I came real close once. (1 error in the 5th).
This is one of the top 5 pitcher cards in my collection.
I purchased this card in 1988 All-Time Greats Team A.
The very card pictured has always pitched well for me; including a 29-1 record and a 1.79 for the 146-16 Honolulu Hitmen.
The only game I’ve ever rolled for a perfect game was the 1931 Lefty Grove. It was in the championship series in a blind draft league of course;) Crazy thing is right before I could finish my stats were fried along with our entire hard drive! Nonetheless a prefect roll!
*Hard drive fried before I could finish the best of seven series.