Lefty Grove Memorial Park

Robert Moses “Lefty” Grove was born into extreme poverty on March 6, 1900, in the mining town of Lonaconing in western Maryland.

 

He was one of eight children and the one male in his family who did not work as a coal miner. He was a sandlot star in his teens who broke into organized ball at 19 with the Martinsburg Mountaineers.

 

After putting up gaudy stats with that team, he was tapped by Jack Dunn, Sr. to join the Baltimore Orioles (a minor league team at that time). Dunn was the same wily baseball mind who had discovered Babe Ruth, and he was able to procure Grove’s estimable pitching skills by paying for Martinsburg to repair their center field wall.

 

Over four seasons, Grove dominated the league by recording the most strikeouts each year, and earning an overall record of 96-34 in the International League of AAA ball.

 

Dunn finally sold Grove’s rights to Connie Mack and the Philadelphia Athletics in 1925 for $100,600, which was the highest amount ever paid for a player at the time. 

 

After a subpar rookie season, Grove went on to win the first of nine ERA titles - a mark that still stands to this day. No other player has ever won more than six.

 

He led the Athletics to three consecutive AL penants from 1929-1931, including back-to-back World Series Championships in ‘29 and ‘30. He won the MVP award in 1931 on the strength of his 31-4 record, 2.06 ERA, and 175 strikeouts - all league bests, along with the highest winning percentage, and most complete games and shutouts.

 

In 1933, Grove was traded to the Boston Red Sox. As in his rookie season, he was hampered by injury and produced mediocre results. The following year, he won the ERA title and went on to win four more with his new team. In 1940 and his final season in 1941, he faded hard, but managed to record his 300th win before retiring at the end of that season.

 

After baseball, Grove returned to his hometown of Lonaconing and served on the town council and later as police chief. He operated a bowling alley, “Lefty’s Place,” between 1929 and 1961.

 

Following the death of his wife Ethyl, he moved to Norwalk, Ohio and spent the last 14 years of his life living there with his son Bobby and daughter-in-law Jean. He died on May 22, 1975.

 

Grove was inducted into the MLB Hall of Fame in 1947, and was eulogized at his funeral by then-HOF-President Kenneth Smith as “the best left-handed pitcher in baseball history.” He is buried in Frostburg Memorial Park, about 8 miles from his hometown.

 

The Lefty Grove Memorial Park began as a committee project in 2014 and was opened to the public on June 22, 2019. The park’s entrance gate is modeled after the Eutaw Street entrance to Camden Yards. Just inside the gate is a batter’s box, where visitors find themselves facing off with the fearsome hurler on a pitcher’s mound as he is completing his pitching motion. The statue was created by Maryland native Susan Luery, who is also responsible for the iconic statue “Babe’s Dream,” at Camden Yards, which depicts fellow Maryland-born baseball legend George Herman “Babe” Ruth.

 

There is a replica of the first electronic scoreboard in baseball history, which was installed at Fenway Park in 1934, just as Grove was settling in with the Red Sox.

 

The “field” is flanked by several historical markers that relay detailed information about Grove’s life before, during, and after baseball. It’s definitely worth a visit for lovers of America’s Pastime!