Dick Groat obit

Pirates legend Dick Groat, a staple of Pittsburgh sports culture, dies at 92

 

He was not on the list.

Dick Groat, a Pirates legend and integral member of the Pittsburgh sports landscape, died early Thursday morning at age 92, the club announced Thursday.

Groat, who played 14 MLB seasons at shortstop, most memorably spent nine of those with the Pirates. As a Buc, he helped the team capture the 1960 World Series and capped off the season by winning National League MVP and the NL batting title with a .325 average.

The shortstop’s MLB career spanned 16 years, but he did not play in 1953 or ’54 due to military service. After his Pirates stint, Groat spent time with the Cardinals, Phillies and Giants. He added a second World Series ring with St. Louis in 1964.

Groat hit .286 for his career with 707 RBIs in 1,929 games and made the All-Star team in five seasons.

He was a two-sport star who attended Duke on a basketball scholarship. He played three seasons on the hardwood for the Blue Devils and was a two-time All-American in both basketball and baseball (1951 and ’52). He ranks second in the basketball program’s history with an average of 23.0 points per game.

The UPI College Basketball Player of the Year in 1952, Groat was also a two-time All-Southern Conference member. After playing 26 games and averaging 11.9 points per game for the Pistons in the NBA, he enlisted in the Army. Upon his release, he committed to focusing on baseball professionally after being persuaded by Pirates general manager Branch Rickey.

A two-sport star who went from All-American guard in basketball to a brief stint in the NBA to ultimately an All-Star shortstop and the 1960 National League MVP while playing baseball for his hometown Pittsburgh Pirates, died Thursday. He was 92.

Groat’s family said in a statement that he died at UMPC Presbyterian Hospital from complications of a stroke.

“We are deeply saddened by the loss of such a beloved member of the Pirates family and Pittsburgh community,” Pirates Chairman Bob Nutting said in a statement, calling Groat “a great player and an even better person.”

Groat, who was from the Swissvale neighborhood just east of Pittsburgh’s downtown, starred at Duke in basketball and baseball in the early 1950s, earning All-American honors in both. His No. 10 jersey hangs in Cameron Indoor Stadium; the program retired his number following the end of his senior season in 1952.

Groat attempted to play both baseball and basketball professionally, signing with the Pirates and being drafted by the Fort Wayne Pistons of the then-fledgling NBA within weeks of each other in 1952.

Long before Bo Jackson and Deion Sanders made two-way playing en vogue in the 1980s and ’90s, Groat was regularly shuttling from Durham, North Carolina, to Fort Wayne, Indiana in the winter of 1952-53 so he could split time between his classes at Duke — where he was finishing his degree after his eligibility expired — and the Pistons.

“I had a ball playing for them and had some of the scariest trips in my life,” Groat said. “I never had to practice, just play on the weekend.”

Quick hands, keen baseball instincts and a will to win made Groat an ideal candidate for the second spot in the batting order. There he was a master of the hit-and-run play, a skill that he developed under Pirates batting coach George Sisler, who was a future Hall of Fame hitter back in the day.

Joe Brown was Pirates general manager in the final seven seasons that Groat spent with the team. In a 1961 Sport magazine story, Brown described his value like this: "(Groat) sets an example for the rest of the team. If he goes 5-for-5 and the team loses, he's unhappy. If he goes zero-for-5 and the team wins, he's happy. He's a constant reminder to the other players that a fellow can make himself a star without having all the tools."

While basketball was Groat’s sport of choice, a stint in the military and an ultimatum from Pirates general manager Branch Rickey redirected the arc of Groat’s athletic career.

“Baseball was always like work for me,” Groat said in a 2014 interview. “Basketball was the sport that I loved, but it was baseball where I knew I would make a living.”

Rickey agreed, telling Groat after he returned home and played for the Pirates in 1955 that the young shortstop needed to step away from basketball. Groat somewhat reluctantly agreed, a decision that morphed into a lengthy 14-year career with Pittsburgh, St. Louis, Philadelphia and San Francisco. He made the All-Star team in five seasons and led the majors in hitting in 1960 when he batted .325.

The 1960 season ended with Groat earning NL MVP honors for a Pirates team that upset the New York Yankees in seven games to win the World Series.

Groat finished with 2,138 career hits during a major league career spanning 1952-67. The Pirates announced last week that Groat would be inducted into the team’s recently established Hall of Fame this summer.

A member of the college basketball and college baseball Halls of Fame, Groat was a two-time All-American guard at Duke in the 1950s and remains the second-leading scorer in school history, averaging 23.0 points for the Blue Devils. He was taken third overall by the Pistons in the 1952 NBA draft.

Groat played 26 games for the Pistons, averaging 11.9 points, 3.3 rebounds and 2.7 assists. His basketball career, however, ended after he enlisted in the Army in 1953. He spent nearly two years in the service and when he was discharged, Rickey essentially threatened to take away Groat’s signing bonus if he didn’t turn his attention to baseball.

Groat relented and became one of the most consistent shortstops of his era. He played in eight All-Star games (there were two games a season for a brief period in the 1950s and ’60s) and during Pittsburgh’s improbable run to a World Series title in 1960, it was Groat and not future baseball Hall of Famers Roberto Clemente and Bill Mazeroski who spearheaded the Pirates’ unlikely rise from perennial also-ran to championship club.

The list of players who finished behind Groat in the 1960 NL MVP voting includes Hall of Famers Clemente, Willie Mays, Hank Aaron, Stan Musial and Eddie Matthews.

A smooth defender who teamed with Mazeroski to lead the NL in double plays five times — a record that still stands — Groat played 1,290 games at shortstop for the Pirates, fourth on the club’s all-time list for a player at that position.

Pittsburgh traded Groat to St. Louis in November 1962. He responded by having the best statistical season of his career in 1963, finishing second in MVP voting behind Dodgers pitcher Sandy Koufax while hitting .319 with a major league-leading 43 doubles. Groat won a second world championship that fall as the Cardinals toppled the Yankees in seven games.

Groat played briefly for Philadelphia and then the Giants before retiring after the 1967 season. He remained active in the Pittsburgh area following his playing days, running the golf course he owned in the Laurel Highlands about an hour east of the city and spending four decades as a color commentator for the University of Pittsburgh basketball team.

While the Pirates failed to build on the momentum in 1959, Groat was selected to an All-Star team for the first time in his career. He hit .275 and paced the NL in putouts and double plays once again. The team finished last in home runs in the league, which convinced Brown to pursue a power hitter in the offseason. One potential trade would have sent Groat to the Kansas City Athletics in exchange for Roger Maris, a highly regarded 24-year-old outfielder. Manager Danny Murtaugh opposed the move, however, and Brown eventually cooled on the idea.

In 1960, Groat produced his best season yet, as the team captain became the first Pirate to be selected Most Valuable Player since Paul Waner in 1927. He hit .325 to become the first right-handed Pirates hitter to win the batting title since Honus Wagner in 1911. He sat out 20 days after his right wrist was fractured by a Lew Burdette pitch on September 6. Originally, Groat was expected to sidelined for at least one month. But he claimed to be a quick healer and lobbied hard for an early return in order to be better prepared for the expected trip to the World Series.

Current Pitt coach Jeff Capel said Groat lived “a storybook life.”

Groat is survived by daughters Tracey, Carol Ann and Allison, along with 11 grandchildren.

Statistically, the 1965 season was the worst for Groat as a regular in his career. Afterward, as part of a six-player transaction, he was traded with catcher Bob Uecker and first baseman Bill White to the Phillies, whose manager Gene Mauch had been impressed by his skills and leadership for years. Groat hit .265 in his only full season with the team, after which his contract was sold to the San Francisco Giants in June of the following year. He spent the final months of the 1967 season mostly as a late-inning defensive replacement and pinch-hitter before he announced his retirement.

In his career, Groat totaled 829 runs scored, 707 runs batted in, 352 doubles, 67 triples and 39 home runs in 1,929 games. He helped turn 1,237 double plays at shortstop, the 14th most at the position in MLB history.

From the late 1950s to mid-1960s, Groat was a perennial All-Star candidate who ranked among the elite players at his position. Yet Groat, Dave Parker, and Pete Rose are the only non-Hall of Famers to be Most Valuable Players, batting and World Series champions, and have appeared in at least five All-Star Games in their careers. Groat never garnered more than 1.8 percent of the vote in any Hall of Fame election in six years on the ballot.

"Because Groat wasn't blessed with great speed or power, he had to be seen on a regular basis to be fully appreciated," said Paul Ladewski, former Pirates beat writer and current Baseball Writers' Association of America member and Hall of Fame voter. "Even though he lost two seasons in his athletic prime because of military service, which cost him approximately 250 hits and delayed his development, his career numbers are comparable to those of contemporary middle infielders Luis Aparicio, Nellie Fox and Bill Mazeroski, all of whom are in the Hall of Fame today. Based on plate appearances, his Wins Above Replacement total is substantially better than Harold Baines, Jim Bottomley, Lou Brock, Rabbit Maranville and Lloyd Waner, who also are Hall of Fame members. Given that the bar for election has been lowered in recent years, the Veterans Committee would be wise to take a closer look at him."

In August 2022, the Pirates organization did not include Groat in its inaugural Hall of Fame class. Former teammates Clemente and Mazeroski were among the 19 selections chosen by a panel whose names were not disclosed.

Less than two months after Groat played his final game of the 1952 baseball season, he made his NBA debut on November 9 with the Fort Wayne Pistons. Even though the guard could not practice with the team because of his student responsibilities – he commuted from Duke to play in three exhibition games – the transition was a relatively seamless one. He scored 11 points in a 74–71 victory over the rival Indianapolis Olympians, the first for the Pistons after an 0–3 start.

Groat quickly became a fan favorite in Fort Wayne, whose partisans took a liking to his pull-up jump shot, leaping ability and boundless energy. In only his second game, the rookie scored a career-high 25 points in a 112–83 rout of the New York Knicks, who had advanced to the NBA Finals the previous season.

Groat saw his first season come to a halt in February, when he enlisted in the Army rather than delay the inevitable. He left the vastly improved Pistons in much better position than when he arrived – they had a 24–24 record at the time of his departure en route to a postseason berth.

When Groat was discharged in 1954, Rickey was adamant that his prized shortstop would play only baseball because of the potential health risks that a dual career could pose for him. "Mr. Rickey said, 'You have played your last game in the NBA,'" Groat recalled the conversation. "I would never have given up basketball, but I would have lost the rest of the my bonus. He played hardball."

Groat admitted to being "heart-broken" by the news. In what would be his only season of pro basketball, he ranked second on the Pistons in points (11.9) and third assists (2.7) per game. "I have thought many times about how I would have reacted had I been able to play three years back-to-back in both sports," he said.

Groat is the great uncle of golfer Brooks Koepka, who won the 2017 and 2018 U.S. Open, and the 2018 and 2019 PGA Championship.

One of 13 athletes who played in both the National Basketball Association and Major League Baseball. The others: Danny Ainge, Frank Baumholtz, Hank Biasatti, Gene Conley, Chuck Connors, Dave DeBusschere, Steve Hamilton, Mark Hendrickson, Cotton Nash, Ron Reed, Dick Ricketts and Howie Schultz.