Background
Grove was born on March 6, 1900, in Lonaconing, Maryland, one of seven children of John Grove and Emma Beeman. His father was a coal miner, and Grove grew up in a hardscrabble rural community.
Grove was born on March 6, 1900, in Lonaconing, Maryland, one of seven children of John Grove and Emma Beeman. His father was a coal miner, and Grove grew up in a hardscrabble rural community.
Young Grove's formal education was limited to eight grades of Charlestown School.
Upon leaving school, the thirteen-year old Grove went on to labor in coal mines, on railroad crews, and in local factories. A shy and sensitive youth, he developed an aloof and surly attitude that stemmed from a fear of meeting people. Grove taught himself to pitch, often using homemade equipment. He became a local star and was playing with a factory team in 1919 when he was scouted and signed to a professional contract by the newly organized Martinsburg, West Virginia, team of the Blue Ridge League. The six-foot, three-inch left-hander debuted as a Martinsburg pitcher in 1920 and was earning $125 a month when his prowess attracted the attention of Jack Dunn, owner of the International League's Baltimore Orioles. For $3, 100 Dunn bought Grove's contract from the Martinsburg owner, who used the windfall to build a much-needed outfield fence. Joining the powerful Orioles was a heady experience for the unsophisticated Grove. Shunned as a rookie by his teammates, he became a driven loner. But the hard-throwing Grove became a dominant pitcher, winning twelve games and losing two in his first season. Over the next four seasons Grove won ninety-seven games and lost thirty-four as the pitching star of the perennial champion Orioles. During these years Grove led the league in strikeouts each year, but his wildness also showed as he thrice led the league in bases on balls. As the best pitcher in this top-ranked minor league, Grove was much coveted by major league teams. But the $100, 000 sale price demanded by Dunn delayed Grove's major-league debut until 1925, when owner Connie Mack of the American League's Philadelphia Athletics purchased his contract. The $100, 600 sale price was the highest paid for a player since the New York Yankees acquired Babe Ruth from the Boston Red Sox in 1920. Much was expected of Grove when he joined the Athletics in 1925, but his debut with this second place team was inauspicious. Although he led the league in strikeouts, he also led in bases on balls and his 10-12 won-loss record was Grove's only losing season of his seventeen-year major-league career. Improving in 1926, he compiled a 13-13 record while leading the league in strikeouts and earned run average. A driven perfectionist, he improved his control and intimidated batters with his speed and his meanness. Grove's greatness came to fruition in 1927 when he began a skein of seven consecutive seasons during which he won at least twenty games each season. During these years the Athletics won consecutive American League pennants in 1929-1931, with Grove winning seventy-nine games and losing only fifteen. During the 1930 season, when hitters posted their highest batting marks of the twentieth century, Grove's 28-5 pitching record led all American League pitchers. And in 1931, Grove's 31-4 performance, which included a record tying string of sixteen straight victories, won him the American League's Most Valuable Player Award. In three World Series appearances during these years Grove pitched in eight of the eighteen games, winning four and losing two, with an earned run average (ERA) of 1. 75. At the pinnacle of his career, Grove was reputed to be the fastest pitcher in the game. Grove's nine seasons with the Athletics ended in 1933 when the financially straitened Mack sold him to the Boston Red Sox for $125, 000, an astonishing sum for an aging ballplayer in a Great Depression year. But Grove's pitching prowess was unsurpassed by any contemporary. Indeed, his 24-8 record of 1933 was his seventh straight season of twenty or more victories, and in nine seasons with the Athletics he compiled a 195-79 won-loss record with an ERA of 2. 87. But Grove's Boston debut in 1934 was hampered by arm trouble and his 8-8 mark was disappointing. He rebounded in 1935 and posted his eighth and last twenty-victory season. By then, with age tolling on his vaunted fastball, Grove had become a finesse pitcher who learned to pace himself and to rely more on the mixed deliveries he had developed in later years. Thus he became one of the few left-handed pitchers to successfully cope with Boston's notoriously short left-field fence. In eight seasons with the Red Sox Grove led the American League in ERA four times and compiled a 105-62 record. Grove was forty-one years old when he won his three-hundredth major-league game by beating the Cleveland Indians on July 25, 1941. It was his last major-league victory and he was released at the end of the season. During his career Grove led the majors in more pitching performance areas than any other pitcher. In retirement Grove resided in Lonaconing, where he owned and operated a bowling alley and served terms as police commissioner and town councilman. Widowed in 1961, he moved to Norwalk, Ohio, where he lived with his son and daughter-in-law until his death, which occured on May 22, 1975. He is buried in Frostburg, Maryland.
Grove was an aloof loner, an inveterate hotel-lobby sitter who punished himself by smoking ten-cent cigars when he lost but more often rewarding himself with twenty-five-cent perfectos when he notched a frequent victory.
Grove was married to Ethel Gardner of Lonaconing; they had two children.
