Burleigh Grimes

'I used to chew slippery elm - the bark, right off the tree. Come spring the bark would get nice and loose and you could slice it free without any trouble. What I checked was the fiber from inside, and that's what I put on the ball. The ball would break like hell, away from right-handers and in on lefties,' Burleigh Grimes once said.

Burleigh Arland Grimes, who pitched in four games for the St. Louis Cardinals at the beginning of the 1934 season, was born on August 18, 1893, on his parents’ dairy farm about halfway between the towns of Emerald and Clear Lake in northwestern Wisconsin. (Wisconsin records indicate he was born in Emerald, but he always regarded Clear Lake as his hometown.) He was the oldest child of Ruth Tuttle and Cecil “Nick” Grimes. Soon after his birth the family moved to nearby Black Brook. His father died when the lad was quite young, and his mother struggled to support the family.

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Burleigh Grimes career highlights

When husky 41-year-old right-hander Burleigh Grimes retired in 1934, he was the last of the “legal” spitballers—his standard identification, per se. But he was much more than a pitcher who threw wet ones. His arsenal also encompassed a great fastball, curve, and changeup, besides a spitball that broke eight inches. One of the premier hurlers in his day, Grimes could have won 300 games, according to his own admission, had he received a certain piece of advice early in his career. Still, he rode the spitball to the Hall of Fame in 1964 with 270 wins, 3.53 ERA, and five 20-game seasons spread over 19 years in an era where hitters dominated.

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Burleigh Arland Grimes (August 18, 1893 – December 6, 1985) was an American professional baseball player, and the last pitcher officially permitted to throw the spitball.[1][2][3] Grimes made the most of this advantage and he won 270 games and pitched in four World Series over the course of his 19-year career.[4] He was elected to the Wisconsin Athletic Hall of Fame in 1954, and to the Baseball Hall of Fame in 1964.[4]