Burleigh Grimes
September 20, 1934: The Brooklyn Dodgers beat the Pittsburgh Pirates, 2-1 at Ebbets Field. The Dodgers score both of their runs in the 1st inning, on a single by Lonny Frey, a double by Len Koenecke, and a single by Tony Cuccinello.
More interesting than how the Dodgers scored is off whom: The Pirates' pitcher for the 1st 7 innings was Brooklyn native, former Yankee ace, future Cincinnati Reds broadcaster, and Hall-of-Famer Waite Hoyt. (No person has been elected to the Hall as both a player and a broadcaster, but Hoyt should have been the 1st.)
The 8th inning was pitched by Burleigh Grimes. He got Cuccinello to fly to center field, Johnny Frederick to ground to short, and "Jersey Joe" Stripp to strike out. This would be the last inning pitched in the major leagues by Grimes, a 41-year-old native of western Wisconsin, who had a career record of 270-212. He led the National League in wins in 1921 and 1928, and in strikeouts in 1921.
He had previously pitched for the Dodgers, including on their 1920 National League Pennant winners; and had also pitched in the World Series for the 1931 St. Louis Cardinals (his only World Championship) and the 1932 Chicago Cubs, making him one of the few players to appear in back-to-back World Series with different teams. His 191 wins during the 1920s made him the winningest pitcher of the decade.
Not only was he elected to the Hall of Fame, but 36 of his teammates were, a record that still stands. This is partly because one of his teammates was Frankie Frisch, who long served on the Hall's Committee on Veterans, and was known for advocating for the election of teammates that might not really have deserved it. Some fans have cited the "Frisch Five," although that list varies, and some have included Grimes on that list. But 270-212 is a pretty good record.
He managed the Dodgers in the 1937 and '38 seasons, with no success. He succeeded Casey Stengel, and was succeeded by Leo Durocher. He managed the Class AAA Toronto Maple Leafs, for whom the hockey team was named in 1927, to the 1943 International League Pennant. Later, as a scout for the Baltimore Orioles, he discovered 2 great pitchers, Hall-of-Famer Jim Palmer and 3-time All-Star Dave McNally, who won 453 games in the major leagues between them. He died in 1985.
Is Grimes' last major league game, on September 20, 1934, really that big a deal? Just because he sent 3 players on a 71-81 team (albeit one managed by Stengel, in his 1st season as a major league manager) down in order? No, not for that reason. The reason his last game is noteworthy is that it was the last time a major league pitcher legally threw a pitch that fell under the definition of the term "spitball."
The term implies that a pitcher spit on the ball. That's not usually how it happened. Usually, the pitcher would lick his fingers, and then grip the ball, so the moistness would cause it to drop, like what would now be called a hard sinker.
Other "foreign substances" would be used on the ball, such as tobacco juice (chewing tobacco was all too common for players, especially pitchers, even into the 1980s, and many died from cancer as a result), Vaseline or some other petroleum product, or resin (not to be confused with rosin, from the rosin bag on the pitcher's mound). Some would damage the ball, including "scuffing" it with an emery board: The emery ball was common in the early 20th Century. Some would just rub the ball in the dirt on the mound. These actions became known as "doctoring" the ball.
But all this did more than just make the ball drop or curve sharply. Sometimes, it would make the ball rise, or come inside and hit the batter. Or, worse, both rise and hit the batter, sometimes in the head. And when there was dirt on the ball, turning a white ball brown, or some sort of gunk on the ball, making it an even darker color, that made it hard to see, especially later in the day when the Sun sank in the sky.
On August 16, 1920, Carl Mays of the New York Yankees, who not only had a "submarine" delivery that made his pitches rise, but had a spitball in his repertoire, hit Ray Chapman of the Cleveland Indians in the head, causing him to lose consciousness, and he died the next day. To the end of his own life, 51 years later, Mays told whoever that would listen that he hadn't purposely hit Chapman. But, even after this, he still pitched inside, and he still threw the spitball. If any manager ever told him not to, he didn't listen.
Ever since, there has been a perception that baseball outlawed such pitches in the wake of Carl Mays hitting Ray Chapman in the head with a pitch on August 16, 1920, causing Chapman to lose consciousness, and die the next day. Certainly, it would have been the right thing to do, had it not already been done. But the ban actually came before that.
If a ball was found to be doctored, the pitcher and the ball would both be thrown out of the game, and the pitcher then fined and suspended. And, while a pitcher blowing on his hand to warm it up during a game in cold weather was allowed (and still is), if an umpire thought he saw a pitcher stick his finger in his mouth, the umpire would automatically call a ball. For a 2nd offense, a warning. For a 3rd offense, ejection from the game.
Detroit Tigers center fielder Ty Cobb, the best player of the era, in one of his many "Old man"/"Get off my lawn" pronouncements, complained in his autobiography, "Freak pitches... were outlawed when the owners greedily sold out to home runs." Indeed, fewer sharp-breaking pitches and easier-to-see balls did give rise to what became known as the Lively Ball Era. Cobb kept on hitting until his retirement in 1928, though, never batting as low as .323 until his last season.
Cobb wasn't the only one who objected to the rule change: Many pitchers did, claiming the spitball was their best pitch, their "money pitch," their "bread and butter." So 17 pitchers were "grandfathered in," allowed to continue using it: Ray Fisher, Doc Ayers, Ray Caldwell (all retiring after the 1921 season), Phil Douglas (1922), Dana Fillingim, Dutch Leonard, Allen Russell (all retiring after 1925), Marv Goodwin (who died right after the 1925 season), Allen Sothoron (1926), Dick Rudolph (1927), Urban Shocker (died of heart trouble late in the 1928 season), Hall-of-Famer Stan Coveleski (1928), Bill Doak (1929), Clarence Mitchell (1932), Hall-of-Famer Urban "Red" Faber and Jack Quinn (1933), and, finally, Grimes.
(Goodwin is believed to be the 1st professional athlete in any sport on Earth to have been killed in a plane crash. Hockey player Hobey Baker, who was killed in a military test flight shortly after World War I ended, never turned pro.)
In March 1955, Commissioner Ford Frick advocated for the return of the spitball, telling a sportswriter, "If I had my way, I'd legalize the old spitter. It was a great pitch, and one of the easiest to throw. There was nothing dangerous about it." Despite his enthusiasm, the team owners didn't vote on it, and the pitch remained illegal.
After 1934, a few pitchers were accused of throwing doctored balls, including Claude Passeau of the 1940s Chicago Cubs, Hugh Casey of the 1940s Brooklyn Dodgers, Preacher Roe of the 1950s Brooklyn Dodgers, Early Wynn of the 1950s Cleveland Indians and Chicago White Sox, Lew Burdette of the 1950s Milwaukee Braves, and Don Drysdale of the 1960s Brooklyn Dodgers.
One pitcher who ended up making the Hall of Fame admitted it: Gaylord Perry. In 1975, he published an autobiography, Me and the Spitter. He claimed to have used Vaseline, but wouldn't say where he hid it. He would also fake hitters out by wiping the sweat off his face, and off his brow, leading some people to think he kept the Vaseline on the brim of his cap. "Just the idea that batters think I'm throwing the spitter when I might not be helps me," he said. "Some of 'em worry more about whether I'm throwing it than about hitting it."
Only once was he ever caught on the field, in 1982, at the age of 44, having already joined the 300 Wins Club and the 3,000 Strikeouts Club, and having become the 1st pitcher to win the Cy Young Award in both Leagues, and, at the time, the oldest pitcher to win the Cy Young.
Yankee Hall-of-Famer Whitey Ford admitted that, late in his career, he would damage the ball, using his wedding ring. (He was lefthanded.) Sometimes, he would ask his catcher, Elston Howard, to cut the ball on the edge of his shinguard.
In the 1986 National League Championship Series, when Houston Astros pitcher Mike Scott was beating the New York Mets -- a team for which he had once pitched, without success -- making their expected World Championship look less than inevitable for the 1st time all season, the Mets accused him of scuffing the ball. The umpires looked at the balls the Mets had collected, and didn't think them damaged enough to toss Scott. The Mets won the Pennant, anyway, clinching in Game 6, thus avoiding a Game 7 against Scott on the road.
Two more former Astro pitchers were caught doctoring the ball, at around the same time. During a game between the Yankees and the California Angels, future Hall-of-Famer Don Sutton was caught on instant replay with a small piece of sandpaper taped to his glove hand. And Joe Niekro, then with the Minnesota Twins, was told to empty his pockets in mid-game, and an emery board fell out. Like his Hall of Fame brother Phil, Joe had used a knuckleball to great success, winning 221 games. If he wanted a pitch that would break sharply, why didn't he just throw his regular knuckler?
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September 20, 1934 was a Thursday. On that day, Sofia Costanza Brigida Villani Scicolone was
born in Rome. We would know her as Sophia Loren, one of the greatest actresses, and one of the most beautiful women, who has ever lived.
These other baseball games were played that day:
* The New York Yankees beat the Detroit Tigers, 11-7 at Navin Field in Detroit. (It was renamed Briggs Stadium in 1938 and Tiger Stadium in 1961.) Babe Ruth didn't play, but Lou Gehrig went 1-for-3 with 2 RBIs. Goose Goslin hit a home run, and Hank Greenberg went 1-for-4 with a walk and an RBI.
* The New York Giants beat the Cincinnati Reds, 4-3 at the Polo Grounds. Manager-1st baseman Bill Terry went 0-for-4. Mel Ott went 1-for-4. Carl Hubbell outpitched Paul Derringer.
* The St. Louis Cardinals swept a doubleheader from the Boston Braves at Braves Field in Boston, 4-1 and 1-0. In the nightcap, Bill Walker allowed 8 hits, but kept the shutout.
* The Philadelphia Phillies beat the Chicago Cubs, 9-7 at Baker Bowl in Philadelphia.
* The Cleveland Indians beat the Washington Senators, 6-1 at League Park in Cleveland.
* The Philadelphia Athletics beat the Chicago White Sox, 6-5 at Comiskey Park in Chicago. Jimmie Foxx and Pinky Higgins hit home runs.
* And the St. Louis Browns beat the Boston Red Sox, 4-3 at Sportsman's Park in St. Louis.
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