New York Yankees’ Japanese rookie sensation Masahiro Tanaka took the baseball world by storm with his dominant start to the season. He won 12 games before the All-Star break, which set a new rookie record.
It looked to be a certainty that Tanaka would win the magic number of 20 games – an impressive feat in his first professional season. However, a partial ligament tear in his right elbow landed him on the disabled list and has crushed any possibility of him getting to the 20-win plateau, even if he returns for a few starts down the stretch.
Though of course never wishing for any pitcher to get hurt, there’s one family – the Grim family – that maybe wasn’t too upset when the Japanese hurler was sidelined.
That’s because former Yankees’ right-hander Bob Grim currently stands as the last American League rookie pitcher to win 20 games in a season. His efforts earned him the 1954 American League Rookie of the Year Award.
It just so happens that almost exactly 60 years ago to the day, former Tablet sports columnist Jack Butler profiled Grim in the Aug. 28, 1954 edition of the newspaper. Born in Manhattan to parents from Hungary, Grim grew up playing Catholic Youth Organization baseball and attending grammar school at Our Lady of Lourdes, Bushwick. He and his childhood friend and catcher, Hank Schaetzle, would always be out on Hull Street playing ball.
He went on to pitch at Franklin K. Lane H.S., Woodhaven. When Butler’s article was published, he wrote the following of Grim: “Bob is a real New Yorker – he was born in the borough of Manhattan, raised in Brooklyn, got his high school education in Queens and now earns a nice living throwing little, white baseballs every few days in the Bronx.”
Grim only managed a 6-3 pitching record in his two high school varsity seasons. But his coach, Bob Berman, convinced him that he had the makings of a pro pitcher.
“On the basis of this six and three record, along with pitching in amateur and semi-pro ranks, I had the nerve to aspire to a baseball career,” Grim told The Sporting News in an article that ran on July 21, 1954. “I don’t know if any pitcher ever had that ambition with less to back him up, arithmetically.”
During his senior year in 1948, Grim actually did receive contract offers from the New York Giants, Boston Braves, Chicago Cubs and the Yankees. The Brooklyn Dodgers invited him to try out at Ebbets Field, but the team told him to come back in another year – which led him to sign with the Yankees for $3,500.
Grim spent four up-and-down seasons in the minor leagues before he was drafted into the Marines in 1951, where he was assigned to a Special Services Unit at Camp Lejeune, N.C. He never saw any combat action, and, in fact, he spent most of his time as a pitcher playing three or four games a week. He finished 16-11 in 1952 and an astounding 23-4 the following year.
In 1954, Grim was invited to Yankees’ spring training in St. Petersburg, Fla. He said his time in the Marines gave him the strength and confidence to impress legendary Yankees’ manager Casey Stengel, who decided to carry Grim as his fourth starter.
1954 Season
And what a decision it was! Grim pitched as a starter and reliever and finished 20-6 with a 3.26 ERA. He tossed 199.0 innings and turned in eight complete games as a 24-year-old, making him the youngest pitcher on the Yankees’ staff. He and Pedro Martinez (2002) are the only pitchers ever to win 20 games with less than 200.0 innings pitched.
That season, Grim became only the second rookie to win 20-plus games in a season. In 1910, Russ Ford of the New York Highlanders – forebears of the Yankees – won 26 games in his rookie campaign. In the National League, Tom Browning of the Cincinnati Reds accomplished the feat by winning 20 games in his rookie year of 1985.
Unfortunately for Grim, his slider – which was his best pitch – began to give him arm troubles in 1955. His tendons had pulled away from the bone in his pitching arm, which eventually led to him pitching exclusively as a reliever. For his career, he pitched in two World Series (1955 and 1957) and was an All-Star in 1957. He finished with a 61-41 career record pitching for the Yankees, Kansas City Athletics, Cleveland Indians, Cincinnati Reds and St. Louis Cardinals.
During his offseasons, Grim bartended at his father’s bar and grill on Broadway in East New York, which became a neighborhood gathering place for baseball fans. He always took care of his close friends and family.
“He (Grim) used to leave us tickets to go to Yankee Stadium,” said Joe Schick, a parishioner at Our Lady of Perpetual Help Basilica, Sunset Park, who went to grammar school, high school and served in the Marines with Grim. “Bobby was good, and I went to the World Series with him.”
Throughout his career, Grim always claimed that his success was due to prayer. He told Butler that his mother and father would pray for him every day since he started playing ball. He also wore a gold medal of the Blessed Mother and carried a Sacred Heart scapular with him at all times.
“He was very religious; he never missed Mass,” said Bob’s brother Anton, currently a parishioner at St. Joseph’s Church, Garden City, L.I, who has made it a project to compile all of Bob’s old baseball clippings.
Later in his life, Bob moved to Florida and then to Kansas, where he worked at a wholesale liquor company in Kansas City. He was able to enjoy his two passions other than baseball: hunting and fishing. He passed away in 1996 at the age of 66.
Record Survives
The name “Bob Grim” seemed to disappear with the passage of time but certainly not among the Grim family, which has celebrated Bob’s historic rookie season for all these years.
“It’s a stat that’s very important to us as a family,” said Bob’s nephew Anton Jr. “A lot of people don’t realize it. To us, it’s history, and we’re very proud of him (Bob). It adds to the glory of the Grim name being carried on.”
So while keeping the record in the family name seemed quite “grim” earlier this season given Tanaka’s success, Bob Grim will remain the last American League rookie pitcher to win 20 games in a season. And how fitting that 2014 marks the 60th anniversary of that memorable season.
“We’re in good shape for another year,” Anton Sr. said. “It’s amazing!”[hr]All photos from slideshow courtesy of Anton Grim Jr.[hr]Contact Jim Mancari via email at jmancari@desalesmedia.org.[hr]