Today's Card...  Eli Grba --- 1962

                                                   March 15-17, 2010        
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The Pastime in the
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Just not quite sure what to make of
this Eli Grba card.

Is he bewildered?
Is he stoned?
Or is he just constipated?

Hard to say, but Grba may have
been feeling the pressure of being
the first pick of the Angels in the
1960 expansion draft and handed
the keys to the franchise.

"Mommy!"

The hard-throwing right-hander
started out his career in style with the
Yankees, pitching one inning of
no-hit, no-run ball in relief of Whitey
Ford on July 10, 1959. Two ground
outs were followed by setting down
Ted Williams on strikes--- looking.
From there, it was mostly downhill.

Grba went on to pitch in parts of two
seasons with the Yankees, where he
went 8-9 and walked a whopping 87
batters in 131 innings.  But he had
that great fastball.

So naturally when the American
League held their expansion draft in
1960 to stock the new Washington
Senators (the old ones escaped to
Minnesota) and the Los Angles
Angels, Eli Grba was the first overall
selection. Sure, why not? The Angels
brass had to be gleaming after
putting the future of their franchise in
the hands of a man named Eli Grba.

Handed the franchise's opening
game start, Grba did lead Angels to a
7-2 victory, besting Milt Pappas and
the Orioles before an embarrassed
Baltimore Opening Day crowd. Then
Grba proceded to walk, walk and
walk batters.

In five seasons in the bigs, Grba  
issued 284 free passes, while striking
out just 255. He finished with a
career mark of 28-33.

Is it any wonder that it took the
Angels 19 years before claiming their
first division crown?