Joe Grzenda, a 31-year old right-handed pitcher was purchased from the New York Mets by the Minnesota Twins on November 29, 1967 and spent the 1968 season with the AAA Denver Bears who were managed by Billy Martin after he replaced the fired Johnny Goryl. Martin used Grzenda as a reliever and he used him often as Grzenda appeared in a team leading 56 games posting a 5-8 record and a 3.14 ERA. Grzenda threw 86 innings and struck out 60 batters.
When Billy Martin was named the Twins 1969 manager he obviously remembered Grzenda and Grzenda made the Twins team out of spring training. Strangely enough Grzenda was the losing pitcher in the 1969 season opener on April 8th as the Twins were walked off 4-3 by the new Kansas City Royals in 12 innings at Municipal Stadium and was the winning pitcher in the 1969 regular season finale on October 2nd when the Twins beat the Chicago White Sox 6-5 at Met Stadium. Grzenda appeared in game 3 of the 1969 ALCS and retired Boog Powell and Frank Robinson, the only two batters he faced. On March 21, 1970 the Twins traded Grzenda along with pitcher Charlie Walters to the Washington Senators for outfielder Brant Alyea.
Although Joe Grzenda’s time with the Minnesota Twins organization was relatively short, he did pitch in the major leagues for all or parts of eight different seasons between 1961-1972 with six teams, the Detroit Tigers, Kansas City Athletics, New York Mets, Minnesota Twins, Washington Senators and the St. Louis Cardinals. Grzenda’s record in the big leagues was 14-13 with 14 saves in 219 games in which he started just three times. In his 308 big league innings Grzenda had a 4.00 ERA with 173 strikeouts.
One of the interesting points in Grzenda’s career took place late in 1971. Senators owner Bob Short delivered a major announcement, making it publicly known that he planned to move the team to Texas. It was a decision that angered the fans in Washington. As luck would have it, Manager Ted Williams called on Grzenda to take the mound in the ninth inning of the seasons final game. With the Senators holding a 7-5 lead against the New York Yankees, Grzenda entered the game in the ninth. He retired Felipe Alou on a routine grounder and then handled Bobby Murcer, who bounced back to Grzenda. He was now one out away. A fast worker to begin with, Grzenda also sensed that there was discord among the fans in attendance at RFK Stadium. So he yelled out to the next Yankees batters, Horace Clarke, telling him to hurry up and assume his place in the batter’s box.
The fans however; were storming the field and a group of fans surrounded the mound and Grzenda fled the mound for the safety of the clubhouse. The rioting by the fans kept Grzenda from throwing another pitch that night. With thousands of fans scattered throughout the field, which was now rendered unplayable, the umpires called the game a forfeit, giving the Yankees a victory. According to the forfeit rule, the game was scored officially as a 9-0 Yankee victory. For Grzenda, there would be no chance to save the final game of the Senators.
His pro career started in the Tigers organization in 1955 and ended in 1974 with a stint in the Atlanta Braves minor league organization.
What brought Joe Grzenda to mind was a recent article I read about him that was written by Bruce Markusen as part of the CardCorner series for the National Baseball Hall of Fame. I found it to be a very informative and fun read.
#CARDCORNER: 1969 TOPPS JOE GRZENDA
Thanks for the interesting article. I enjoyed reading it.
Thank you.