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Charles John Grimm (August 28, 1898 – November 15, 1983), nicknamed " Jolly Cholly", was an American professional baseball player and manager. He played in Major League Baseball as a first baseman, most notably for the Chicago Cubs; he was also a sometime radio sports commentator, and a popular goodwill ambassador for baseball. He played for the Pittsburgh Pirates early in his career, but was traded to the Cubs in 1925 and worked mostly for the Cubs for the rest of his career. Born in St. Louis, Missouri, to parents of German extraction, Grimm was known for being outgoing and chatty, even singing old-fashioned songs while accompanying himself on a left-handed banjo. Society of Baseball Research / SABR "Grimm’s German-born father wanted him to join the family painting business, but young Charlie had other ideas." Major League Baseball Players of 1916: A Biographical Dictionary Grimm is one of a select few to have played and managed in 2,000 games each.
Grimm played 148 games with the Pirates for 1920, primarily at first base, where he had a .995 fielding percentage in 1,327 innings. He batted .227/.273/.289 for the team; he hit his first home run on June 29 against the Chicago Cubs. He had 54 RBIs while walking 30 times and striking out 40 times.
For the next season, he played in 151 games while raising his totals in every category, batting .274 while having 154 hits and 71 runs batted in (RBI) to go with 31 walks to 38 strikeouts. He continued to raise himself in the following two years, which included batting .345 in 1923
In 1924, Grimm closed out his Pirates career by playing 151 games and batting .288 with 156 hits and 63 RBIs, which were all decreases from the year before. However, he walked 37 times while only striking out 22 times, making it just the second time in five full seasons with the team that he had more walks than strikeouts. Ultimately, Grimm played 770 games with the Pirates over the course of five and a half seasons (missing just twelve games in those five full seasons).
In 1929, his team would finally buoy itself into the pantheon for the National League pennant, the first for the team in eleven years. He batted .298 in 120 games while having 91 RBIs (the most he ever recorded as a Cub) with 138 hits. The Cubs advanced to the World Series against his old team in the Athletics. He was the only hitter on the team to bat left-handed, which proved key to the right-handed pitchers for the Athletics, who were not troubled by having Lefty Grove go in the bullpen. In five games, he had seven hits (including a home run that gave them a 2–0 lead in Game 4), but they were doomed by a memorable meltdown in Game 4, in which they lost an 8–0 lead on multiple hits and even a miscue by Hack Wilson that led to a home run and eventually ten runs in the bottom of the 7th inning. The Athletics prevailed two days later to win the Series.
In 1932, as player-manager, he led them to the National League pennant. He played in 149 games while batting .307 and having 80 RBIs and 175 hits. During the season, he recorded his 2,000th hit, doing so on July 6 against the Philadelphia Phillies at Wrigley Field off Snipe Hansen. In the World Series that year, he had five hits in what turned out to be an easy sweep for the Yankees.
The following year was his last as a primary player for the team, as he played in 107 games while batting .247. He would play a combined total of 116 games in his last three seasons. While he did not lead many categories in the hitting department, he was a solid fielder in terms of durability, playing 2,131 games in the first base position (owing to twelve seasons of being in the top ten for games played alongside putouts) that ranked third at the time he retired, and his 20,711 putouts are fifth most in MLB history (Eddie Murray is the only player to have passed Grimm since the latter's retirement). He also led the league in fielding percentage for the position seven times.
In 2,166 games over 20 seasons, spanning from 1916–1936, Grimm posted a .290 batting average (2299-for-7917) with 908 runs, 394 doubles, 108 triples, 79 home runs, 1077 RBI, 57 stolen bases, 578 bases on balls, .341 on-base percentage and .397 slugging percentage. He finished his career with a .993 fielding percentage as a first baseman. In the 1929 and 1932 World Series, he hit .364 (12-for-33) with 4 runs, 2 doubles, 1 home run, 5 RBI and 3 walks.
After a sluggish start to the 1944 season which the team lost ten in a row after winning the Opening Day game, Grimm was hired to manage the club again. The team finished fourth in the standings with a 75–79 record (the fifth straight losing season for the team). However, Grimm led them to a dramatic improvement the following year, going 98–56 to win the league pennant for the first time since 1938. In the World Series that year, Grimm's team faced off against the Tigers once again. It was a hard-fought series, going down to the decisive seventh game at Wrigley Field. The Cubs were trounced 9–3, with six of the Tiger runs coming in the first two innings. It was the last pennant for the Cubs for 71 years. The Cubs went 82–71 the following year, finishing 3rd in the standings. It was the last time the team had a record of .500 until 1963. Grimm finished his last three seasons with losing record (69–85, 64–90, 19–31) before resigning in 1949.
After his resignation from being manager, he served as the Cubs' Director of Player Personnel, then the club's title for general manager, doing so until February 1950 due to not feeling comfortable in his front-office post. He subsequently was hired to manage a Double A team, the Dallas Rangers of the Texas League.
He then managed the Milwaukee Braves for their first three years after their move to Wisconsin in March 1953. The following year, the Braves went 92–62 (with three ties), finishing 13 games behind in second place to the Brooklyn Dodgers. It was the first time the Braves had won over 90 games since 1948. The next year, they regressed a bit as a team with an 89–65 record for a third place finish (eight games back), but it was the first time that they had consecutive winning seasons since 1947–48. The next year, they went 85–69, finishing 13.5 games back of the Dodgers. The 1956 season proved to be a nail-biter for the team, but Grimm was not to be a big part of said season. He was dismissed after a 24–22 start to the season, replaced by Fred Haney. Haney led them to a 68–40 record while losing the league pennant to the Dodgers by one game. Haney led the team to a World Series championship the following year.
He was brought out of retirement to direct the Cubs again in early 1960, but the team got off to a slow start, and owner P.K. Wrigley made the novel move of swapping Grimm with another former manager, Lou Boudreau, who was doing Cubs radiocasts at that time. Grimm had done play-by-play in the past, so he gave it one more go in 1960, before stepping back to the ranks of coaching and then front office duties.
It was in 1961 that Wrigley began his "College of Coaches", of which Grimm was a part but was never designated "Head Coach". One of the Cubs' coaches during that 5-year experiment was baseball's first black coach, Buck O'Neil.
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