Jim "Mudcat" Grant, R.I.P.

Former MLB pitcher, broadcaster and author Jim "Mudcat" Grant passed away on Saturday. No cause of death has been released. He was 85.

The Florida born Grant was signed by the Cleveland Indians in 1954. He would make his big league debut with the Tribe in 1958 and quickly became a mainstay of their starting rotation earning an AL All-Star Team selection in 1963. 

After six and a half seasons with the Indians, Grant was traded to the Minnesota Twins during the middle of the 1964 season for pitcher Lee Stange and journeyman George Banks. In 1965, Grant would have the best season of his professional career earning a league leading 21 wins and 6 shutouts en route to an AL pennant. Grant would win Game 1 and Game 6 of the 1965 World Series although the Twins would ultimately fall to the Los Angeles Dodgers in seven games. When Grant won 21 games in 1965 he became the first African-American pitcher to do so in the AL.

The Twins would trade Grant along with 1965 AL MVP Zoilo Versalles to the Los Angeles Dodgers prior to the 1968 season for pitchers Ron Perranoski and Bob Miller along with catcher John Roseboro. By this stage of his career, Grant primarily pitched out of the bullpen. Although Grant would make history the following year when he started the first game of the expansion Montreal Expos franchise. Grant's tenure with the Expos was short-lived as he would be traded to the St. Louis Cardinals in June 1969 for pitcher Gary Waslewski. There would be two stints with the Oakland A's which sandwiched a brief stay with the Pittsburgh Pirates. After being released by the A's at the end of the 1971 season, Grant would retire. In 571 games (including 293 starts), Grant went 145-119 with a respectable 3.63 ERA with 1267 strikeouts.

Following his playing career, Grant worked as a broadcaster with both the Indians and the A's. In 2007, Grant co-authored Black Aces - an account of the 13 African-American pitchers who had recorded 20 wins in a season. President Bush would honor Grant for his work at a White House ceremony during Black History Month. 

Grant also possessed an excellent singing voice and would occasionally perform as he did during the memorial service of his onetime Twins teammate Harmon Killebrew back in 2011 when he sang "What a Wonderful World." "Mudcat" Grant did his part to create a wonderful world. R.I.P.