Q&A with Dapper Dan honoree Dick Groat, a two-sport pro

Pitt color commentator Dick Groat (Matt Freed/Post-Gazette)

They don’t make many like Dick Groat anymore. If you’re from the Pittsburgh area, you might remember that Groat, a shortstop, was National League MVP in 1960, the year the Pirates ended their 35-year World Series drought. And you might know he, now 85, is a color commentator on Pitt basketball radio broadcasts.

But, honestly, this guy had a most fascinating career. He was an All-American baseball and basketball player at Duke, was drafted third overall in the 1952 NBA Draft and, of course, went on to win two World Series in a 14-year major-league career. All that despite missing two years due to military service.

“I make the argument he's the best athlete Western Pa. has ever produced,” Bill Hillgrove, Groat’s play-by-play partner, said recently. “People say, 'Wait a minute, we’ve had some great ones.” Yes we have. But we haven’t had any except for Dick who played two sports at the highest level.”

I caught up with Groat for 20 minutes this week for a story on him receiving the Dapper Dan Lifetime Achievement Award (go ahead, read the story!). There was so much interesting stuff that wouldn’t fit into the story, so I wanted to leave the full transcript here. If you’re a Pirates, Pitt, WPIAL, Duke or Fort Wayne Pistons fan, I promise you you’ll learn something new from this conversation.

Q: You like to stay busy, don't you?

A: "Well, sport has been my life, and when Bill Hillgrove brought me back to broadcasting basketball, it brought me back to my first love. I really love college basketball, and Jamie Dixon has made it even more fun."

So basketball really was your first love?

"I played probably 10 times more basketball than baseball. It's always been my first love. Sincerely, I always felt I was a much better basketball player than I was a baseball player."

What made you choose baseball over basketball?

"Well, believe it or not, when I was just a youngster, I had a sister and two brothers — my parents were a great deal older; my father was 50 when I was born — and they were all at the University of Pittsburgh at that time. My sister became my surrogate mother. I can remember telling her when I was grade school that I was going to be an All-American basketball player, an All-American baseball player, I was going to play both professional basketball and professional baseball, and I was never going to go to the minor leagues. I've always said I was the luckiest person in the world, because everything just fell into place for me."

Did you realize how rare it was to be that skilled in two sports?

"Pretty much, yes. I didn't think it would be that big a deal. Baseball was something my father dearly loved. He didn't have a great deal of love for basketball. And everything just fell into place. I was so fortunate. Back then, believe it or not, we had three newspapers. Everything turned around when I was a junior in high school and won the Hearst All-Star Game and represented the city of Pittsburgh in New York, both as a junior and as a senior. When you get a week's exposure in the newspaper for two summers when you're just in high school, everything kind of flourishes. All of a sudden, I led the WPIAL in scoring in basketball my senior year, and one thing just multiplied on top of another. I was invited to visit the campus at Duke University, and I saw Cameron Indoor Stadium — at that time it was called Duke Indoor Stadium. It was state of the art. We had nothing in the state of Pennsylvania like Cameron Indoor Stadium. I said, 'Boy, this is where I want to play my basketball.' Red Auerbach was my coach sophomore year. He taught me more basketball in two or three months than all the rest of my coaches put together. He and I remained great friends right up to the day he died."

1952 college player of the year Dick Groat (Associated Press)

What was the transition, then, between college and the pros?

"Between my junior and senior years at college, I came home to Pittsburgh after having played semipro baseball in Virginia. A scout said to me, 'Are you going back to Pittsburgh before you return to Duke?' I said yes. He said, 'Well, here's my card. Mr. [Branch] Rickey would like you to come down and work out with the Pirates. I'm a 20-year old kid. Why not? I'd been to Forbes Field and loved the Pirates, so I called down there and they invited me down to work out every morning. After the first morning, Mr. Rickey said to me, 'Why don't you come back and put a uniform on and take batting practice with the regulars, and take infield practice?' You can imagine what that was like. I'm as happy as a pig in slop.

The second or third day, he asked if my mother and dad liked baseball. I said yes, my dad loves baseball. So he invited the three of us to sit in his box for the game. I've never forgotten this. In exactly these words, he turned to me in about the third inning — my mother and father were sitting behind me — and he said, 'Young man, if your father and you will sign a contract, I'll start you against the Cincinnati Reds tomorrow night.' I said, 'Mr. Rickey, that's not even fair. You know I want to play major league baseball, but I owe my senior year to Duke. I'm going back to play basketball and baseball. But I promise you, if you make the same offer to me when my eligibility is up, I promise you I'll sign with the Pirates.' At that time there was no such thing as a draft. You could sign with whomever you wanted to. I didn't hear from him again for another year. I returned from the College World Series on a Sunday night in June. He contacted me Monday, I signed Monday night, joined the Pirates Tuesday, pinch-hit Wednesday [at the Polo Grounds] and played every game the rest of the season. The man lived by his word.

"So now I go back to Duke to finish my degree, and to show you how lucky I am, I'm drafted by the Fort Wayne (Zollner) Pistons in the NBA. The only team in the NBA that could have afforded this. They flew me in to Fort Wayne for a couple weekends, and I had great games. I got grounded in Detroit and had to call Monday and say, 'I have to quit. My father would kill me if I didn't graduate from Duke.' I was carrying a very light schedule, only nine credits my last year, and my grades were good, but there was one question mark: if you go past three [class] cuts back in 1952, you cut yourself right out of school. I had cut once to finish the season with the Pirates. Now I'm grounded the second time in Detroit. I had an 8 a.m. class Monday and we played every Sunday night in Fort Wayne. So they understood when I quit; I had only played six or eight games, maybe less than that. Then they called me back a week later and said, 'We have to have you back.' I said, 'I can't cut myself out of school. I can't afford that.' They said, 'Don't worry. We have it all taken care of.' They had a private plane to fly me back and forth. Wow. Well, now, instead of just playing the weekends I'm going to class on Monday, fly to New York and play in Madison Square Garden, fly back to go to class on Tuesday, fly wherever they were — remember, all the NBA teams were in the east then. So, I was able to play in the NBA, never practice one time with the Pistons, and I've never had more fun in my life playing basketball.

And then when I graduated Uncle Sam said, 'I want you,' and that's when I went into the service. When I returned to the Pirates in '55, I didn't have a great year, his .260-something. I was making more money in basketball than in baseball, and Mr. Rickey doubled my salary and wouldn’t let me go back [to basketball]. I still had two years left on my bonus contract, and my father would not allow me to break the contract, even though basketball was my first love. I felt I could play both sports for at least three or four years. But that was the end of my basketball career."

1960 Pirates World Series team

What do you recall about that 1960 World Series team?

"The thing that's clear and simple is the fact that the reserve clause was still in existence. There was no such thing as free agency. So we all grew up together. When I got to the Pirates, Bob Skinner, Bob Friend and Vernon Law were all in the organization. Then Mr. Rickey drafted Elroy Face, drafted Bobby Clemente, signed Bill Mazeroski, and we all kind of grew up together. We were bad in '55 and bad in '56. In '57 we were still not very good, but all of a sudden we learned how to win. When Friend and Law and Face became better pitchers, we became better defensive players and better offensive players. We just grew up together. Stayed second in '58, kind of fell on our ass in '59 — finished fourth, though — and then all of a sudden won it all in '60."

Not a bad ending, eh?

"Oh boy, was it ever special. To remind you again how lucky I've been, how many people are lucky enough to play on world-championship team in their own hometown? I've always said I was the luckiest person that ever walked on any baseball diamond or basketball court."

This seems like a silly question to ask a man who has done so much, but looking back on your career, what was your proudest accomplishment?

"Probably winning two world championships. There's nothing that hurt me worse than Joe Brown trading me. I never wanted to leave the city of Pittsburgh — ever. When he traded me to the Cardinals, that was the most miserable winter I ever spent. But how lucky, again, can a guy be? I had, believe it or not, a better year in '63 than I did in '60 when I won the MVP. I finished second in the MVP to Sandy Koufax that year with the St. Louis Cardinals. That was my first year there. Of course, the important thing about that is I was hitting in front of Stan Musial all year. I never had so many good balls to hit in my entire life. No one was going to walk me to get to Stan Musial. Then, of course, came back the following year and we won the world championship, defeated the Yankees once again. Both those world championships were over the Mickey Mantle, Roger Maris Yankees, the great team. Then, all of a sudden, time caught up and I started to go the other way. I had probably my worst year in '65, was traded to the Phillies and didn't have a real great year but we finished fourth, then I had an injury that would never let me play again. But baseball was, again, so good to me, that the Giants kept me on even though they knew I could never play again, and let me retire with dignity. I should have been released in the middle of the season, but Mr. [Horace] Stoneham gave me the opportunity to retire with dignity."