RIP Mudcat Grant

 Former Minnesota Twins great Jim ‘Mudcat’ Grant dies at 85

 

SWAMP 247

By Alex Seats

6/12/2021

Major League Baseball lost an icon over the weekend. Former All-Star pitcher Jim “Mudcat” Grant passed away at the age of 85 on Saturday afternoon. 

Grant’s death marks the second former Minnesota Twins pitcher to pass away in the past month, after Mike Marshall died at the age of 78 on May 31. Grant pitched for seven teams during his 14-year career, including the Los Angeles Dodgers, Cleveland Indians, St. Louis Cardinals, Pittsburgh Pirates, Oakland A's, and Montreal Expos, as well as his three and a half seasons in Minnesota.

A two-time All-Star (1963, 1965), Grant played a key part in the Twins’ World Series run in 1965. That season, Grant became the first Black pitcher in the American League to win 20 games, finishing 21-7 with a 3.30 ERA in 270 and 1/3 innings (39 starts).

After the Twins went 102-60 for the best regular-season finish in club history and claimed the pennant, Grant started three games against the Dodgers in the World Series. He won two games, lost one, and finished the series with a 2.74 ERA.

In Game 6 at Metropolitan Stadium, Grant gave up just one run in a complete game. He hit a three-run homer to help seal a 5-1 victory. However, the Twins ultimately fell to the Dodgers in Game 7.

“I’ll never forget that,” Grant said back in 2014, via the Star-Tribune. “My mother was in the stands. It was a tough series to lose, and of course, that was the great [Game 7] that Sandy Koufax pitched. Jim Kaat mitched him from game to game, pitch-to-pitch, but Lou Johnson hit a home run off of Kaat and we got beat [2-0]. It was tough but being in the World Series beats all of that. We lost and we didn’t get back to it, but it was a great series.”

Ahead of the 1967 season, Grant was traded to the Dodgers alongside former MVP shortstop Zoilo “Zorro” Versalles in exchange for catcher John Roseboro and pitchers Bob Miller and Ron Perranoski. He finished his time in Minnesota with a 50-35 record and 3.35 ERA in 129 games.

A native of Lacoochee, Florida, Grant was signed by Cleveland in 1954 at 18-years-old. He reportedly got his catfish-inspired nickname from a minor league teammate who mistakenly thought he was from Mississippi.

Grant made his major league debut with the Indians in 1958. He finished his career with a 145-119 record and 3.63 ERA. After his retirement from baseball in 1971, Grant worked as a broadcaster and occasionally returned to the Twins organization for team events. Known for his gifted singing voice, Grant also had a lounge act called, “Mudcat and the Kittens.”

He also published, “The Black Aces” in 2016, a book about the first fifteen Black pitchers to win 20-games in major league history. The group includes himself, Vida Blue, Al Downing, Bob Gibson, Dwight Gooden, Ferguson Jenkins, Sam Jones, Don Newcombe, Mike Norrus, David Price, J.R. Richard, CC Sabathia, Dave Stewart, Dontrelle Willis, and Earl Wilson.

GRANT, Mudcat (James Timothy Grant)

Born: 8/13/1935, Lacoochee, Florida, U.S.A.

Died: 6/12/2021, Los Angeles, California, U.S.A.

 

Mudcat Grant’ western – actor:

The Outcasts (TV) – 1969 (Hickory’s father)