Joe Grzenda
Joseph Charles Grzenda (born June 8, 1937 in Scranton, Pennsylvania) is a former Birmingham Barons and Birmingham A's pitcher who played for six different Major League clubs over eight seasons before retiring in 1972.
Grzenda grew up in coal-mining town south of Scranton and attended Moosic High School. He signed with the Detroit Tigers organization and began his baseball career in 1955 with the Jamestown, New York Falcons of the Pennsylvania-Ontario-New York (PONY) League. In his rookie season he struggled to a 2-5 record with an 8.29 ERA. He began the next season with the Valdosta Tigers of the Georgia-Florida League and went 13-3 as a starter, dropping his ERA to 3.19. In 1957 he moved up to the Durham Bulls of the Class B Carolina League and continued to pitch well, amassing a 9-4 record with a 3.09 ERA.
In 1958 the six-foot-three left-handed Grzenda made the first of five stops in Birmingham, assigned to the 1958 Birmingham Barons of the AA Southern Association. He started 32 games and went 16-7 with a 3.19 ERA, helping the team claim the league Pennant. During one game at Rickwood Field he spotted a girl in the crowd and sent a note to her via the bay boy, Chipper, asking if she would like to meet him after the game at the Dugout Restaurant. She did, and they began dating and eventually married.
In 1959 Grzenda suffered a bout of appendicitis before spring training and injured his arm before the season began. Instead of joining the Tigers roster, he was assigned to the Charleston, West Virginia Senators of the AAA American Assocation. He went 3-8 in 15 starts, but maintained a 3.58 ERA.
Grzenda started the 1960 season back in AA, playing for the Texas League's Victoria Rosebuds through six starts before he returned to the 1960 Birmingham Barons and finished up 4-5 with a 3.14 ERA. He remained on the 1961 Birmingham Barons team through six starts before being promoted to the American Association's Denver Bears. He got called up to Detroit for an April 26 debut in the majors, but was sent back down after a week. He remained in AAA ball through the 1963 season, but got much more work as a reliever than as a starting pitcher and was released after the end of the season.
In 1964 he signed as a free agent with the Kansas City Athletics organization and became a member of the 1964 Birmingham Barons in the new Southern League. He got 35 strikeouts in 31 innings of work during the season, amassing an ERA of 5.52 and also got 20 starts in Kansas City between May and July. His habit of drinking two pots of coffee and smoking three packs of cigarettes every day earned him the nickname "Shaky Joe" from roommate Moe Drabowsky. His demotion to Birmingham helped the Barons come within a series of another pennant, losing head to head to the Lynchburg White Sox in the season finale.
He returned to AAA ball for the next couple of seasons, then played for a year with the Southern League's Mobile Athletics before Charley Finley moved the club up to Birmingham as the 1967 Birmingham A's. The 30-year-old Grzenda had a standout season as a reliever with 53 strikeouts and only 13 walks in 75 innings, compiling a team-low ERA of 1.20 and winning all six of his decisions. His contract was purchased by the New York Mets that August, then sold to the Minnesota Twins in November.
Grzenda remained in the minors for the 1968 season, playing back in Denver. In 1969 he returned to the Majors and appeared in 38 games with the Twins, claiming 4 decisions in 48.2 innings of relief with a 3.88 ERA and making his only postseason appearance in the inaugural American League Championship Series. On March 21, 1970 he and Charlie Walters were traded to the Washington Senators for Brant Alyea. He pitched 84.2 innings in 49 appearances, including three starts for the 1970 Senators, but saw his ERA climb to 5.00. He had his standout season with the 1971 Senators, earning five victories and five saves in 46 appearances. He struck out fifty-six batters and walked 17 in 70.1 innings and led the bullpen with a 1.92 ERA. Manager Ted Williams sent Grzenda out to protect a 7-5 lead over the Yankees in the ninth at the end of the Senators' final game at RFK Stadium before they relocated to Dallas-Fort Worth as the Texans. Grzenda retired Felipe Alou and Bobby Murcer to come within one out of the save, but fans rushed the field, resulting in a forfeit.
The Rangers traded Grzenda to St Louis for Ted Kubiak during the off-season. He pitched in 30 games for the Cardinals in 1972 and had an ERA of 5.66 for the season. His final Major League appearance came on September 23 of that year. In all, Grzenda pitched in 219 Major League games and compiled a career ERA of 4.00 with 173 strikeouts and 120 walks in 308 innings. He was never charged with a fielding error during his time in the Majors. Interviewed by the Sporting News the year before, Grzenda reflected on his "shaky" career with so many different clubs, saying that "I'd like to stay in baseball long enough to buy a bus, then set fire to it." He spent his last two years pitching for AAA International League teams in Syracuse and Richmond before retiring from the game. Afterward he took a job at a battery plant in Pennsylvania and remained there 25 years until retiring.
When the Washington Nationals brought baseball back to RFK Stadium in 2005, Grzenda returned to hand President George W. Bush the ball for the first pitch. He brought the same ball that he would have thrown to end the 1971 season.
Grzenda was inducted into the Barons Hall of Fame during the 2014 Rickwood Classic.
References
- Gildea, William (October 25, 2004) "The Ultimate Closer: Grzenda Threw Last Pitch for Senators in Game That Ended With Forfeit." The Washington Post
- Colton, Larry (2013) Southern League: A True Story of Baseball, Civil Rights, and the Deep South's Most Compelling Pennant Race. Hachette Books ISBN 1455511870
- Markusen, Bruce (August 2, 2013) "Cooperstown Confidential: the saga of Shaky Joe Grzenda." The Hardball Times
- Wray, Cheryl (June 27, 2014) "It was romance at Rickwood for Barons Hall of Famer Joe Grzenda and wife." The Birmingham News
External links
- Joe Grzenda at baseball-reference.com