Johnny Grodzicki

Who is Johnny Grodzicki?

John Grodzicki was an American Major League Baseball pitcher. A native of Nanticoke, Pennsylvania, he pitched for the St. Louis Cardinals in 1941, 1946 and 1947. The right-hander stood 6 feet 1 inch and weighed 200 pounds.

A top pitching prospect before the outbreak of World War II, he would pitch in 24 games for the Cardinals, winning 2 and losing 2, with an earned run average of 4.43. His career was interrupted by four years of military service. Grodzicki served in the United States Army's 17th Airborne Division and became a paratrooper. In combat in Germany on March 29, 1945, Grodzicki sustained shrapnel wounds to both legs. He was awarded a Purple Heart, and required surgery and extensive rehabilitation to resume his baseball career after the war's end.

Grodzicki's professional playing career — spent entirely in the Cardinal organization — stretched from 1936 through 1952, including 11 years in minor league baseball. He later managed in the Redbird farm system, scouted for the Cardinals, then became a minor league instructor for the Detroit Tigers for over a dozen years. He then spent a season as the Tigers' MLB pitching coach. He died at age 81 in Daytona Beach, Florida.