Mudcat Grant played for the Cleveland Indians, Minnesota Twins, Los Angeles Dodgers, Montreal Expos, St Louis Cardinals, Oakland Athletics, and Pittsburgh Pirates from 1958 to 1971.
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20 Facts About Mudcat Grant
2.
In 1965, Grant became the first black pitcher to win 20 games in a season in the American League and the first black pitcher to win a World Series game for the American League.
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3.
Mudcat Grant pitched two complete-game World Series victories in 1965, hit a three-run home run in game 6, and was named The Sporting News American League Pitcher of the Year.
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5.
Mudcat Grant attended Moore Academy in nearby Dade City, where he played football, basketball, and baseball.
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6.
Mudcat Grant was signed as an amateur free agent by the Cleveland Indians before the 1954 season.
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7.
Mudcat Grant played four seasons in the minor leagues from 1954 to 1957.
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9.
Mudcat Grant made his MLB debut on April 17,1958, at the age of 22, winning a complete game against the Kansas City Athletics.
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10.
In 1965, Mudcat Grant hosted a local Minneapolis variety television program, The Jim Mudcat Grant Show, where he sang and danced.
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11.
Mudcat Grant's home run in the 6th game of the 1965 World Series was only the second by an American League pitcher during a World Series game.
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12.
Mudcat Grant spent his next five seasons in baseball as a reliever and occasional starter for five different big-league clubs.
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13.
Mudcat Grant was the starting pitcher for the Montreal Expos in their first-ever game on April 8,1969.
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14.
Mudcat Grant played his final major league game on September 29,1971, at the age of 36.
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15.
Mudcat Grant's home run during Game 6 of the 1965 World Series was the only one he hit that season and one of only seven he hit durung his entire career.
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16.
Mudcat Grant later worked as a broadcaster and executive for the Indians, and as a broadcaster for the Athletics.
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17.
On his official website, Mudcat Grant paid tribute to the fifteen black pitchers who have won 20 games in a season.
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18.
In 2007, Grant released The Black Aces, Baseball's Only African-American Twenty-Game Winners, featuring chapters on each of the black pitchers to have at least one twenty-win season, and featuring Negro league players that Mudcat felt would have been twenty game winners if they had been allowed to play.
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19.
Mudcat Grant threw out the ceremonial first pitch on Opening Day at Progressive Field in Cleveland on April 14,2008, to commemorate the 50th anniversary of his major league debut; he was awarded the key to the city to honor the occasion.
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20.
Mudcat Grant was inducted into the Baseball Reliquary's Shrine of the Eternals in 2012.
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