The 1921 Tip Top Bread Card of Lefty Grove has gotten significant attention over the past few months. The card that was recently auctioned sold for $27,500 before the juice. In several of the articles regarding the card and the auction, it has been mentioned that Lefty Grove's name was erroneously shown on the card to be Lefty "Groves". I would just like to clear up that the card was not in error in listing Lefty as Lefty "Groves". Lefty was born as Lefty Groves. The "s" was later dropped and he became known thereafter as Lefty Grove.
Here is a scan of the 1921 Tip Top Bread card of Lefty. (For the books, this is not my card. I did not win the auction.)
Other early cards and pictures also show Lefty's name as Lefty "Groves". These items include a picture of the 1921 Orioles and a 1925 (approximate year) Major League Ball Die-Cut.
Lefty's 1927 W560 card shows his name as Grove. Every card thereafter shows Lefty's name as Lefty Grove.
According to the book "Lefty Grove: American Original" by Jim Kaplan, Lefty was born as Robert Moses Groves. The book lists Lefty's paternal ancestors as using the last name Groves. According to other articles that I've read, his name was shortened from "Groves" to "Grove" in part because the media continually used the name Grove instead of Groves. I'm not sure how that got started.
Many of you may not care, but this has been bugging me from the time this card first showed up. If we are going to be talking about this card for many years to come, then I want to make sure that we all understand that the card did not print "Groves" in error. That was the name that he was using in 1921.