American baseball player

Richard Morrow Groat (born November 4, 1930) is a former professional baseball and basketball player who was an eight-time All-Star shortstop and two-time World Series champion in Major League Baseball as well as one of the most accomplished two-sport athletes in American sports history. He was the National League Most Valuable Player with the world champion Pittsburgh Pirates in 1960, when he won the batting *le with a .325 average. He finished his career with a .286 batting average and 2,138 hits with four National League teams in 14 seasons.

Groat was no less talented as a basketball player, one of only 13 to play major league baseball and professional basketball in their careers. The 6-foot guard attended Duke University as a member of the Sigma Chi fraternity, where he was a two-time All-America and the first basketball player to have his number (10) retired in school history. He was voted as the Helms National Player of the Year in the 1951-52 season, when he became the first and still only player to lead the nation in points (26.0) and *ists (7.6) per game.

In 1952, the Fort Wayne Pistons selected Groat at the No. 3 pick of the National Basketball *ociation draft. When Pirates management forced him to make a career decision not long afterward, however, he chose his hometown team and Major League Baseball, which was more established than the fledgling NBA at the time.

From 1956 to 1962, Groat teamed with future Hall of Fame second baseman Bill Mazeroski to give the Pirates one of the best keystone combinations in the game. He led the NL in double plays a record five times, putouts four times and *ists twice. At the end of his career he ranked ninth in major league history in games at shortstop (1,877) and fourth in double plays (1,237), and was among the NL career leaders in putouts (10th, 3,505), *ists (8th, 5,811) and total chances (9th, 9,690).

In 2011, Groat was inducted into the National College Baseball Hall of Fame. In doing so, he became the first person to gain induction into the college basketball and college baseball halls of fame.

From 1969 to 2019, Groat served as the color commentator for Pittsburgh Panthers men's basketball radio broadcasts.

Contents

• 1 Baseball career
• 2 Hall of Fame snub
• 3 Notable career achievements
• 4 Basketball
• 5 Other
• 6 See also
• 7 Notes
• 8 External links

Baseball career

Groat was signed by Pirates general manager Branch Rickey just days after graduating from Duke, where he had been a two-time All-American in basketball and baseball. Both the St. Louis Cardinals and New York Giants were also interested in him, but he had always hoped to play for the Pirates after growing up a few miles away from Forbes Field. He broke in with the Pirates in June, never playing in the minor leagues, and batted .284 over the rest of the year. Afterward he pursued his basketball career before serving two years in the Army. He led Fort Belvoir teams to worldwide Army championships in both sports, the first time a single base had won both *les in the same year, hitting .362 in baseball and averaging 35 points per game in basketball.

Returning to the Pirates in 1955, he batted second for the team, with leadoff hitter Bill Virdon later recalling his particular skill at the hit and run. That year he led the NL in putouts for the first time; pitcher Roy Face has noted that Groat was always in the best position for the various hitters, although he didn't have great speed or a strong arm. In 1956, he set the all-time record for most at bats in a season (520) without a home run or stolen base. He batted .315 (fifth in the league) in 1957, along with a career high of 7 home runs; on September 29 of that year against the Giants, he threw out the final batter to end the Giants last home game ever at the Polo Grounds.

In 1958, Groat again hit .300 and led the NL in putouts and double plays, as the Pirates surprised the baseball world with a second-place finish, the first time that they had placed higher than seventh since 1949. He led the NL in putouts and double plays again in 1959, and made his first of five All-Star teams. In the ensuing offseason he was nearly traded for Roger Maris, but the deal was cancelled by manager Danny Murtaugh.

Groat responded with his best year as team captain, becoming the first Pirate to be named MVP since Paul Waner in their last pennant year of 1927, and also the first right-handed Pirates hitter to win the batting *le since Honus Wagner in 1911. He missed a few weeks late in the season after having his wrist broken by a Lew Burdette pitch on September 6. In the 1960 World Series against the New York Yankees, he tied Game 1 at 1–1 with a first-inning double and scored to give Pittsburgh the lead; they stayed in front, winning 6–4, with Groat turning a double play to end the game. In Game 7, he had an RBI single and scored in the eighth inning, in which the Pirates scored five runs to take a 9–7 lead; the Pirates won the Series on Mazeroski's famed home run in the next inning.

In 1961, Groat batted .275, and together with Mazeroski led the league in double plays. In 1962, he batted .294, finishing third in the league in doubles (34), and led the NL in putouts, *ists and double plays. In November 1962, in the hope of bolstering the team's pitching, general manager Joe L. Brown traded him to the Cardinals in exchange for Don Cardwell. Groat was deeply hurt by the trade, having hoped to become a coach and eventually manager after retiring, and severed all contact with the team until a 1990 reunion of the 1960 champions. He had another outstanding year in 1963, finishing fourth in the league with a .319 batting average – just seven points behind champion Tommy Davis – and collecting 201 hits. He also led the NL with 43 doubles, and was third with a personal high of 11 triples; he was the runner-up in the MVP voting, behind Sandy Koufax.

In 1964, he batted .292 for the pennant-winning Cardinals, again leading the league in *ists and double plays and making his last All-Star team. In the World Series against the Yankees, he reached base on Bobby Richardson's error in the sixth inning of Game 4, and scored on Ken Boyer's grand slam in the 4–3 St. Louis victory. Groat also tagged out Mickey Mantle in the third inning of that game on a pickoff play. He scored in the 3-run tenth inning of Game 5, a 5–2 win, and had an RBI groundout in the final 7–5 win in Game 7. After hitting .254 in 1965, he was traded to the Philadelphia Phillies in a six-player deal. He batted .265 for the 1966 Phillies, and his contract was sold to the Giants (now in San Francisco) in June 1967; he ended his career that season with a .156 average in 44 games.

In his career, Groat totaled 829 runs scored, 707 runs batted in, 352 doubles and 39 home runs in 1,929 games. Defensively, he finished his career with a .961 fielding percentage.

Hall of Fame snub

Despite the fact that Groat sat out his second and third seasons to serve in the military, he ranked among the best shortstops of the 1950s and 1960s decades. Even so, Groat, Barry Bonds, Dave Parker and Pete Rose are the only non-Hall of Famers to be Most Valuable Players, batting and World Series champions and appear in at least five All-Star Games in their careers. He never mustered more than 1.8 percent of the vote in any Hall of Fame election.

"It's unconscionable that Groat received no more than token Hall of Fame consideration," said Paul Ladewski, former Pirates beat writer and longtime Baseball Writers' *ociation of America and Hall of Fame voter. "His career numbers are in the same ballpark as contemporary middle infielders Luis Aparicio, Nellie Fox and Bill Mazeroski, all of whom are in the Hall of Fame today. And based on plate appearances, his Wins Above Replacement total is noticeably better than those of Harold Baines, Jim Bottomley, Lou Brock, Rabbit Maranville and Paul Waner, who also have plaques in Cooperstown, N.Y.. The Veterans Committee needs to take a closer look at him."

Notable career achievements

• Eight-time NL All-Star (1959 (two games), 1960 (two games), 1962 (two games), 1963, 1964)
• Two-time NL singles leader (1954, 1960)
• One-time NL Most Valuable Player runner-up (1963)
• One of two regulars to play with teams that beat the New York Yankees in Game 7 of the World Series more than once in their careers. (The other: Don Hoak, 1955 Brooklyn Dodgers and 1960 Pirates)
• One of 13 athletes who played in both the National Basketball *ociation and Major League Baseball. The others: Danny Ainge, Frank Baumholtz, Hank Biasatti, Gene Conley, Chuck Connors, Dave DeBusschere, Groat, Steve Hamilton, Mark Hendrickson, Cotton Nash, Ron Reed, Dick Ricketts and Howie Schultz.
• Three-time Sports Illustrated cover subject (1960, 1963, 1966)

Basketball

Groat played college basketball for Duke University. He was twice (1951 and 1952) an All-American, and was named the Helms Foundation Player of the Year in 1951 and the UPI National Player of the Year in 1952 after setting an NCAA record with 839 points. On May 1 of that year, his #10 was the first jersey to be retired in the rafters of Cameron Indoor Stadium, and it remained the only jersey retired by the school until 1980. During the 1951–52 season, he scored 48 points against North Carolina, the most ever scored against the Tar Heels.

After college, Groat was drafted with the 3rd overall pick in the 1952 NBA draft as a guard for the Fort Wayne Pistons of the National Basketball *ociation. He played only one season for 26 games with the number 5, and averaged 11.9 points, 3.3 rebounds and 2.7 *ists with a .368 FG%. His basketball career was cut short by military service though; when his enlistment was up, he returned to the Pirates but not to the Pistons. Groat was inducted into the National Collegiate Basketball Hall of Fame in 2007.

Groat served as a radio color *yst for the Pittsburgh Panthers men's basketball games and was part of Pitt basketball broadcasts with partner Bill Hillgrove since 1979. He was not retained after the completion of the 2018–2019 season.

Other

In the Larry David HBO comedy series Curb Your Enthusiasm (S2.E5 "The Thong"), Rob Reiner convinces Larry to participate in a celebrity auction to benefit Groat's Syndrome (a fictional neurological disorder). Reiner describes it affecting "kids and adults who have a tough time controlling their hyperactivity. It's as if you were on five cups of coffee at all times." Reiner claims it was named after the doctor who discovered it but Larry David's character speculates it was named for Dick Groat, who he *umes must have had the disease because, as Larry says, "he didn't field very well because he was excited all the time."

Dick Groat is the great uncle of golfer Brooks Koepka, who won the 2017 and 2018 U.S. Open, and the 2018 and 2019 PGA Championship.

See also

• Baseball portal

• List of Major League Baseball career hits leaders
• List of Major League Baseball batting champions
• List of Major League Baseball annual doubles leaders
• List of Major League Baseball single-game hits leaders

Notes

External links

• Career statistics and player information from NBA.com:and:Basketball-Reference.com
• Dick Groat GoDuke.StatsGeek.com
• Dick Groat Duke Basketball Stats – Player Info
• Career statistics and player information from MLB, or:ESPN, or:Baseball Reference, or:Fangraphs, or:Baseball Reference (Minors), or:Retrosheet
• Dick Groat at SABR (Baseball BioProject)
• Baseball and Basketball (NBA) Players by Baseball Almanac
• Dick Groat at Baseball Library