Time to go and add Gold Glove second baseman Bobby Grich of the Baltimore Orioles to my on-going 1975 “In-Action” series:
Grich was on his way to a third straight Gold Glove when the 1975 season
opened up, as well as coming off a second trip to the All-Star game in
1974.
He would win four Gold Gloves overall in his excellent 17-year career,
while getting named to six All-Star teams and participating in five
American League Championship Series, two with the Orioles and three with
the California Angels.
Defensively he topped the league in assists three times, putouts four
times and fielding percentage twice, generally considered one of the
best fielding second baseman of his era.
I always felt his 1979 season was lost in the shuffle of some great
years put in by the likes of Don Baylor, Fred Lynn and George Brett when
he hit a career high 30 home runs with 101 RBIs to go with a .294
average, fantastic numbers for a second baseman in that era outside of a
guy named Joe Morgan.
Two years later he’d be one of four players tied to lead the American
League in homers with 22, while also topping the league in slugging
(.543).
By the time he retired after the 1986 season he finished with a .266
career average with 1833 hits and 224 homers, with 864 runs batted in
and 1033 runs scored.