1926
Born July 23, 1926
Chicago, IL, USA
Johnny Groth Marquee
b. July 23, 1926 · Detroit Tigers 1946–1952, 1957–1960, St. Louis Browns 1953, Chicago White Sox 1954–1955, Washington Senators 1955, Kansas City Athletics 1956–1957
He hit .306 with 173 hits and 85 runs batted in for Detroit in 1950, his best season, playing center field there for seven years before being traded away. He was a Detroit native who grew up going to Tigers games and became their regular center fielder.
Fifteen seasons gave him 1,064 hits, 197 doubles, 480 runs batted in, 419 walks and a .279 average across 1,155 games in the outfield for five clubs. He hit safely at a good clip his whole career without ever leading the league in anything.
He finished with Kansas City in 1960 at thirty-four. He lived to ninety-five, dying in 2021, one of the last living players from the Tigers clubs of the immediate postwar years. No Hall of Fame ballot ever listed him.
Batting, season by season
| Year | Team | G | AB | R | H | 2B | 3B | HR | RBI | BB | SO | SB | AVG |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1946 | DET | 4 | 9 | 1 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 3 | 0 | .000 |
| 1947 | DET | 2 | 4 | 1 | 1 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 2 | 1 | 0 | .250 |
| 1948 | DET | 6 | 17 | 3 | 8 | 3 | 0 | 1 | 5 | 1 | 1 | 0 | .471 |
| 1949 | DET | 103 | 348 | 60 | 102 | 19 | 5 | 11 | 73 | 65 | 27 | 3 | .293 |
| 1950 | DET | 157 | 566 | 95 | 173 | 30 | 8 | 12 | 85 | 95 | 27 | 1 | .306 |
| 1951 | DET | 118 | 428 | 41 | 128 | 29 | 1 | 3 | 49 | 31 | 32 | 1 | .299 |
| 1952 | DET | 141 | 524 | 56 | 149 | 22 | 2 | 4 | 51 | 51 | 39 | 2 | .284 |
| 1953 | SLB | 141 | 557 | 65 | 141 | 27 | 4 | 10 | 57 | 42 | 53 | 5 | .253 |
| 1954 | CHW | 125 | 422 | 41 | 116 | 20 | 0 | 7 | 60 | 42 | 37 | 3 | .275 |
| 1955 | CHW/WSH | 95 | 260 | 35 | 66 | 11 | 5 | 4 | 28 | 24 | 31 | 3 | .254 |
| 1956 | KCA | 95 | 244 | 22 | 63 | 13 | 3 | 5 | 37 | 30 | 31 | 1 | .258 |
| 1957 | DET/KCA | 93 | 162 | 21 | 45 | 10 | 0 | 0 | 18 | 13 | 13 | 0 | .278 |
| 1958 | DET | 88 | 146 | 24 | 41 | 5 | 2 | 2 | 11 | 13 | 19 | 0 | .281 |
| 1959 | DET | 55 | 102 | 12 | 24 | 7 | 1 | 1 | 10 | 7 | 14 | 0 | .235 |
| 1960 | DET | 25 | 19 | 3 | 7 | 1 | 0 | 0 | 2 | 3 | 1 | 0 | .368 |
| Career | — | 1248 | 3808 | 480 | 1064 | 197 | 31 | 60 | 486 | 419 | 329 | 19 | .279 |
On this day & linked events
2021
Died August 7, 2021
1946
Major-league debut: Johnny Groth
Johnny Groth made a major-league debut on September 5, 1946.
1960
Final major-league game: Johnny Groth
Johnny Groth played a final major-league game on July 28, 1960.
Image: Bowman Gum, public domain