Burleigh Grimes

Burleigh Arland Grimes (August 18, 1893 – December 6, 1985) was an American professional baseball player and manager, and the last major league pitcher officially permitted to throw the spitball. Born in Emerald, Wisconsin, he was the first child of Cecil "Nick" Grimes, a farmer and former day laborer, and Ruth Tuttle, the daughter of a former Wisconsin legislator. Nick Grimes had played baseball for several local teams and managed the Clear Lake Yellow Jackets, teaching his son the game early in life. As a child Grimes also took part in boxing. He threw and batted right-handed, and was listed at 5 feet 10 inches and 175 pounds.

Over a nineteen-season career, Grimes made the most of his permitted spitball, aided by an unshaven, menacing presence on the mound that earned him the nickname "Ol' Stubblebeard." He won 270 games, 190 of them during the 1920s — the most of any pitcher in that decade. He pitched in the World Series four times.

A decade after his induction into the Wisconsin Athletic Hall of Fame, Grimes was elected to the Baseball Hall of Fame in 1964.