Lerrin LaGrow

During right-hander Lerrin LaGrow’s final year in the majors, he quipped “Hillerich & Bradsby” when asked to identify his toughest opposing hitter.1 By naming the company that manufactures Louisville Sluggers, he perhaps inadvertently referenced the moment for which he’s arguably most remembered – being the target of Bert Campaneris’s thrown bat during the 1972 AL playoffs. Yet the hard-throwing LaGrow started or relieved for five teams over parts of 10 major-league seasons (1970-1980), saved 25 games for the 1977 Chicago White Sox, and three for the 1980 World Series champion Philadelphia Phillies.

Lerrin Harris LaGrow was born on July 8, 1948, in Phoenix, Arizona. His parents, Forrest “Jack” and Elta (Harris) LaGrow, were Illinois natives who’d married in Iowa before settling in the Grand Canyon State, but Lerrin’s paternal roots were in France. “Some time back the name was spelled LaGreaux,” he explained.2 Jack, a mechanic, and Elta, a public-school teacher, had another son, Steve, before Lerrin.

At Glendale High School, Lerrin was a member of the National Honor Society and a four-year letterman in both baseball and basketball.3 Listed at 6-foot-5, 220 pounds as a professional, the lanky righthander had been named to the all-tournament team at an American Legion baseball competition in Roswell, New Mexico, prior to his senior year.4

LaGrow accepted a scholarship to join one of the country’s top college baseball programs. Based 20 miles southeast of Glendale, Arizona State University won its second national championship in three years when he was a freshman in 1967. The Sun Devils were under the leadership of Bobby Winkles, whom Lerrin described as “the best [coach] I had at any level.”5 LaGrow did not appear for the Sun Devils that season, but he blossomed pitching for the semipro Wichita Cessna club in the subsequent summer, earning All-Kansas honors in a circuit featuring Larry Biittner and Matt Alexander.6 Following the National Baseball Congress tournament, LaGrow and Biitner joined three other future big leaguers – Bob Boone, Doug Griffin, and Frank Duffy – on the NBC’s All-American team.7

LaGrow was 5-0 for ASU as a 1968 sophomore, but his season was cut short by a pulled muscle, and the Sun Devils missed the NCAA tournament.89 In 1969, however, Arizona State reclaimed the College World Series title. Senior southpaw Larry Gura was the ace, based on his 19-2 record, but LaGrow’s 14-1 mark included a 2-1, 11-inning victory over UCLA in the CWS tournament.10 He also beat New York University to put the Sun Devils into the finals. “[LaGrow] picked up his second win of the Series, scattering five hits and fanning nine,” described ASU’s 1970 yearbook. “But his 3-for-3 performance at the plate, including a two-run single in the sixth, won the game for Arizona State.”11

Eight Sun Devils were selected by major league teams in either the June or January phases of the amateur draft, led by outfielder Paul Ray Powell, who went to the Twins with the seventh overall pick. The Cubs snagged Gura with their second selection, while LaGrow was the sixth-round choice of the reigning World Series champion Detroit Tigers in June 1969.

After signing, LaGrow reported to Montgomery (Alabama) Rebels of the Double-A Southern League. He allowed only one earned run in nine innings of his professional debut on June 29 but received a no-decision.12 His record was 0-6 before he finally defeated Powell’s Charlotte Hornets on August 3, but he threw five wild pitches in his next outing.13 LaGrow also spent a night in the hospital with a severely bruised spine after being drilled by a line drive. He finished his first professional season 2-10 with a 3.64 ERA in 14 starts.14 “I developed a defeatist attitude last year,” LaGrow confessed the following spring. After pitching well a few times without earning wins, he’d grown tense and started putting pressure on himself, but he vowed things would be different after a winter of reflection. “I don’t regret last year one bit. I actually learned a lot from losing.”15

Back at Montgomery in 1970, LaGrow realized that he couldn’t simply throw the ball by hitters. Although mastery of a curveball tip from Detroit’s minor-league pitching instructor, John Grodzicki, proved elusive, LaGrow said he could get the pitch over the plate at two different speeds after returning to his old delivery. Marrying Sherry Lynn Wilkerson just before spring training was bound to help, too. “She had seen me pitch so much in high school in Glendale, Arizona and at Arizona State, she knows as well as I do when I’m going good and when I’m making mistakes,” LaGrow explained. “And she really jumps on me when we get home if I’ve made too many bad pitches.”16

LaGrow went 6-1 with five complete games in his first seven starts in 1970. Against Savannah on May 9, he struck out 16 batters to tie Jim Nash’s Southern League record in a 150-pitch effort.17 One opposing skipper, Jacksonville’s Gus Niarhos, said, “His fastball is major league and so is everything else.” Montgomery manager Stubby Overmire opined, “He could go up to the major league right now.”18 LaGrow was 11-4 with a 2.10 ERA in 19 starts before he was summoned to Detroit to replace Bob Reed, a rookie reliever facing two weeks of military duty.19

On July 28, 1970, LaGrow faced one batter in his major-league debut at Tiger Stadium, allowing a single to Kansas City’s Paul Schaal in the eighth inning of a tie game. Six nights later, he made the Senators’ Tom Grieve his first strikeout victim. LaGrow remained in the big leagues for the rest of the year. Although he relieved only 10 times and pitched 12 1/3 innings with a 7.30 ERA, he impressed Detroit manager Mayo Smith as “a guy who won’t scare.”20 His only decision came in his final outing – a loss after he surrendered a tie-breaking grand slam to California’s Jay Johnstone.

LaGrow spent most of the next two years with the Toledo Mud Hens in the Triple-A International League. In 1971, he made 31 of his 36 appearances in relief and struck out 65 batters in 69 innings, but he walked 60 and went 2-6 with a 6.00 ERA. He joined the Mud Hens rotation in 1972 and struck out 11 in tossing his first shutout of the season on July 9. LaGrow also walked seven, however, prompting Toledo manager Johnny Lipon to say, “He was having problems with his curveball. If he can get it over the plate with some respectability, there’s no doubt he could make it to the majors.”21 After LaGrow shut out Peninsula on August 2, his record was 8-6 with a 2.43 ERA. He rejoined the Tigers.22

Detroit won the American League East by a half-game over the Red Sox on the final weekend of the 1972 season. In 16 games out of the bullpen, LaGrow notched a 1.32 ERA and two saves. He did not allow a run in his last nine appearances, spanning 15 innings. After losing the opener of the best-of-five ALCS in Oakland, the Tigers trailed Game Two, 5-0, when LaGrow made his playoff debut by working a perfect bottom of the sixth inning. One of the A’s heroes was Bert Campaneris, who’d already singled three times, stolen two bases and scored twice. When Campaneris led off the bottom of the seventh, LaGrow’s first pitch drilled him in the left ankle. Incensed, Campaneris stood up and flung his bat towards the mound. It could have hit LaGrow in the head if the tall reliever hadn’t ducked.

“That’s the dirtiest thing I ever saw in my whole life in baseball,” said Tigers manager Billy Martin. “He could have killed my man.” Martin and Detroit’s Willie Horton had to be restrained from going after Campaneris as both benches emptied, and Detroit’s Ike Brown destroyed the weaponized bat. Both LaGrow and Campaneris were ejected by home plate umpire Nestor Chylak, who later explained, “I didn’t want to have any mayhem or riot out there. I had to even things out.”23 Both players were also suspended for the remainder of the series. Detroit won twice at Tiger Stadium to force a decisive Game Five, but fell, 2-1.

Nine years later, Martin admitted, “I told [LaGrow] to throw at his ankle. There’s nothing illegal in baseball about that. We weren’t throwing at his head. They used to throw at Mickey Mantle’s legs all the time.”24

LaGrow pitched winter ball for the Indios de Mayagüez in Puerto Rico that offseason, along with fellow Tigers John Hiller, Joe Niekro and Bob Strampe. Next, he traveled to the Dominican Republic to join the Tigres del Licey team for that country’s playoffs.25 After Licey triumphed, LaGrow accompanied them to Caracas, Venezuela for the Caribbean Series, where his 9-2 victory over the Puerto Rican entry helped the Dominicans prevail.26 “I saw “Campy [Campaneris] in Venezuela,” LaGrow said. “He didn’t speak to me, and I didn’t speak to him.”27

In 1973, LaGrow made Detroit’s Opening Day roster as a reliever. He earned the club’s first two saves, though the lefthanded Hiller seized the fireman role and notched a (then) record 38 before season’s end. Prior to the Tigers’ annual exhibition in Toledo on June 14, however, LaGrow and Hiller collided during batting practice. Hiller missed only a week with a sprained ankle, but LaGrow wound up on the disabled list with a hairline fracture of his pitching wrist.28 When he returned to action a month later, he joined the Mud Hens rotation. His next Tigers appearance came on September 5, when he hurled 6 1/3 innings in Cleveland to earn his first big league victory. LaGrow appeared 21 times in the majors in 1973 (three starts) and finished 1-5 with a 4.33 ERA.

Under new Detroit manager Ralph Houk, LaGrow made 34 starts in 1974, including complete-game efforts of 10 innings and 11 innings in his first six outings. On June 30, LaGrow struck out a career-high 10 in a route-going effort against the Brewers. After he went the distance again to beat the White Sox in his next start, his record was 7-7 with a 3.58 ERA, and the Tigers were only one game out of first place. Detroit wound up last in the AL East, however; LaGrow’s 1-12, 6.10 performance after July 5 consigned him to an 8-19 overall record, ranking third in the circuit in losses. “I’d make a bad pitch, and instead of saying, ‘Forget it,’ I’d get mad and lose all my concentration. I’d start tearing up the mound – if I was still in the game,” he remarked the following spring. “It was just stupidity on my part… I was just waiting for something to go wrong. And when it did, I’d blow up.” Houk observed, “The harder he’d get hit, the harder he’d throw.”29

LaGrow worked on adding a changeup to his repertoire. He four-hit the Yankees in his first start of 1975 and blanked the three-time World Series champion A’s on June 7 in Oakland. Despite two personal four-game losing streaks, LaGrow had hot stretches too. He hurled another shutout, in Kansas City, in his first outing after the All-Star break. With a complete game 9-1 win at Chicago on July 17, he was 7-8 with a 3.86 ERA. He went 0-6 with a 5.50 ERA the rest of the way, however, and spent the last month of his 7-14 season in the bullpen. “Lerrin is a guy I just can’t figure out,” Houk said. “It seems like when the hits start, they don’t stop getting hits.”30 Detroit finished last again with 102 losses, including a franchise-record 19 in a row. “Eight or nine other pitchers also were responsible there, and the eight men behind you in the field were responsible, so I didn’t like having the loser tag put on me,” LaGrow said later. “The Tiger organization treated me well, but I developed a bad attitude there.”31

On April 2, 1976 – one week before Opening Day – the Tigers sold LaGrow to the Cardinals for a reported $25,000. When Detroit acquired infielder Luis Alvarado after the season, it was “delayed compensation for Lerrin LaGrow,” according to beat writer Jim Hawkins.32

“I didn’t want to pitch long relief. That’s no way to make a living. I knew they were going to get rid of me,” LaGrow said, “I have no complaints, but when you can’t make it in seven years with one organization, it’s time to move on.”33 The St. Louis organization planned to let him start, albeit for their Tulsa Oilers affiliate in the Triple-A American Association. “It’s tough to maintain an attitude in a place like Tulsa, especially after being in the big leagues. I flew home and considered quitting because baseball isn’t my whole life,” LaGrow recalled. “I thought, ‘Why not quit and devote full time to my real estate business?’”34 He had started the company after completing his secondary education degree from Arizona State by returning to the classroom during off seasons.35

LaGrow reconsidered and went 6-10 with a 4.14 ERA in 25 starts after reporting to Tulsa. Called up to the Cardinals in September, he made six of his eight appearances in relief and posted a 1.48 ERA in 24 1/3 innings. His only decision was a complete-game, 1-0, defeat at Montreal.

That winter, LaGrow worked out with National League ERA leader John Denny.36 The Arizona natives wouldn’t be St. Louis teammates much longer, however. When LaGrow was informed during spring training that he’d been sent packing for the second straight year, he asked, “Which Chicago team?” – aware that the Cubs’ camp was in Scottsdale, not far from his home. Instead, he’d been sent to the American League’s worst team of 1976, for veteran reliever Clay Carroll. “I’d heard nothing but bad things about the [White] Sox,” LaGrow admitted later.37 When LaGrow reported to his new club, owner Bill Veeck – shirtless and drinking a beer with his wooden leg up on a table – greeted him, “Welcome to the White Sox. What do you want to do, start or relieve? We’re so bad it doesn’t make a difference.”38

Earlier that spring, LaGrow sounded like a man who’d finally accepted that starting wasn’t his niche, saying, “I never thought I’d like short relief, but I’m enjoying it. It’s good to have a hard thrower like me follow someone who has been throwing differently.”39 Out of the bullpen, he could work more frequently and rely on his fastball. “There’s always tomorrow. If you botch a game one night, you can come back and save a game the next night,” he explained.40 “I keep it down and throw it hard. I don’t want to look back and say I got beat by a home run on a slow curve.”41

The surprising White Sox entered the All-Star break with the best record in the American League. LaGrow notched 16 saves and maintained an ERA below 2.00 until his 34th outing. When Chicago went 22-6 in July to build a 5½ game division advantage, he earned three wins, five saves and held another lead as the Sox went 11-1 in his dozen appearances.

The 1977 White Sox were dubbed the “South Side Hit Men,” a nod to their slugging lineup that ranked second in the majors in homers. “It was a bunch of misfits and no names, but we all fit together. It was the most fun I ever had in baseball,” LaGrow recalled. Not everyone enjoyed the White Sox’s frequent curtain calls at Comiskey Park that summer, however. Kansas City’s Hal McRae called the celebrations “bush” and “a disgrace to baseball,” prompting Chicago’s players to discuss the issue. “It was the most disastrous meeting we could have had,” LaGrow said. “We went flat after that.”42

Although the White Sox won 90 games overall, they played sub-.500 ball over the final two months to finish in third place, 12 games behind the Royals. Nevertheless, LaGrow enjoyed a career season: 7-3 with a 2.46 ERA in 66 relief appearances. His 25 saves – 10 of which came in one-run games – ranked third in the circuit behind the Red Sox’s Bill Campbell and the Yankees’ Sparky Lyle. The only National League relievers with more saves in 1977 were Hall of Famers Rollie Fingers, Bruce Sutter and Goose Gossage. “It was the best year I ever had,” LaGrow said. “My temperament changed completely. I finally realized that baseball is not the only thing in my life. I learned to leave my disappointments and frustrations in the clubhouse. By the same token, if I do well, I leave that in the clubhouse, too. I learned to put things in perspective.”43

In 1978, LaGrow was the winning pitcher in Chicago’s come-from-behind, Opening Day victory over Boston. “They’re crazy, but I love ’em,” he said of the 50,754 fans who lingered at Comiskey Park following the dramatic, walk-off triumph.44 LaGrow retired Jim Rice with two aboard to save another win the following day and finished off another one-run victory in the final game of a season-opening 4-1 homestand. However, after LaGrow allowed a tying three-run homer and a walk-off blast in a May 20 defeat in Oakland, Chicago’s record was 11-22. The White Sox lost 90 games and finished 20 ½ behind the Royals. Although LaGrow led the team with 16 saves, his ERA swelled to 4.40 in 52 appearances with fewer strikeouts (from 5.7 to 4.2) and more walks (to 3.9 from 3.2) per nine innings.

LaGrow started the 1979 season poorly. In his first appearance, he blew a save in Baltimore on a bases-loaded hit-by-pitch that sent Orioles’ outfielder Gary Roenicke to the hospital for 25 stitches to repair his upper lip. “A pitch like that could kill a man. It bothers me more now, thinking of what it might have done to him, than it did when I saw him laying there by the plate,” LaGrow said after allowing a decisive two-run double two batters later as he struggled to get his mind off the incident. “It was evident that I wasn’t concentrating, just taking the ball back from the catcher and throwing it.”45 (On a side note, that injury prompted Roenicke to adopt the protective facebar for which he became known.)

The next day, LaGrow rebounded to finish off a Chicago victory with a perfect ninth inning after escaping a bases loaded, jam in the eighth by inducing a double play grounder. Five weeks into the season, though, he’d blown three of four save chances and was 0-3 with a 9.17 ERA. Two of his 11 appearances were starts, but he walked a career-worst eight in just four innings in one of them. Meanwhile, Mike Proly had become new White Sox manager Don Kessinger’s trusted late-inning reliever. On May 11, LaGrow was sold to the Los Angeles Dodgers for a reported $100,000. “He had asked to be traded to a team on the West Coast if we ever dealt him,” Veeck told the press. “He was happy we could accommodate him.”46

LaGrow did a solid job for the Dodgers, posting a 2.53 ERA in his first 16 outings before leaving a June 25 appearance with a strained shoulder muscle.47 He missed less than two weeks but went onto the disabled list with a bone spur on his right heel on July 30 after five ineffective outings. “I wanted to keep pitching. I’ve waited 10 years to find an organization like this one,” LaGrow told the Los Angeles Times.48 He returned on August 28 and wound up 5-1 with a 3.41 ERA and four saves in 31 appearances for the Dodgers.

That fall, LaGrow had an operation to remove the bone spur. He also became a free agent. Under the rules at the time, he was eligible to negotiate with any of the 26 teams because only one – the Boston Red Sox – selected him in the re-entry draft.49 “I had that surgery in October, which really didn’t help interest teams in my services,” he said.50 LaGrow reached out to the Dodgers about coming back to L.A., but the team signed free agent Don Stanhouse instead. The Red Sox also landed their preferred free agent reliever, Skip Lockwood. LaGrow finally inked a one-year deal for an estimated $100,000 with the Philadelphia Phillies on January 31, 1980. “It’s a gamble, but if he comes back strong – and the medical reports are good – he’s capable of being a very good relief pitcher,” remarked Philadelphia GM Paul Owens.51

The Phillies won their first World Series title in franchise history in 1980, with relief ace Tug McGraw striking out Kansas City’s Willie Wilson for the final out. When McGraw missed more than three weeks at the beginning of summer, LaGrow became the Phillies top reliever for a spell, appearing in 10 of 20 games from June 11 through July 1, and earning three saves. The 11-inning, 5-4 victory that he finished off on July 1 in Montreal looks even more crucial in retrospect, considering the Phillies overcame the Expos by a single game in the NL East race on the season’s final weekend. “You start warming up, and you don’t feel good, but hey, you’re the last guy,” LaGrow remarked during that busy stretch. “The bullpen is getting so much work. It takes its toll.”52

LaGrow was 0-2 with a 4.15 ERA in 25 appearances for Philadelphia before he was released on July 17 when McGraw returned from the DL. “LaGrow’s 17 walks in 39 innings sealed his fate,” wrote Hal Bodley in The Sporting News.53 On his way out the door, LaGrow told the Philadelphia Daily News, “I’ve been expecting it. It’s no longer fun to walk into the clubhouse and put on this uniform. I’ve lost my desire to play. I have no desire to go anywhere. It’s time I gave some time back to my family. I’m tired of the inconsistencies, inequalities, judgments and attitudes of people associated with this game. There is no bitterness.”54 After LaGrow’s Phillies teammates won the World Series three months later, they voted him a half-share of the playoff money, worth $17,346.59.55 He finished his 10-year career with a 34-55 record, 4.11 ERA and 54 saves in 309 games (67 starts).

In the fall of 1990, the Sun City (Arizona) Rays of the 35-and-over Senior Professional Baseball Association signed LaGrow, 42, and Campaneris, 48, on the same day.56 Reporters quipped that the players “found something they liked less than each other: retirement.”57 Campaneris didn’t make the team, however, and the ill-fated, second-year circuit folded in December.

After baseball, LaGrow became a successful real estate broker in Arizona. On an Arizona State University alumni questionnaire, he described himself as the “Owner/President of United Acquisitions, Inc. d/b/a The Ler’rin Company –specializing in business sales, mergers and acquisitions.”58 In 2021, his profile on the Ler’rin Enterprises website said he owned and operated three companies, and was a member of the Executive Association of Greater Phoenix.59 LaGrow’s personal LinkedIn page noted that by overseeing the transaction of ownership for more than 2,300 businesses since 1976, The Ler’rin Company was Arizona’s leading business sales and acquisitions firm.60 As of 2021, he had been married to Sherry for more than a half-century, and they raised three children: Ashley, Allison and Adam.

Last revised: August 26, 2021

Acknowledgments

The author would like to thank Arizona State University historian Jim Brink, and SABR colleagues Karl Cicitto and Everett Cope, for research assistance.

This biography was reviewed by Rory Costello and David Bilmes and fact-checked by Kevin Larkin.

Sources

In addition to sources cited in the Notes, the author consulted www.ancestry.com, www.baseball-reference.com and www.retrosheet.org.

Notes

1 “For Sportsmonday,” New York Times, June 16, 1980: C2.

2 Neal Russo, “A Torrid Fight for Redbird Bullpen Berths,” The Sporting News, April 2, 1977: 24.

3 Cardinal 1966 (Glendale High School Yearbook): 51.

4 “Ontario is League Champion,” Alamogordo (New Mexico) Daily News, August 26, 1965: 2.

5 Lerrin LaGrow, “On Deck Circle – ASU Baseball Alumni Questionnaire.”

6 “Convict Named to All-Kansas Team,” Great Bend (Kansas) Tribune, August 2, 1967: 7.

7 “Semi-pros Select All-Stars,” Pittsburgh Press, September 10, 1967: 75.

8 Lerrin LaGrow, 1973 Topps baseball card.

9 Merle Jones, “Visitors from Arizona” Southern Illinoisan (Carbondale, Illinois), July 1, 1968: 11.

10 LaGrow, “On Deck Circle – ASU Baseball Alumni Questionnaire.”

11 Sahuaro Seventy (1970 Arizona State University yearbook): 108.

12 “LaGrow’s Debut Spoiled,” The Sporting News, July 12, 1969: 47.

13 “LaGrow’s First Victory,” The Sporting News, August 23, 1969: 3

14 “Southern League,” The Sporting News, September 13, 1969: 39.

15 Jack Doane, “Loser LaGrow Becomes Winner with Old Attitude,” The Sporting News, June 6, 1970: 41.

16 Doane, “Loser LaGrow Becomes Winner with Old Attitude.”

17 “LaGrow Ties Record,” The Sporting News, May 30, 1970: 41.

18 “Jinx Club for LaGrow,” The Sporting News, August 1, 1970: 43.

19 “Tigers Buy Pitcher,” Holland (Michigan) Evening Sentinel, July 24, 1970: 2.

20 Watson Spoelstra, “Tiger Tales,” The Sporting News, August 29, 1970: 12.

21 “International League,” The Sporting News, July 29, 1972: 48.

22 “International League,” The Sporting News, August 19, 1972: 28.

23 Bryan Murphy, “No Quit After Heartache,” Detroit Free Press, October 12, 2012.

24 Ron Bergman, “The Glory Years,” Oakland Tribune, October 6, 1981: D5.

25 Roosevelt Comarazamy, “Licey Dominican Repeater,” The Sporting News, January 27, 1973: 55.

26 Eduardo Moncada, “Licey Captures Caribbean Crown in Caracas,” The Sporting News, February 24, 1973: 55.

27 Watson Spoelstra, “Coleman Works on Slow Curve to Speed Up Win Production,” The Sporting News, March 24, 1973: 35.

28 Jim Hawkins, “Tiger Tales,” The Sporting News, July 7, 1973: 12.

29 Jim Hawkins, “Tiger LaGrow Tries to Tighten Temper,” The Sporting News, March 29,1975: 37.

30 “Tigers Win Suspended Game, Drop Second,” Traverse City (Michigan) Record-Eagle, June 13, 1975: 11.

31 Russo, “A Torrid Fight for Redbird Bullpen Berths.”

32 Jim Hawkins, “Tigers Install Revolving Door at 2B,” The Sporting News, February 26, 1977: 41.

33 Jim Hawkins, “LaGrow Called Shot and Tigers Oblige,” The Sporting News, April 24, 1976: 7.

34 Rick Talley, “LaGrow Saved His Career, Too,” Chicago Tribune, July 13, 1977: C1.

35 LaGrow, “On Deck Circle – ASU Baseball Alumni Questionnaire.”

36 Neal Russo, “Rapp Draws First Cheers for Cards Dress Code,” The Sporting News, February 12, 1977: 42.

37 Talley, “LaGrow Saved His Career, Too.”

38 Philip Hersh, “Forget Hit Men? Na-na-na-na,” Chicago Tribune, September 21, 1997: A1.

39 Russo, “A Torrid Fight for Redbird Bullpen Berths.”

40 Jerome Holtzman, “LaGrow Ideal Rescue Artist, Chisox Discover,” The Sporting News, October 29, 1977: 21.

41 Talley, “LaGrow Saved His Career, Too.”

42 Hersh, “Forget Hit Men? Na-na-na-na.”

43 Holtzman, “LaGrow Ideal Rescue Artist, Chisox Discover.”

44 Joe Goddard, “Crazy Season Blooms for Chisox and Everyone Blows His Cool,” The Sporting News, April 29, 1978: 10.

45 David Condon, “LaGrow Deals with Shattering Thought,” Chicago Tribune, April 8, 1979: C3.

46 Richard Dozer, “White Sox Notes,” The Sporting News, June 2, 1979: 32.

47 “Dodgers Notes,” The Sporting News, July 14, 1979: 49.

48 Mike Littwin, “Dodger Notes,” Los Angeles Times, July 31, 1979: F4.

49 Jack Lang, “13 Clubs Go for Goltz in Draft,” The Sporting News, November 17, 1979: 56.

50 “LaGrow Finds Free Agent Trip Can Be Journey to Oblivion,” Home News (New Brunswick, New Jersey), March 14, 1980: 19.

51 Bill Conlin, “Phils Add LaGrow,” Philadelphia Daily News, February 1, 1980: 84.

52 Danny Robbins, “And the Bullpen Phone Rings… No Relief for Phils’ Relievers,” Philadelphia Inquirer, June 30, 1980: 26.

53 Bill Conlin, “LaGrow Gets Walking Papers,” Philadelphia Daily News, July 18, 1980: 84.

54 Conlin, “LaGrow Gets Walking Papers.”

55 “1980 World Series Shares,” The Sporting News, December 20, 1980: 53.

56 Jim Greenidge, “Common Cause,” Boston Globe, September 28, 1990: 86.

57 “Keep an Eye on the Bats,” Newsday (Long Island, New York), September 26, 1990: 117.

58 LaGrow, “On Deck Circle – ASU Baseball Alumni Questionnaire.”

59 “Broker Profile: Lerrin LaGrow,” https://lerrinent.com/about/ (last accessed July 25, 2021).

60 “Lerrin LaGrow,” https://www.linkedin.com/in/lerrin-lagrow-50063311 (last accessed July 25, 2021).