John Grabow

John William Grabow, nicknamed "Grabes" (born November 4, 1978) is an American former professional baseball left-handed reliever.

He played for the Pittsburgh Pirates and Chicago Cubs of the Major League Baseball (MLB).

In his MLB career, he held opposing batters to a .218 batting average and a .293 slugging percentage when there were runners in scoring position.

He was a pitcher at San Gabriel High School in California, and was named his league's most valuable player as well as All-California Interscholastic Federation in baseball in his senior year in 1997.

He was drafted by the Pittsburgh Pirates in the 3rd round of the 1997 amateur draft.

In 1998, Grabow was hit on the ear by a foul ball while sitting in the dugout and spent some time on the disabled list.

In 1999 Grabow led the Hickory Crawdads (A) in victories, starts, and innings pitched, and ranked third in the South Atlantic League in strikeouts with 164, in 156 innings.

Grabow matched the Altoona Curve record for career wins, with 24.

Until 2003, he had pitched only 10 times in relief as a pro.

That season Altoona manager Dale Sveum and pitching coach Jeff Andrews asked Grabow to make the switch, suggesting it might be a good career move.

"I didn't know if it was a step backwards", Grabow said.

But Grabow was then promoted to Class AAA Nashville in July, and pitched exclusively as a relief pitcher there before joining the Pirates for the final weeks of the year.

Through 2003, he averaged 7.6 strikeouts per 9 innings in the minor leagues, striking out 9.5 batters per 9 innings at the AAA level.

In the summer of 2003 he made six appearances with Team USA in the Olympic qualifying team trials.

Grabow was called up by the Pittsburgh Pirates in 2003, after having spent six years playing in the minor leagues.

It was the most memorable moment of his life.

Grabow appeared in 68 games in his first year with the Pirates, a team record for the number of appearances by a rookie left-hander.

Used both in short stints and long ones, Grabow said: "That stuff where there are guys in certain roles, yeah, there are some guys who have roles set, but I don't think I'm one of them. I just pitch when they tell me to. Whether it's one or two innings, or to one batter, it doesn't matter to me."

On the light side, for his rookie hazing he had to wear a Tweety Bird backpack during batting practice and carrying all the snacks to the bullpen, go through an airport wearing a cheerleader outfit that was two sizes too small, and serve drinks on the plane.

He made 340 appearances between 2004 and 2008, which ranks him fourth in the majors and first among left-handed relievers in the National League for that period.

In nine years in the MLB he played in 506 games and had a 24–19 record, using a fastball, slider, and change up.

Grabow grew up in Arcadia, California, and was a Dodgers fan, playing first base.

Grabow is Jewish, as is his mother, and his Lebanese-Jewish maternal grandmother had the surname Mizrachi and immigrated from Beirut, Lebanon.

In February 2005 Grabow signed a contract pursuant to which he would make $327,000 in the majors, but $240,000 if he pitched at Class AAA Indianapolis.

He was a workhorse in the Pittsburgh bullpen in 2005, appearing in 63 games in his second full major league season.

He held opposing batters to a .186 batting average and a .186 slugging percentage when there were runners in scoring position.

He stranded a major-league best 89.7% of his inherited runners, allowing just 4 of 39 inherited runners to score.

In 2006, he appeared in 72 games.

He held opposing batters to a .217 batting average when there were runners in scoring position.

Grabow stranded 82.5% of the runners he inherited, the best in the National League.

In February 2007, Grabow and the Pirates avoided arbitration, and agreed to a 1-year contract for $832,500.

Grabow was also in a position to make $10,000 to $70,000 in incentive bonuses if he finished 20–35 games, but was not able to cash in as he only finished 14 games.

He was also in a position to make an additional $10,000 to $45,000 in incentive bonuses if he made 75–85 appearances, but again was not able to cash in as he made only 63 appearances.

Grabow was 3–2 with the Pirates, with a 4.53 ERA.

He had held batters to a .215 batting average and a .231 slugging percentage with runners in scoring position, while leading the team by only allowing 5.3% of batters he faced to get extra base hits.

Grabow initially planned to have minor surgery after the 2007 season to remove bone chips in his left elbow.

There were 13 Jewish players in the majors in 2008, including Kevin Youkilis, Ryan Braun, Jason Marquis, and Ian Kinsler.

Grabow was one of three Jewish ballplayers on the Team USA 2009 World Baseball Classic team, joining Braun and Youkilis.

His 448 career games pitched through 2010 placed him 3rd on the all-time list for Jewish major league pitchers, three games behind Ken Holtzman.

Grabow married Kindra Townsend Grabow in 2016.