Joe Grzenda

Joseph Charles Grzenda (born June 8, 1937 in Scranton, Pennsylvania) is a former Birmingham Barons and Birmingham A's pitcher who played for six different Major League clubs over eight seasons before retiring in 1972.

Grzenda grew up south of Scranton and attended Moosic High School. He signed with the Detroit Tigers organization and began his baseball career in 1955 with the Jamestown, New York Falcons of the Pennsylvania-Ontario-New York (PONY) League. In his rookie season he struggled to a 2-5 record with an 8.29 ERA. He began the next season with the Valdosta Tigers of the Georgia-Florida League and went 13-3 as a starter, dropping his ERA to 3.19. In 1957 he moved up to the Durham Bulls of the Class B Carolina League and continued to pitch well, amassing a 9-4 record with a 3.09 ERA.

In 1958 Grzenda made the first of five stops in Birmingham, assigned to the 1958 Birmingham Barons of the AA Southern Association. He started 32 games and went 16-7 with a 3.19 ERA. In 1959 he was assigned to the Charleston, West Virginia Senators of the AAA American Assocation. He went 3-8 in 15 starts, but maintained a 3.58 ERA.

Grzenda started the 1960 season back in AA, playing for the Texas League's Victoria Rosebuds through six starts before he returned to the 1960 Birmingham Barons and finished up 4-5 with a 3.14 ERA. He remained on the 1961 Birmingham Barons team through six starts before being promoted to the American Association's Denver Bears. He got called up to Detroit for an April 26 debut in the majors, but was sent back down after a week. He remained in AAA ball through the 1963 season, but got much more work as a reliever than as a starting pitcher. In 1964 he found himself in the Kansas City Athletics organization and became a member of the 1964 Birmingham Barons in the new Southern League. He got 35 strikeouts in 31 innings of work during the season, amassing an ERA of 5.52. He returned to AAA ball for the next couple of seasons, then played for a year with the Southern League's Mobile Athletics before Charley Finley moved the club up to Birmingham as the 1967 Birmingham A's. The 30-year-old Grzenda had a standout season as a reliever with 53 strikeouts and only 13 walks in 75 innings, compiling a team-low ERA of 1.20.

Grzenda pitched in 219 Major League games, all but three games as a reliever. His best season statistics-wise was in 1971 for the Washington Senators, when he earned five victories with an excellent 1.92 ERA. 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 American League Championship Series with the Minnesota Twins.