Top 106 Baseball Players: #32 - Lefty Grove

Lefty Grove

Lefty Grove was one of the greatest left-handed pitchers in history, and he spent almost an entire decade as the best pitcher in baseball, though few remember him today.

Grove did not pitch in the Majors until he was 25, in 1925, because his independent minor league team refused to send him to a Major League team for years. When he finally made his way to the Philadelphia Athletics, he was already ready for success. He led the league in strikeouts as a rookie, the first of 7 straight years that he would lead the league, an incredible way to start a career.

In 1926 he led the league in ERA, and in 1928 in strikeouts, then in 1930 and 1931 put it all together to win 2 straight pitching Triple Crowns. In 1930 he went 28-5 with a 2.54 ERA and 209 strikeouts, plus 9 saves to lead the league. The next year he went 31-4 with a 2.06 ERA and 175 strikeouts, and also led the league with 27 complete games and 4 shutouts, and took home the AL MVP award for his dominance.

He was also a part of the Athletics teams that reached 3 straight World Series, along with Jimmie Foxx, who was behind him in this countdown, and Lefty was a big part of those titles. In the 1929 World Series he pitched exclusively in relief, facing 22 batters, 10 of whom he struck out, and didn't give up a single run to finish as the best pitcher in that Series. The next year he went 2-1 with a 1.42 ERA as the A's repeated as champs, but his ERA "ballooned" to 2.42 the following year as they failed to three-peat.

Even as the most dominant period of his career was ending as he entered his mid-30's, he maintained his great ERA numbers. He was traded to the Red Sox before the 1934 season, and led the league in ERA 4 more times in Boston, in addition to the 5 times he won the title in Philadelphia. Those 9 ERA titles are the most of any pitcher in history.

He won his 300th game late in the 1941 season, and it would turn out to be his final victory, making his career record 300-141, the 8th-best winning percentage in history, and the highest of any member of the 300-win club. He is one of the few pitcher to ever win an MVP, was instrumental in 2 World Series titles, led the league in ERA more often than anyone else ever, and is definitely one of the greatest players of all time.