Philadelphia Athletics (1925 - 1933)

Philadelphia Athletics (1925 - 1933). . In 1925, following a stellar four-and-a-half-year stint in the minor leagues with the Baltimore Orioles, Grove began his major league career with Connie Mack's Philadelphia Athletics. Struggling with pitching control during his rookie year, Grove produced a 10-12 record, the only losing season of his professional career. Still, Lefty led the American League in strikeouts that year, as he would for the next six seasons., Improved control over his fastball precipitated Grove's ascent to greatness. He reeled off seven consecutive, 20-plus win seasons from 1927-1933. On Aug. 23, 1928, he became the seventh pitcher in baseball history to accomplish the "immaculate inning", using only nine pitches to strike out all three batters in a single inning. Five weeks later, on Sept. 27, he became the first pitcher to do it twice. To this day, he holds the record for being the only pitcher to accomplish the immaculate inning twice in the same season., The peak of the Athletics ascendancy to greatness in baseball coincided with Grove's athletic prowess. From 1929-1931, the Athletics appeared in three consecutive World Series, winning the first two. Grove won baseball's Triple Crown twice in those three years, leading the league in wins, strikeouts and earned run average. His 31-4 record in 1931 earned him the first American League MVP trophy awarded by the Baseball Writers' Association of America. This accomplishment has served as the greatest performance by a starting pitcher in the last 100 years., During the two-year period of 1930-31, Grove compiled an amazing 59-9 record, winning eighty-seven percent of his starts while posting 49 complete games. At the end of the 1931 season, he was selected, along with a group of other major leaguers, to make a goodwill tour of Japan., An arm injury in 1933 robbed Grove of his signature fastball. Developing both a strong curveball and forkball, Grove reinvented his game to become more than an exclusive power pitcher. Four of his record nine ERA titles came afterward. The finesse of Grove's pitching ability enabled him to be the American League ERA leader for over half of his major league career., Racking up another capstone achievement, Grove played in the first major league All-Star Game in 1933, which was held on July 6, at Comiskey Park in Chicago., [Captions:] , Philadelphia Athletics , 1929 World Series Champions, Lefty Grove autographed photo to Ed Collins , (Courtesy Babe Ruth Birthplace and Museum, Baltimore, Md.), 1931 Baseball All Star Tour of Japan, Back row: Larry French, Mickey Cochrane, Lefty O'Doul, Fred Lieb (sportswriter), Lefty Grove, Herb Hunter (tour promoter), Billy Cunningham, Tom Oliver, George "High Pockets" Kelly, and Lou Gehrig. Front row: Willie Kamm, "Rabbit" Maranville, Frankie Frisch, Muddy Ruel, Al Simmons, Ralph Shinners, and Dr. Leonard Knowles (trainer).