Show speaking of 01 sports ManGrove Old 3 39 still king kingin in portside ranks by ROBERT mcshane R OBERT nobert MOSES GROVE who alx lx came cam e au out t of the h hills ills ot of lona coning rid md back in 1920 Is pitching his fifteenth season ol of major league baseball lefty was 20 years old when he joined tile the Mart martinsburg insburg team ot of the B blue lue ridge league in ial he went to baltimore where he won games in five years in 1925 when he was 25 years old he went to philadelphia where in his first two years he won 23 games and lost 25 lor for the athletics an unimpressive record but one which taught him how to pitch with his head as well as his portside arm the Lona lonaconing coning lancers lifetime life time major league record brought up to date la Is likely to stand tor for many a year at this writing grove has pitched innings in games he has won of those games a as s against losses for a percentage ag of on may 3 1938 he joined the list of pitchers who struck I 1 ROBERT MOSES GROVE out 2000 or more batters his present strike out total is 2117 in that tl time e he has given up hits and 1 1050 bases on balls in a four year stretch grove won games and lost 23 f for or an average of in 1931 he won 31 games and lost only four this is the best single season pitching record in modern baseball in a seven year span 1927 1933 he won games and lost 54 for a percentage of groves record is one of the greatest of all time and is especially impressive in view of tile the fact that his pitching was d done 0 ne w with ill a lively ively ball speed ball artist lofty lefty started out as a fire tall lall l all pi pitcher acher no other southpaw could IOU touch li his fast ball and he depended largely upon it he was strictly a speed ball artist but even the greatest pitchers cant go on forever smoking them over and he finally felt his speed slipping grove then developed a curve ball and a change of pace he studied his batters learned their weaknesses and outsmarted them ile he saved his arm and when the occasion demands can still summon plenty of speed which he uses sparingly tom yawkey owner of the boston red sox bought grove from connie mack in 1934 paying slightly more than for him lefty had reported at the ho training camp with a dead arm and the experts were e congratulating black for a smart t operator grove much help I 1 to 0 the sox so that hat first season his arm f failed to respond ire ile finished the season with a record of eight won and eight lost the following year mack so sure he had put over a good deal lefty was back in form winning 20 games tor for boston and losing 12 his career seemed ended again last year wh when e n his arm went dead while he was pitching against detroit bat once more he returned to form and through the early part of 0 august this year had bad won 11 games and lost two not at all bad considering that the crepe hang ers saw the end of his big league pitching days back to in 1934 great Port siders the former blue ridge lad is one of the most consistent reliable pla players Y in the game today unlike rube waddell one of the greatest left handers banders he has developed no eccentricities tri cities rules rubes screwball characteristics te kept him from being the greatest the 1939 season is seeing a southpaw famine right now it looks as if robert moses grove he be 39 year earold gray eray haired sundar pitcher will be the only one to win more than 15 games other left handers in both leagues league are having more than their share of difficulties gomez vander bander meer lee hubbell krakauskas melton whitehill tri ln fact all sit nt them are running far below expectations so chances are that the loyacon Lo ing lancer who has been pitching on borrowed time lime for or five years will bill be the only southpaw to come corne through with a creditable record when the season Is ended |