Some players careers are shortened due to injury, and lack of talent. Some, however, only used the game as a stepping stone to glory in another field.
The son of an opera singer, Howard "Howdie" Groskloss lettered in 5 sports while attending Amherst College but declined a Rhodes Scholarship
because it would have delayed his start of medical school. After becoming the first college player to receive a major league signing bonus with
the Pittsburgh Pirates, he played with the club for three years while attending Yale to become a doctor. After spending 1933 in the minor leagues,
Groskloss left baseball for good continue his pursuits in the medical field. During World War 2, Groskloss became the youngest flight surgeon to ever be
assigned to a carrier, the Naval carrier Makassar in the Pacific . He proceeded to become a well-known and respected gynecologist, and taught at the
University of Minnesota and later the Mayo Clinic. He was one of the first doctors to use implanted radium to treat gynecological cancers, and was the
first doctor to use the technology of ultrasonic measurement to examine fetuses.
Dr. Groskloss died in July of 2006, three months after his 100th birthday.
"I remember there were a lot of women standing around after the games. You couldn't get through all the women."
March 20, 2006 interview with Gene Collier, Pittsburgh Post-Gazette
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