Robert Emmett McGraw (April 10, 1895 – June 2, 1978) was an American professional baseball pitcher for the

New York Yankees The New York Yankees are an American professional baseball team based in the New York City borough of the Bronx. The Yankees compete in Major League Baseball (MLB) as a member club of the American League (AL) East division. They are one of ...

Boston Red Sox The Boston Red Sox are an American professional baseball team based in Boston. The Red Sox compete in Major League Baseball (MLB) as a member club of the American League (AL) East division. Founded in as one of the American League's eigh ...

, Brooklyn Robins,

St. Louis Cardinals The St. Louis Cardinals are an American professional baseball team based in St. Louis. The Cardinals compete in Major League Baseball (MLB) as a member club of the National League (NL) Central division. Since the 2006 season, the Cardinals ha ...

, and Philadelphia Phillies.

Biography

McGraw was born on April 10, 1895, in La Veta, Colorado. He went to the

University of Colorado The University of Colorado (CU) is a system of public universities in Colorado. It consists of four institutions: University of Colorado Boulder, University of Colorado Colorado Springs, University of Colorado Denver, and the University o ...

and

Georgetown University Georgetown University is a private university, private research university in the Georgetown (Washington, D.C.), Georgetown neighborhood of Washington, D.C. Founded by Bishop John Carroll (archbishop of Baltimore), John Carroll in 1789 as Georg ...

. He was mainly a relief pitcher, although he occasionally started games. He broke into

Major League Baseball Major League Baseball (MLB) is a professional baseball organization and the oldest major professional sports league in the world. MLB is composed of 30 total teams, divided equally between the National League (NL) and the American League (AL), ...

when he was 22, on September 25, 1917. He was playing for the

at the time. He played for the Yankees until . He was then sent to the

, where he finished the 1919 season. McGraw went back to the Yankees in 1920; that was the last season he played with them. McGraw did not play in the major leagues for another five years. He made his comeback with the Brooklyn Robins. Although he only pitched two games for them that year, he came back the next year, and played his first full major league season as a starting pitcher. He went 9-13 that year, a moderate season for someone converting from a relief pitcher to a starting pitcher. McGraw played part of the 1927 season with the Robins, pitching one game for them before playing the rest (and the majority) of the season with the

. With the Cardinals, most games he pitched in were as a starting pitcher, with some relief appearances. McGraw played two more seasons in the major leagues, both of which with the Philadelphia Phillies. He went back to relief pitching with them, although he received many decisions. At 34 years old, in , McGraw retired and played his final game on September 28. In 579.1 innings, he had a

win–loss record In sports, a winning percentage is the fraction of games or matches a team or individual has won. The statistic is commonly used in standings or rankings to compare teams or individuals. It is defined as wins divided by the total number of matc ...

of 28–36, a winning percentage of .406, with an

earned run average In baseball statistics, earned run average (ERA) is the average of earned runs allowed by a pitcher per nine innings pitched (i.e. the traditional length of a game). It is determined by dividing the number of earned runs allowed by the number ...

of 5.00 and 164

strikeouts In baseball or softball, a strikeout (or strike-out) occurs when a batter accumulates three strikes during a time at bat. It usually means that the batter is out. A strikeout is a statistic recorded for both pitchers and batters, and is deno ...

over nine seasons. McGraw lived for nearly 50 more years. He died on June 2, 1978, in

Boise Boise (, , ) is the capital and most populous city of the U.S. state of Idaho and is the county seat of Ada County. On the Boise River in southwestern Idaho, it is east of the Oregon border and north of the Nevada border. The downtown area' ...

Idaho Idaho ( ) is a state in the Pacific Northwest region of the Western United States. To the north, it shares a small portion of the Canada–United States border with the province of British Columbia. It borders the states of Montana and Wyomi ...

, and was buried in

Pueblo In the Southwestern United States, Pueblo (capitalized) refers to the Native tribes of Puebloans having fixed-location communities with permanent buildings which also are called pueblos (lowercased). The Spanish explorers of northern New Spain ...

Colorado Colorado (, other variants) is a state in the Mountain states, Mountain West subregion of the Western United States. It encompasses most of the Southern Rocky Mountains, as well as the northeastern portion of the Colorado Plateau and the wes ...

. He was 83 years old.

References

Bob McGaw at Baseball-Almanac

MLB.com Historical Player Stats
Bob McGraw {{DEFAULTSORT:McGraw, Bob 1895 births 1978 deaths Major League Baseball pitchers New York Yankees players Boston Red Sox players Brooklyn Robins players Colorado Buffaloes baseball players Georgetown Hoyas baseball players St. Louis Cardinals players Philadelphia Phillies players Baseball players from Colorado Newark Bears (IL) players Vernon Tigers players Minneapolis Millers (baseball) players Rochester Red Wings players Seattle Indians players