Richard Morrow Groat is a former shortstop in Major League Baseball who played with the Pittsburgh Pirates (1952, 1955-62), St. Louis Cardinals (1963-65), Philadelphia Phillies (1966-67) and San Francisco Giants (1967). He batted and threw right-handed.
In a fourteen-season career, Groat compiled a .286 batting average with 39 home runs and 707 RBI in 1929 games.
5-time All-Star (1959-60, 1962-64)
National League MVP (1960)
2nd in NL MVP vote (1963, behind Sandy Koufax) NL batting champion (.325, 1960)
Led NL in singles (160, 1954)
Led NL in doubles (43, 1963)
4 times hit .300 or higher (1957-58, 1960, 1963)
Groat was also a professional basketball player, spending one season as a guard with the Fort Wayne Pistons of the National Basketball Association. In 26 games, he averaged 11.9 points, but his basketball career was cut short by military service; when his enlistment was up, he returned to the Pirates but not to the Pistons. Groat currently serves as a color analyst for University of Pittsburgh basketball games.
