Missed this from a few days ago. Jim "Mudcat" Grant was a very good pitcher who became the first Black pitcher to win 20 games in the American League, 1965, when he led the Twins into the seventh game of the World Series, where they ran into Sandy Koufax.
https://www.cbssports.com/mlb/news/f...rs-dies-at-85/
As a huge Pirates fan as a boy, I remember a bit about Mudcat. He was with the team in the championship year of '71 but was traded/sold late in the season so never got a ring. In his one World Series appearance ('65) he would have probably won the MVP if not for the outstanding performance of Sandy Koufax (whose Dodgers of course won).
R.I.P.
Sage Grouse
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'When I got on the bus for my first road game at Duke, I saw that every player was carrying textbooks or laptops. I coached in the SEC for 25 years, and I had never seen that before, not even once.' - David Cutcliffe to Duke alumni in Washington, DC, June 2013
The Bird & Suddon Don
The Mad Hungarian
The Big Hurt
The Big Unit
now they're all named Shawn or Sean and look exactly the same.
When I was a young boy (seems like yesterday), my uncle took me and 3 of my best friends to DC to see our first major league baseball game. Washington was hosting the Cleveland Indians and the starting pitcher for Cleveland was Jim "Mudcat" Grant. There were a group of Cleveland fans sitting right behind us and one of them shouted what seemed like the entire game, "Come on Mudcap". Being young kids, we giggled every time he yelled that. I don't remember much about what happened in the game but I'll never forget him calling Grant, Mudcap.
Mudcat was the first black pitcher in the AL to win 20 games. He pitched for: Cleveland, Minnesota, Montreal, ST. LOUIS, Oakland and Pittsburg.
RIP Mudcat.
Sage Grouse
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'When I got on the bus for my first road game at Duke, I saw that every player was carrying textbooks or laptops. I coached in the SEC for 25 years, and I had never seen that before, not even once.' - David Cutcliffe to Duke alumni in Washington, DC, June 2013
Minor quibble with the last sentence. That 'stache *may* have contributed. Just sayin'.
Hunter Catfish NY73-13-HS_NBLMcWilliamsfb.jpg
"Amazing what a minute can do."
I must be unusually obtuse today. Finley invented the nickname and a fictitious backstory when Hunter signed with the A's out of high school. Like most members of that early 1970s Oakland team, Hunter eventually grew a mustache. The connection between these two events eludes me. What am I missing?
Ozzie, your paradigm of optimism!
Go To Hell carolina, Go To Hell!
9F 9F 9F
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Hunter’s mustache didn’t arrive until 1972. Reggie showed up to spring training with a full beard, and Dick Williams told him to shave it off. (Very few players before had worn any facial hair.) Jackson, liking Williams about as much as he would Billy Martin, told Dick to do something anatomically impossible. Finley first tried Reverse psychology and asked a few players, including Hunter, to grow a mustache, figuring if Reggie wasn’t unique, he’s shave off the beard. Didn’t work. Cheapskate Finley ultimately offered any player who could/did grow a ‘stashe before July 4th $300. Wanting the money, By the 4th, all 25 players, along with Dick Williams, had a mustache. They, of course, became known as the Mustache Gang. And then went on to win the World Series, the A’s first WS win since 1930, back in Philadelphia.
Finley gave Jim Hunter the nickname right after he signed him in 1965. So there’s no connection between the mustache and the nickname.
(Rollie Fingers grew the most distinctive, of course.)