Lefty Grove

Robert Moses "Lefty" Grove (March 6, 1900 – May 22, 1975) was an American professional baseball pitcher. After finding success in the minor leagues during the early 1920s, Grove became a star in Major League Baseball with the American League's Philadelphia Athletics and Boston Red Sox. He led the American League in wins in four separate seasons, in strikeouts for seven consecutive seasons, and posted the league's lowest earned run average a record nine times. Over the three years from 1929 to 1931, he twice won the pitcher's Triple Crown, leading the league in wins, strikeouts, and ERA, while compiling a 79–15 record and carrying the Athletics to three straight AL championships. Across his 17-year major league career, Grove won 300 games. Born in Lonaconing, Maryland, he was one of eight children of John Robert Grove and Emma Catherine Beeman; his father and brothers mined coal. Grove was a sandlot star in the Baltimore area during the 1910s and did not play organized baseball until he was 19 years old. He was elected to the National Baseball Hall of Fame in 1947.