At the end of the 1933 season, Grove signed with Tom Yawkey's Boston Red Sox, where he would spend the last eight years of his career. He won four more ERA titles with the Red Sox and became a member of major league baseball's elite 300-win club on June 25, 1941, with a 10-6 win over the Cleveland Indians. Grove was the twelfth pitcher in history to reach the 300-win plateau.
Grove announced his retirement on Dec. 7, 1941. The Japanese attack on Pearl Harbor overshadowed the news of his departure. His name displayed on The Van Ness Street Banners of Glory outside of Fenway Park in Boston is a reminder of his elite status among Red Sox legends. Grove remains the only pitcher to win his 300th game in a Red Sox uniform.
Grove was inducted into the National Baseball Hall of Fame in 1947. During professional baseball's centennial celebration in 1969, he was selected as the left-handed pitcher for the All-Time All-Star Team. In 1999, he was named to Major League Baseball's All-Century Team. In 2002, he was inducted posthumously into the Boston Red Sox Hall of Fame, 61 years after his retirement. His .680 winning percentage is still the highest among 300-game winners.
Grove's nine ERA titles, including seven in a row, are a record by considerable margin, and he remains tied for the most consecutive victories
during a single season by an American League pitcher.
The Philadelphia Athletics display at the National Baseball Hall of Fame and Museum cites Grove as "the greatest left-handed pitcher in American League history."
Jim Kaplan author of Grove's biography "Lefty Grove: American Original" affirmed in his article for the Society for American Baseball Research: "Lefty Grove may have been baseball's greatest all-tie pitcher. He was certainly its most dominant."
[Caption:]
1939 Old Timers' Game, Fenway Park, Boston—Smokey Joe Wood, Cy Young, Lefty Grove and Walter Johnson
(Courtesy Boston Public Library, Leslie Jones Collection)
[Caption from image to the left of the plaque:]
Lonaconing native, Logan Muster's painting of Lefty Grove, circa 1960.
Comments 0 comments