Former major league pitcher James “Mudcat” Grant will receive an honorary doctorate of humane letters from Whittier College tonight for his athletic accomplishments and dedication to researching the history of blacks in baseball.
Grant pitched for seven teams between 1958 and 1971, winning a career- high 21 games for the American League-champion Minnesota Twins in 1965.
Grant also won two games in that year’s World Series against the Los Angeles Dodgers, including the opening game, best remembered for the Dodgers’ future Hall of Famer Sandy Koufax’s refusing to pitch because it was played on Yom Kippur, the holiest day on the Jewish calendar.
Grant is the author of the 2006 book “The Black Aces: Baseball’s Only African-American Twenty-Game Winners,” which also includes chapters on Negro League pitchers who would have been 20-game winners if they had been allowed to play in the major leagues.
The college’s faculty chose Grant to receive a honorary degree, a college official said. It will be presented at 7:30 p.m. at the Ruth B. Shannon Center for the Performing Arts, 6760 Painter Ave. The ceremony coincides with the start of the college’s celebration of Black History Month.
Whittier College is the site of the Institute for Baseball Studies, billed by the college as the first humanities-based research center of its kind associated with a college or university in the U.S.
The institute will present what it described as a major exhibit on African American baseball in February and March, featuring pieces from the Michael Brown Negro Leagues memorabilia collection, which was recently donated to the institute.
