A small-town boy

Lonaconing is the type of town that you could miss if you blinked.

It's a small cluster of homes and a few businesses along Route 36 in the mountains of Maryland, about 7 miles from the nearest supermarkets and restaurants (Frostburg) and maybe 15 to the nearest marginally big city (Cumberland).

Lonaconing would be just another dot on the map, except for two occurrences in its history.

Back in the 1830s, the Georges Creek Coal and Iron Co. built a pioneering iron furnace that still stands in a park in the center of town as a testament to early American industry.

In front of the furnace, near the entrance to the park, is a plaque bearing the name of Lonaconing's most famous son, Robert Moses Grove.

Baseball fans will recognize Robert Moses as Lefty Grove, one of the greatest of pitchers. In fact, some call him the greatest: Statistical guru Bill James, in his original "Historical Baseball Abstract" (1985), gives Grove the accolade, citing the impressive numbers he compiled before he started pitching in the majors.

As it is, Lefty's big-league record is jaw-dropping. Pitching in the Lively Ball Era, the 1920s-'30s equivalent of the Steroid Era when it came to offensive statistics, Grove won an even 300 games and compiled an earned-run average of 3.06. During the period he pitched (1925-41), the American League's ERA was a cumulative 4.53, nearly a run and a half more than Grove's.

To put that in perspective, Sandy Koufax posted an impressive 2.76 lifetime ERA. But to equal Grove in comparison with the rest of his league, Koufax would have had to drop that number to around 2.15.

Grove led the league in ERA a record nine times, strikeouts eight times (his first eight seasons in the majors), wins four times, winning percentage four times and – believe it or not – saves once. In his era, the ace pitcher often was brought in to finish games whether or not he primarily was a starter. Think of Randy Johnson in the seventh game of the 2001 World Series, and multiply that by a dozen or more times during a season.

James gives the edge to Grove because of what he did before he joined the Philadelphia Athletics in 1925.

As a native of Maryland, it perhaps was inevitable that Grove first caught the eye of Jack Dunn, owner of the Baltimore Orioles (and the guy who also discovered a kid named George Herman Ruth). Back then, the Orioles were in the International League, which everyone considered a minor league … except for Dunn. He ran the team like his big-league counterparts, acquiring the best talent available in an effort to maximize local attendance.

Naturally, Dunn's Orioles absolutely dominated the IL in the early '20s, and Grove was a big part of the equation. After joining the team in mid-1920 at age 20, he compiled won-lost records of 12-2, 25-10, 18-8, 27-10 and 27-6.

These days, Grove would have stamped his ticket to the majors about a month or two into that second season. But the concept of the farm system was in its rudimentary stages back then, and Dunn was having none of it. So Lefty stayed in Baltimore, enjoying a good paycheck and lots of success … and costing himself, let's say, around 75 major-league victories.

With 375 big-league wins, Grove would have placed just ahead of the co-holders of the National League record, Christy Mathewson and Grover Cleveland Alexander (373). Keep in mind that Mathewson hurled his entire career and Alexander about half of his in the Dead Ball Era, which favored pitching statistics like no other period in baseball history.

The 375 total would have ranked Grove behind only Walter Johnson (417) and, of course, Cy Young (511). Johnson played the majority of his career in the Dead Ball Era, and Young's career started so early that for a time he pitched 50 feet from home plate, instead of 60 feet, 6 inches.

For Grove, scoring his 300th win wasn't the easiest of tasks. In 1941, pitching for the Boston Red Sox at age 41, he was the oldest player player in the league, and he'd struggled considerably compared with the past.

On July 25, he pitched at Fenway Park. According to an Associated Press account:

After staggering momentarily, Robert Moses Grove recovered today and trudged sturdily into the company of baseball's immortals, achieving the 300th victory of his fabulous major league career as the Boston Red Sox surged from behind to defeat Cleveland's Indians, 10 to 5.

Twice the Sox had rallied from four-run and two-run handicaps to tie, but it remained for Jimmy Foxx … to provide the pay-off clout in the eighth inning, a triple with two on.

From then on Old Mose just breezed to his well-earned triumph, which he had been twice denied in two previous attempts to gain the select circle.

Robert Moses Grove died May 22, 1975, in Norwalk, Ohio.

It was my honor to be photographed next to his plaque in the town of his birth.