Former Minnesota Twin Dies
He only pitched one season as a Minnesota Twins but Joe Grzenda posted some interesting numbers in his 8 seasons in the big leagues. He recorded one victory in 1961 as a Detroit Tiger. He waited 8 more years before he won his second game. It came in 1969 as a Minnesota Twin. Believe it or not this is not the record for the longest wait between major league victories.
Joe was a left handed side armer. Those aren't too common. As a young fellow I thought the name Grzenda was real cool and throwing side arm was quite different as well. He posted his best season in 1971 with the Washington Senators when he registered a 1.92 ERA. He went down in history as he became the last Washington Senator to record an out as a pitcher. He retired two batters on September 20, 1971 and then the fans stormed the field resulting in a forfeit by the Senators. The reason for the infiltration was that this was the last game for the Senators in Washington before they moved to Texas and became the Rangers.
Another accomplishment for Joe was he never made an error in his major league career. A 1,000 fielding percentage in 219 games. Grzenda passed away this week in Pennsylvania at age 82.