The amazing Mr. Groat | Page 2 | Syracusefan.com

The amazing Mr. Groat

What's even sadder is that many high school coaches require their players to play their sport out of season to stay on the team. In fact many youth leagues with kids as young as 10 have to choose playing in multiple seasons (like soccer - fall/spring) to play on a sports' elite team. Many kids are forced to choose way too young what sport they like or will excel at.

I know a young man, a sophomore at the time, an excellent pitcher on his local varsity AA baseball high school team. He loved baseball but also loved and excelled in hockey. He was named to some prestigious Jr Olympic team in hockey that required him to miss high school baseball preseason workouts for 2 weeks while he traveled to Colorado before his sophomore year. His high school baseball coach 1st year coach too) said that there were no exceptions for any player who missed any of the pre-season workouts. They could not tryout. It was a once in a lifetime type opportunity but was forced to quit baseball for this hockey opportunity. He had been a starting pitcher on varsity team his freshman year yet his young career was over. Sad.

So until high schools/youth coaches change from discouraging and out right preventing players from competing in other sports - any college changes would make, may be too late for a number of young athletes.
 
SWC75 said:
Before the game Matt Park interviewed Dick Groat, who has been the color man for Pittsburgh basketball since the Big East was formed in 1979. He's 83 years young and still going strong. He's kind of that city's version of Coach Mac, the guy who's been there forever, (a longer forever than Mac's) and who ties current fans to the past because he's seen it all.

Yes, his broadcasting career is amazing but that 's not why I'm making this post. Dick Groat is a native of the Pittsburgh area but went to Duke where he was their first great basketball star, setting a then national record in 1952 with 839 points, (a 26.0 average). He scored 48 points on North Carolina, still the most ever scored vs. the Tar Heels. He was national player of the year as a senior.

But even that's not what he's most famous for. He went into baseball, not basketball and became a shortstop for the Pittsburgh Pirates, Bill Mazeroski's keystone partner. In 1960 he led the National League with a a .325 average and was named MVP over such contemporaries as Willie Mays, Henry Aaron, Ernie Banks, Frank Robinson and his own teammate, Roberto Clemente, all in their primes. His Pirates beat the Yankees in the World Series on Maz's home run. Four years later Groat was playing shortstop for the St. Louis Cardinals and hit .319 to help them to the pennant and another World Series victory over the Yankees.

"Happiness is the Exercise of Vital Powers, Along Lines of Excellence, in a Life Affording Them Scope" - John F. Kennedy, (quoting "The Greeks")

There were a lot of basketball-baseball players in those years because the seasons "fit" together, one beginning as the other was ending:
http://www.baseball-almanac.com/legendary/baseball_and_basketball_players.shtml
Gene Conley just missed simultaneously being of championship teams in two different sports. He was on the 1957 baseball champion Milwaukee Braves and joined the Boston Celtics in 1958, just as they began a streak of 8 straight titles. Not on that list were Johnny and Eddie O'Brien, twin brothers where were basketball All-Americans at Seattle in the early 50's and played major league baseball but not in the NBA and Joe Gibbon, who had the same status at the University of Mississippi. All three of them were Groat's teammates on the Pirates at one time or another. The Pirates of the 50's were probably a better basketball team than they were a baseball team until that 1960 championship.

I've thought for a long time that in pursuit of money and glory, we extend college sports seasons too far, causing them to overlap and denying the possibility of today's athletes excelling in more than one sport so they might have alternatives for their professional careers. I think not only should seasons be shorter but they should divided fully into spring and fall sports so that a player might be able to be a serious member of teams in more than one sport.
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Dick Groat also loved golf. Along with another Bucco named Jerry Lynch,they built a golf course called Champion Lakes. Bill Mazerowski also had a golf course near the West Virginia & Ohio border. Groat did play Pro basketball on a limited basis for a short time. Baseball was his primary passion at the time.
 
How about former Syracuse Chiefs' infielder Danny Ainge?
Brief MLB career before going to the Celtics.

He was the only player ever to be first team HS All-American in basketball, baseball and football.
 
LennX6 said:
Me too, the Pirates were my other "favorite" team as a kid, though I remember Groat as a Buc vaguely. My memories are of him a Cardinal and Phillie.
One you left off, that had a somewhat local flavor here, and for Pittsburgh too was Dick Ricketts, from Rochester via Pa, and played for Duquesne, the Cards, and the Rochester Royals
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Dick ricketts brother also played for the Dukes. He also played pro ball as a catcher. Dick R. was an All-American and was comparable to Tom Gola at the college level. The great Sihugo Green played on the same team.
 
Col. Bleep said:
How about former Syracuse Chiefs' infielder Danny Ainge?
Brief MLB career before going to the Celtics.

He was the only player ever to be first team HS All-American in basketball, baseball and football.
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Danny also played for Toronto in the American League.
 
shermstheman said:
Dick Groat's nickname was Dr. Stangeglove (a nod to that movie that came out during his career)- one year he had 29 errors...as a first baseman! (that's a record that still stands).. Conversely, he did hit 66 home runs in the minors one year and wasa terrific hitter in the majors too.
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Groat was a Short-stop!
 
Wallo said:
Dick ricketts brother also played for the Dukes. He also played pro ball as a catcher. Dick R. was an All-American and was comparable to Tom Gola at the college level. The great Sihugo Green played on the same team.
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Those Duquesne teams coached by Dudley Moore that featured Sihugo Green and Ricketts were something else. Green's game was so much more refined than other college players at that time.
 
Maybe it's just me, but groat sounds like a cool name to say
 
CaptainJ said:
Maybe it's just me, but groat sounds like a cool name to say
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Only have heard that name twice, Once for Mr Groat honored denizen of Pittsburgh, the other was a character on a Bonanza episodes in the '60s. Bet they had a baseball fan doing their scripts.
 
LennX6 said:
Only have heard that name twice, Once for Mr Groat honored denizen of Pittsburgh, the other was a character on a Bonanza episodes in the '60s. Bet they had a baseball fan doing their scripts.
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Sergeant Bilko of "You'll Never Get Rich", (aka The Phil Silvers Show), was named after minor league slugger Steve Bilko.

Steve_Bilko.jpg
 
LennX6 said:
Only have heard that name twice, Once for Mr Groat honored denizen of Pittsburgh, the other was a character on a Bonanza episodes in the '60s. Bet they had a baseball fan doing their scripts.
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We have famous Groats right here in Syracuse. The Groat brothers are the owners (geniuses behind) Holy Shirt -- the local tee-shirt company that came up with such classics as the "Marathon Men" and "Under-rated" tee-shirts
 
cto said:
We have famous Groats right here in Syracuse. The Groat brothers are the owners (geniuses behind) Holy Shirt -- the local tee-shirt company that came up with such classics as the "Marathon Men" and "Under-rated" tee-shirts
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image.jpg
 
cto said:
We have famous Groats right here in Syracuse. The Groat brothers are the owners (geniuses behind) Holy Shirt -- the local tee-shirt company that came up with such classics as the "Marathon Men" and "Under-rated" tee-shirts
Expand...
SWC75 said:
Sergeant Bilko of "You'll Never Get Rich", (aka The Phil Silvers Show), was named after minor league slugger Steve Bilko.

Steve_Bilko.jpg
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Wow, incredible stuff. This is why this board is so valuable to me. I absolutely love this stuff.
 
LennX6 said:
You still have a few players ala Russell Wilson that do the football/baseball thing. Football of all the sports though with Spring Ball, has become the most year-round sport.
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There is discussion of making college soccer a 2 semester season. The plus side of that is that all games would be on Saturdays, limiting weekday travel.
 
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LennX6 said:
Only have heard that name twice, Once for Mr Groat honored denizen of Pittsburgh, the other was a character on a Bonanza episodes in the '60s. Bet they had a baseball fan doing their scripts.
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I couldn't find the TV version on-line. Go to the 2-minute mark.

 
No way to run three major sports without overlap. Football (Fall) Hoops (Winter) and Baseball or Lacrosse (Spring). College sports are year round in terms of workouts, practices and other team events.

You have to be an EXCEPTIONAL player to join a team without having put in the work that your teammates did while you were off playing another sport and not expect to create some negative waves if you got playing time over guys that did put in all that work.

If you’re Jim Brown joining the football team after having left to play Lacrosse in the spring you can probably get away with it. Most players don’t have that kind of exceptional talent and aren’t that much better than the teammates they’re joining late. And if you make the exception for Jim Brown, how do you turn around and tell Charlie Brown he can’t do it too, even if he’s just a blocking dummy on one of the teams.
 
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