Win-Loss record 14-13 Role Baseball player Name Joe Grzenda | Strikeouts 173 Earned run average 4.00 | |
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Joseph Charles Grzenda (born June 8, 1937) is a retired Major League Baseball pitcher. He pitched for six different teams in eight seasons during a career that spanned from 1961 to 1972.
Grzenda was a sidearm pitcher who pitched in 219 Major League games, all but three games as a relief pitcher. His best season statistics-wise was in 1971 for the Washington Senators, when he earned five victories with an excellent 1.92 E.R.A.. Not known for his hitting ability, he once grounded out to third base in RFK stadium and received a standing ovation. On September 30, 1971, he would become the last pitcher in the team's history, getting two outs in the top of the ninth inning before fans, knowing the team would be leaving for Dallas-Fort Worth after the season, stormed the RFK Stadium field, causing a forfeit; 34 years later, when baseball returned to the nation's capital, Grzenda appeared on the field at RFK before the Washington Nationals's first home game, handing George W. Bush the ball he would use to throw out the first pitch.
As a fielder he was charged with no errors during his 8-year career for a perfect 1.000 fielding percentage. In 1969 he made an appearance in the ALCS for the Minnesota Twins.