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  1. #1
    Join Date
    Feb 2007
    Location
    Raleigh, NC

    Mudcat Grant, RIP.

    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/

  2. #2
    Join Date
    Nov 2007
    Location
    Vermont
    Quote Originally Posted by jimsumner View Post
    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/
    I miss the great nicknames of decades ago in baseball, and Mudcat had a great one.

  3. #3
    Join Date
    Dec 2014
    Location
    On the Road to Nowhere
    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.

  4. #4
    Join Date
    Feb 2007
    Location
    Steamboat Springs, CO
    Quote Originally Posted by budwom View Post
    I miss the great nicknames of decades ago in baseball, and Mudcat had a great one.
    You mean like "Oil Can" Boyd and "Catfish" Hunter. Then there is "Champ" Summers, who was known as John Summers until he got to Oakland and Reggie Jackson decided that he needed a more exciting name. Reggie came up with him "Champ."
    Sage Grouse

    ---------------------------------------
    '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

  5. #5
    Join Date
    Apr 2011
    Location
    Winston’Salem
    Quote Originally Posted by sagegrouse View Post
    You mean like "Oil Can" Boyd and "Catfish" Hunter. Then there is "Champ" Summers, who was known as John Summers until he got to Oakland and Reggie Jackson decided that he needed a more exciting name. Reggie came up with him "Champ."
    And "Goose" Gossage. At minimum.
    "Amazing what a minute can do."

  6. #6
    The Bird & Suddon Don

  7. #7
    Join Date
    Dec 2011
    Location
    Chicago
    The Mad Hungarian

    The Big Hurt

    The Big Unit

  8. #8
    Join Date
    Nov 2007
    Location
    Vermont
    now they're all named Shawn or Sean and look exactly the same.

  9. #9
    Join Date
    Apr 2011
    Location
    Winston’Salem
    Quote Originally Posted by luvdahops View Post
    The Mad Hungarian

    The Big Hurt

    The Big Unit
    Wild Thang.
    "Amazing what a minute can do."

  10. #10
    Join Date
    Jun 2008
    Location
    Winston Salem, NC
    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.

  11. #11
    Join Date
    Feb 2007
    Location
    Steamboat Springs, CO
    Quote Originally Posted by sagegrouse View Post
    You mean like "Oil Can" Boyd and "Catfish" Hunter. Then there is "Champ" Summers, who was known as John Summers until he got to Oakland and Reggie Jackson decided that he needed a more exciting name. Reggie came up with the name "Champ."
    Got around to reading my own post and correcting the last sentence
    Sage Grouse

    ---------------------------------------
    '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

  12. #12
    Join Date
    Feb 2007
    Location
    Raleigh, NC
    Quote Originally Posted by sagegrouse View Post
    You mean like "Oil Can" Boyd and "Catfish" Hunter. Then there is "Champ" Summers, who was known as John Summers until he got to Oakland and Reggie Jackson decided that he needed a more exciting name. Reggie came up with him "Champ."
    Jim Hunter hated that nickname. Charlie Finley came up with it to sell tickets and exploit a regional stereotype. Hunter had nothing to do with it.

  13. #13
    Join Date
    Apr 2011
    Location
    Winston’Salem
    Quote Originally Posted by jimsumner View Post
    Jim Hunter hated that nickname. Charlie Finley came up with it to sell tickets and exploit a regional stereotype. Hunter had nothing to do with it.
    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."

  14. #14
    Join Date
    Feb 2007
    Location
    Raleigh, NC
    Quote Originally Posted by Tripping William View Post
    Minor quibble with the last sentence. That 'stache *may* have contributed. Just sayin'.

    Hunter Catfish NY73-13-HS_NBLMcWilliamsfb.jpg
    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?

  15. #15
    Join Date
    Apr 2011
    Location
    Winston’Salem
    Quote Originally Posted by jimsumner View Post
    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?
    That the ‘stache looks like catfish whiskers. 😂 Why grow it in that way if you hate the nickname?
    "Amazing what a minute can do."

  16. #16
    Join Date
    Dec 2014
    Location
    On the Road to Nowhere
    Quote Originally Posted by Tripping William View Post
    That the ‘stache looks like catfish whiskers. 😂 Why grow it in that way if you hate the nickname?
    You must not have grown up in the '70s.

  17. #17
    Join Date
    Apr 2011
    Location
    Winston’Salem
    Quote Originally Posted by dudog84 View Post
    You must not have grown up in the '70s.
    It was mandatory? I missed that part while cheering on the Bronx Zoo Yankees ….
    Last edited by Tripping William; 06-17-2021 at 07:39 PM.
    "Amazing what a minute can do."

  18. #18
    Join Date
    Feb 2007
    Location
    Watching carolina Go To HELL!
    Quote Originally Posted by Tripping William View Post
    It was mandatory? I missed that part while cheering on the Bronx Zoo Yankees ….
    Hmmm. Manager Billy Martin, Thurman Munson, Goose Gossage. They all had mustaches (to irritate The Boss). Just to name a few off the top of my head!
    Ozzie, your paradigm of optimism!

    Go To Hell carolina, Go To Hell!
    9F 9F 9F
    https://ecogreen.greentechaffiliate.com

  19. #19
    Join Date
    Apr 2011
    Location
    Winston’Salem
    Quote Originally Posted by OZZIE4DUKE View Post
    Hmmm. Manager Billy Martin, Thurman Munson, Goose Gossage. They all had mustaches (to irritate The Boss). Just to name a few off the top of my head!
    Ron Guidry, too. But not Graig Nettles or Bucky Dent.
    "Amazing what a minute can do."

  20. #20
    Join Date
    Feb 2007
    Location
    I moved. Now 12 miles from Heaven, 13 from Hell
    Quote Originally Posted by jimsumner View Post
    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?
    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.)

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