Burleigh Grimes

Orbit Gum collectible pin back button featuring baseball player Burleigh Grimes.

Over the course of his long career, pitcher Burleigh Grimes played for the Pittsburgh Pirates (1916, 1917, 1928-1929), Brooklyn Robins (1918-1926), New York Giants (1927), Boston Braves (1930), Chicago Cubs (1932-1933), St. Louis Cardinals (1933-1934) and New York Yankees (1934). Grimes spanned an era of change in baseball, being the last player allowed to throw the “spitball”, a pitch banned in 1920. Players who used the pitch, in which the ball is “doctored” through the application of a foreign substance, prior to the ban's enactment were allowed to continue its use, with Grimes being the final member of the group to retire. The oft-travelled hurler was the National League’s wins leader twice (1921, 1928) and won a World Series with the Cardinals in 1931. Overall, Grimes had a 270-212 win-loss record with 1,512 strikeouts and a 3.53 earned run average.

After hanging up his golve, Grimes remained in baseball in a variety of capacities, including as Manager of the Brooklyn Dodgers from 1937-1938, where he amassed a 131-171 record.

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