This may be the best article you’ll ever read on one of my favorite players, Bobby Grich:

Preparedness has always been Grich’s forte. It won him win four Gold Gloves (1973-1976) as an Oriole. He studied hitters, calculated outcomes and flagged down scorchers that other second basemen could only wave at.

“I didn’t have Brooks Robinson‘s hands, Mark Belanger‘s range or Joe Morgan‘s quickness, but I got to more balls than other guys who were 6 feet 2 and 200 pounds because, on every pitch, I got a jump,” Grich said. “I cheated so much, I caught balls on the outfield grass and threw guys out.”

There’s so much in the article that noteworthy. He turned down more money as a free agent to choose his place of employment, something that happens more often that the “greedy player scenario” would have you believe. He downplays his Hall of Fame credentials, and tells a great Richard Nixon story, and talks about his feud with Earl Weaver. Well worth the read.

One of my friends thought his name sounded like something that would be pulled out of a clogged drain pipe. He was that kind of player, tough to get out.