Two for the Book, Burleigh Grimes and Bill Wambsganss, Are Dead

Funeral services for Burleigh Grimes and Bill Wambsganss, two of the more celebrated names in baseball lore, will be held this week.

Grimes, a member of baseball’s Hall of Fame and the last of the great pitchers from the spitball era, died of cancer last Friday in Clear Lake, Wis., a community close to where he was born 92 years ago.

Wambsganss, 91, the only player ever to perform an unassisted triple play in the World Series, died Sunday in Lakewood, Ohio, after being hospitalized last month for heart failure, a hospital spokesman said.

Grimes retired in 1934, a year in which he played for the St. Louis Cardinals, Pittsburgh Pirates and New York Yankees. He played with the Pirates in 1916-1917; the Brooklyn Dodgers from 1918-26; the New York Giants in 1927; the Boston Braves and Cardinals in 1930-31; the Chicago Cubs in 1932; and the Cubs and Cardinals again in 1933. His career record was 270-212.

He managed the Dodgers in 1937 and 1938, later managed in the minor leagues, and was a scout for the Yankees and Baltimore before his retirement in 1970.

When the spitball was outlawed in 1920, baseball commissioner Kenesaw Mountain Landis decreed that each team could designate two pitchers who would be allowed to continue using the spitter until they retired. The last was Grimes.

A fierce, aggressive pitcher, he was nicknamed “Old Stubblebeard” for his habit of never shaving on a day he had to pitch.

Grimes had five 20-victory seasons, four for Brooklyn, plus his best year, 25-14, with Pittsburgh in 1928. He won 13 in a row for the 1927 Giants when he was 19-8.

Wambsganss’ death leaves shortstop Joe Sewell the only surviving member of the 1920 world champion Cleveland Indians.

Wambsganss’ triple play came in the 1920 series against Brooklyn, in the fifth inning of the fifth game, with the Indians leading, 7-0.

Pete Kilduff and Otto Miller each singled with none out for the Dodgers, putting men on first and second. Clarence Smith, Brooklyn’s pitcher, lined a ball toward right field.

Second baseman Wambsganss, better known as Bill Wamby, jumped high into the air and speared the liner. He ran three strides to second to double off Kilduff, then ran over and tagged out Miller, who had stopped in the baseline near second.