Monday, October 13, 2014

NICKNAMES OF THE '70'S #9: "MUDCAT" JIM GRANT

Here was a card I had a lot of fun designing for my "Nicknames of the '70's" sub-set: a card for Jim "Mudcat" Grant.
Check it out:


"Mudcat" was coming to the end of his career by 1971, pitching for the Pirates before moving on to the Oakland A's for the last 15 games of a 14-year career.
Easily his best season was 1965 for the pennant winning Minnesota Twins, going 21-7 with a 3.30 earned run average, 142 K's and a league leading six shutouts.
Seems the way he got his now famous nickname was as follows:

"Beginning in 1958, he pitched for Cleveland through part of 1964, with a 15-9 year in 1961. He was the roommate of his boyhood idol Larry Doby when he first came to Cleveland, and Doby dubbed him "Mudcat", saying that he was "ugly as a Mississippi mudcat". The nickname stuck."

Quite an anecdote!
All in all, Grant retired with a career record of 145-119, with a 3.63 E.R.A., 18 shutouts, 53 saves and 1267 strikeouts over 571 appearances, 293 of which were starts.
And dig those crazy side-burns!!!

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