Burleigh Grimes

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Burleigh Arland Grimes (August 18, 1893 - December 6, 1985) was an American professional baseball player, and the last pitcher officially permitted to throw the spitball.

Nicknamed "Ol' Stubblebeard", Grimes was born in Emerald, Wisconsin. He made his major league debut on September 10, 1916 for the Pittsburgh Pirates and in 1920, when the spitball was banned, he was named as one of the 17 established pitchers who would be allowed to continue to throw the pitch. The 26 year old Grimes made the most of this advantage, and over the course of his 19-year career, won 270 games and pitched in four World Series. At the time of his retirement, he was the last of the 17 spitballers left in the league.

Burleigh Grimes
is a member of
the Baseball
Hall of Fame

He played for the Pittsburgh Pirates (1916 - 1917), the Brooklyn Dodgers (1918-1926), the New York Giants (1927), the Pirates again (1928-1929), the Boston Braves (1930), the St. Louis Cardinals (the rest of 1930 and 1931), the Chicago Cubs (1932 and part of 1933), the Cardinals again (the rest of 1933 and part of 1934), the Pirates again (1934), and the New York Yankees (the last part of 1934).

He was the manager of the Dodgers in 1937-38, compiling a two-year record of 131-171 (.434), with his teams finishing sixth and seventh respectively in the National League. He then remained in baseball for many years as a minor league manager and a scout.

Burleigh Grimes was elected to the Baseball Hall of Fame in 1964. In 1981, Lawrence Ritter and Donald Honig included him in their book The 100 Greatest Baseball Players of All Time.

He died in Clear Lake, Wisconsin at age of 92.

[edit] Trivia

Grimes was well-known for his mean temper. For an example he once threw a ball at the batter in the on-deck circle.^[1] That said, he was known to demonstrate a consistent kindness when not actually competing.