Charlie Grimm
Charlie Grimm | ||
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Winning % | .547 | |
Teams | ||
As player
As manager | ||
Career highlights and awards | ||
Charles John Grimm (August 28, 1898 – November 15, 1983), nicknamed "Jolly Cholly", was an American
Playing career
Early years and Pittsburgh (1916–1924)
Grimm made his start in the majors in 1916, having been signed by the Philadelphia Athletics as an amateur free agent on July 28; two days later, he played against the Chicago White Sox in Chicago to play left field. He went 0-for-3 with a walk and a strikeout in the 10–1 loss.[3] He played twelve games for the Philadelphia Athletics, with five of those games spent as a pinch hitter and the other games in the outfield. He managed two hits and was purchased by Durham after the year ended. He batted .253 with the Bulls in 29 games before he found his way back to the majors again in 1918. He played with the St. Louis Cardinals and appeared in 50 games from June to August while batting .220 while serving usually as the first baseman or pinch hitter.[4] He also spent time with the Little Rock Travelers for the season and batted .298 in 56 games. He would split time with the Travelers (131 games) and a major league team again with the 1919 season, this time playing with the Pittsburgh Pirates (after purchasing him) for 14 games in the month of September.[5] After batting .318 with the latter team, he stayed on with the team on a more permanent basis.[6]
Grimm played 148 games with the Pirates for 1920, primarily at first base, where he had a .995 fielding percentage in 1,327 innings. He batted .227/.273/.289 for the team; he hit his first home run on June 29 against the Chicago Cubs.[7] He had 54 RBIs while walking 30 times and striking out 40 times.
For the next season, he played in 151 games while raising his totals in every category, batting .274 while having 154 hits and 71 runs batted in (RBI) to go with 31 walks to 38 strikeouts. He continued to raise himself in the following two years, which included batting .345 in 1923
In 1924, Grimm closed out his Pirates career by playing 151 games and batting .288 with 156 hits and 63 RBIs, which were all decreases from the year before. However, he walked 37 times while only striking out 22 times, making it just the second time in five full seasons with the team that he had more walks than strikeouts. Ultimately, Grimm played 770 games with the Pirates over the course of five and a half seasons (missing just twelve games in those five full seasons).
Chicago Cubs (1925–1936)
On October 27, 1924, he was traded along with Wilbur Cooper and Rabbit Maranville to the Chicago Cubs. The Pirates would go to the World Series twice without Grimm in the next three seasons and win once while Grimm would play a part in one pennant as a player for the Cubs, often serving as a bright spot in the team. For example, he played 141 games for the Cubs in 1925 and batted .306 while having 159 hits and 76 RBIs, which went well with 38 walks and 25 strikeouts to garner a 13th place finish in voting for Most Valuable Player. He continued to have more walks than strikeouts, which he would do for ten straight seasons. From 1920 to 1932, he would have at least 120 hits, and he would hit .300 for the Cubs four times.
In 1929, his team would finally buoy itself into the pantheon for the National League pennant, the first for the team in eleven years. He batted .298 in 120 games while having 91 RBIs (the most he ever recorded as a Cub) with 138 hits. The Cubs advanced to the World Series against his old team in the Athletics. He was the only hitter on the team to bat left-handed, which proved key to the right-handed pitchers for the Athletics, who were not troubled by having Lefty Grove go in the bullpen. In five games, he had seven hits (including a home run that gave them a 2–0 lead in Game 4), but they were doomed by a memorable meltdown in Game 4, in which they lost an 8–0 lead on multiple hits and even a miscue by Hack Wilson that led to a home run and eventually ten runs in the bottom of the 7th inning. The Athletics prevailed two days later to win the Series.
In 1932, as player-manager, he led them to the National League pennant. He played in 149 games while batting .307 and having 80 RBIs and 175 hits. During the season, he recorded his 2,000th hit, doing so on July 6 against the Philadelphia Phillies at Wrigley Field off Snipe Hansen.[8] In the World Series that year, he had five hits in what turned out to be an easy sweep for the Yankees.
The following year was his last as a primary player for the team, as he played in 107 games while batting .247. He would play a combined total of 116 games in his last three seasons. While he did not lead many categories in the hitting department, he was a solid fielder in terms of durability, playing 2,131 games in the first base position (owing to twelve seasons of being in the top ten for games played alongside putouts) that ranked third at the time he retired, and his 20,711 putouts are fifth most in MLB history (Eddie Murray is the only player to have passed Grimm since the latter's retirement). He also led the league in fielding percentage for the position seven times.
In 2,166 games over 20 seasons, spanning from 1916–1936, Grimm posted a .290
Managerial career
Chicago Cubs (1932–1938, 1944–1949)
On August 2, 1932, Rogers Hornsby was fired by the Cubs.[9] Grimm was enlisted by the team to serve as player-manager. While serving as manager for the remaining 55 games, he rallied them to 37 wins that helped the team finish with a 90–64 record, finishing four games ahead of Pittsburgh for the National League pennant. This was the first pennant for the Cubs since 1929. In the 1932 World Series, they would be swept by the New York Yankees in four games. Grimm would retain the position of manager for the next seven seasons. In his first tenure as the Cubs manager, his teams would finish no worse than third place. In the two seasons after his first pennant, he led them to 86 wins each, which was good for third place. The 1935 season proved superior for Grimm and Cubs, as he led them to their first 100-win season in 25 years, made most memorable by a 21-game winning streak in the month of September. In the World Series that year against the Detroit Tigers, they won the first game in Detroit before losing the next three. They rallied to win Game 5 at Wrigley Field, but the Tigers won a walk-off hit from Goose Goslin to win 4–3 and seal the Series. The Cubs went 87–67 for a third place finish the following year (which was Grimm's last as a player-manager), but they improved to 93–61 and second place the year after. 1938 was his last season of his first tenure as manager of the Cubs. The team was 45–36 when owner P. K. Wrigley moved Grimm to the broadcast booth and named catcher Gabby Hartnett as player-manager. As Grimm had done six years earlier, Hartnett led the Cubs to a dramatic comeback to win the league pennant that season.
After a sluggish start to the 1944 season which the team lost ten in a row after winning the Opening Day game, Grimm was hired to manage the club again. The team finished fourth in the standings with a 75–79 record (the fifth straight losing season for the team). However, Grimm led them to a dramatic improvement the following year, going 98–56 to win the league pennant for the first time since 1938. In the World Series that year, Grimm's team faced off against the Tigers once again. It was a hard-fought series, going down to the decisive seventh game at Wrigley Field. The Cubs were trounced 9–3, with six of the Tiger runs coming in the first two innings. It was the last pennant for the Cubs for 71 years. The Cubs went 82–71 the following year, finishing 3rd in the standings. It was the last time the team had a record of .500 until 1963. Grimm finished his last three seasons with losing record (69–85, 64–90, 19–31) before resigning in 1949.
After his resignation from being manager, he served as the Cubs' Director of Player Personnel, then the club's title for
Later career (1952–1956, 1960)
Grimm would soon become a major baseball figure in
He then managed the
He was brought out of retirement to direct the Cubs again in early 1960, but the team got off to a slow start, and owner
It was in 1961 that Wrigley began his "College of Coaches", of which Grimm was a part but was never designated "Head Coach". One of the Cubs' coaches during that 5-year experiment was baseball's first black coach, Buck O'Neil.
Legacy
Grimm finished with a record of 1,287–1,067–12 while having a postseason record of 5–12. His 946 wins as a Cubs manager rank second behind
Managerial record
Team | From | To | Regular season record | Post–season record | ||||||
---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
G | W | L | Win % | G | W | L | Win % | |||
Chicago Cubs | 1932 | 1938 | 903 | 534 | 369 | .591 | 10 | 2 | 8 | .200 |
Chicago Cubs | 1944 | 1949 | 808 | 406 | 402 | .502 | 7 | 3 | 4 | .429 |
Boston/Milwaukee Braves | 1952 | 1956 | 626 | 341 | 285 | .545 | — | |||
Chicago Cubs | 1960 | 1960 | 17 | 6 | 11 | .353 | ||||
Total | 2354 | 1287 | 1067 | .547 | 17 | 5 | 12 | .294 | ||
Ref.:[12] |
Post-retirement
After his retirement from baseball, he lived adjacent to Lake Koshkonong, near Fort Atkinson, Wisconsin. Grimm died in Scottsdale, Arizona, at age 85, from cancer. His widow was granted permission to spread his ashes on Wrigley Field.
See also
- List of Major League Baseball career hits leaders
- List of Major League Baseball career triples leaders
- List of Major League Baseball career runs batted in leaders
- List of Major League Baseball managers by wins
- List of Major League Baseball player-managers
References
- ^ Society of Baseball Research / SABR "Grimm’s German-born father wanted him to join the family painting business, but young Charlie had other ideas."
- ^ Major League Baseball Players of 1916: A Biographical Dictionary
- ^ "Philadelphia Athletics at Chicago White Sox Box Score, July 30, 1916".
- ^ "Charlie Grimm 1918 Batting Game Logs".
- ^ "Charlie Grimm 1919 Batting Game Logs".
- ^ "Charlie Grimm Minor Leagues Statistics & History".
- ^ "Pittsburgh Pirates at Chicago Cubs Box Score, June 29, 1920".
- ^ "Philadelphia Phillies at Chicago Cubs Box Score, July 6, 1932".
- ^ "Rogers Hornsby – Society for American Baseball Research".
- ^ "Charlie Grimm – Society for American Baseball Research".
- ^ a b "Charlie Grimm". Baseball Reference. Sports Reference LLC. Retrieved August 13, 2016.
- ^ "Is this a golden age of Hall of Fame managers? | Sports Illustrated".
External links
- Career statistics and player information from Baseball Reference, or Baseball Reference (Minors)
- Interview with baseball player Charlie Grimm, with additional comments (sound recording) by Eugene C. Murdock on June 14, in Scottsdale, Ariz. (45 min.). Available on Cleveland Public Library's Digital Gallery.
- Jack Bales, "The Original 'Mr. Cub,'" WrigleyIvy.com.