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).

According to Baseball Digest, the Phillies were able to hit him because they knew when he was throwing the spitter. The Dodgers were mystified about this; first they thought the relative newcomer of a catcher, Hank DeBerry, was unwittingly giving away his signals to the pitcher, so they substituted veteran Zack Taylor, to no avail. They suggested that a spy with binoculars was concealed in the scoreboard in old Baker Bowl in Philadelphia, reading the signals from a distance, but the Phils hit Grimes just as well in Ebbetts Field in Brooklyn. A batboy solved the mystery by pointing out that Burleigh's cap was too tight. It sounded silly, but he was right. The tighter cap would wiggle when Grimes flexed his facial muscles to prepare the spitter. He got a cap a half-size larger and the Phillies were on their own after that.^{[citation needed]}

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. He managed the Toronto Maple Leafs of the International League from 1942 to 1944, and again in 1952 and 1953, winning the pennant in 1943.

Grimes acquired a lasting field reputation for his temperament. He is listed in the Baseball Hall of Shame series for the act of throwing a ball at the batter in the on-deck circle.^[1] His friends and supporters note that he was consistently a kind man when off the diamond.

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.