The Great Lefty Grove Nearly “Loses It” 86 Years Ago Today!

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The Great Lefty Grove Nearly “Loses It” 86 Years Ago Today!

“Quit now? They’ll have to cut the uniform off me. I’m going out for another 300. They couldn’t be any harder to get than the first 300.” -Lefty Grove

On August 23, 1931, in a game against the St. Louis Browns, Philadelphia Athletics ace pitcher Lefty Grove was en route to his 17th straight victory, which would have broken the American League record then shared by Walter Johnson and Smoky Joe Wood. Star teammate Al Simmons had taken the day off, being treated for an infected ankle. Rookie outfielder Handsome Johnny Moore, subbing for Simmons, misjudged a fly ball leading to an unearned run. Grove lost the game 1-0.

Click on the link to see a nice photo gallery tribute to the great Hall-of-Famer, Lefty Grove:

And then he really “lost it,” with an event that tarnished the reputation of one of the game’s great pitchers…

Here’s some details of the incident, edited from the SABR biography of Lefty Grove:

“Grove faced Dick Coffman that day, who, with his 5-9 record, was nearly released three weeks earlier. Grove and Coffman kept the game scoreless through two innings.”

“In the third inning, after Fritz Schulte’s two-out bloop single in the third mildly annoyed Grove, Oscar (Ski) Melillo completely unnerved him. Melillo hit what appeared to be a routine liner to left. Partially blinded by the sun, Johnny Moore raced in, and then realized he had misjudged the ball. The shot nicked his glove and rolled to the fence, with Schulte scoring on the double.”

“Grove slapped his glove against his side in disgust, got out of the inning and returned to the dugout. He righted himself to finish the game, a neat seven-hitter with six K’s and no walks. Unfortunately, Browns’ pitcher Dick Coffman was even better, yielding just three hits. In stark reversal of his season-long fortunes, Grove lost, 1-0, ending his quest for the record.”

“Grove didn’t blame rookie Moore. Instead, he raged at the absent Simmons for a good 20 minutes. In what was probably an unprecedented display of postgame pique, Grove tried to tear off the clubhouse door, shredding the wooden partition between lockers, banged up the lockers, broke chairs and ripped of his shirt, buttons flying. ‘Threw everything I could get my hands on — bats, balls, shoes, gloves, benches, water buckets, whatever was handy’ Grove later recalled“

“Quickly enough, Lefty righted himself. Responding to Yankee bench-jockeying (“kicked over any water pails lately?”) on August 29, he struck out eight of the first 10 batters he faced. By season’s end, he was 31-4. Winning his second straight Triple Crown with 175 strikeouts, he was named the American League’s Most Valuable Player, as the Athletics won their third consecutive pennant.”

-Gary Livacari

Photo Credits: All found on Google search

Information: Excerpts and quotes edited from the SABR biography of Lefty Grove, written by Jim Kaplan: http://sabr.org/bioproj/person/8bc0a9e1

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