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Apr. 4—Every statistic or record that Lewis-Clark State's Denny Grubb discovers has started with one question:
"Has this ever happened before?"
That question — asked countless times for nearly five decades at numerous Lewis-Clark State baseball, men's and women's basketball and NAIA World Series baseball games — has led Grubb to dedicate much of his life to being Lewiston's resident stat guru and to serve as the official scorer for 37 of the past 40 NAIA World Series.
On Saturday, the NAIA will welcome Grubb, a Lewiston native and long-time LC State statistician, into the Hall of Fame as a meritorious induction for his four decades of dedicated record keeping.
Grubb will make the trip to the NAIA Convention in San Diego with his family for the celebration.
"I never dreamed that a guy just keeping the official scorebook could get into a Hall of Fame anywhere," Grubb said.
A love for numbers
For a kid who was good at math, baseball was a natural love.
Grubb showed an affinity for arithmetic early in life, taking math tests for a grade above his own while in elementary school and later keeping statistics for his brother who broadcasted Lewiston and then Clarkston High School sports on the radio.
When he would get sick as a kid, his mother would give him baseball cards to entertain him. In 1969, Denny and his family traveled to Seattle to see the Pilots host the Baltimore Orioles, which started his lifelong love for the O's and emboldened his love for baseball.
"Baseball is numbers driven," Grubb said. "And that's kind of the way my mind has always worked."
Grubb played baseball at Lewiston High School. After he graduated in 1977, his coach, Dwight Church, reccomended him to LC athletic director Richard Hannan.
"They decided that my athletic skills proved that I would be a good stat man," he said.
Grubb was brought on as the Lewis-Clark State sports information director, although the position did not have that specific title at the time. He got a full-time job at the post office in 1979, but stayed involved with LCSC, keeping the stats for every home LC State baseball and basketball game.
He maintained this level of involvement for over 20 years until 2000 when LCSC hired a full-time sports information director.
Grubb continued to keep stats for baseball games and kept LCSC and local media such as KOZE radio, KLEW TV and the Lewiston Tribune updated on the Warrior record books.
Statkeeper of the NAIA World Series
In 1984, LCSC secured the hosting rights to the World Series for the first time. Grubb signed on to serve as statkeeper and soon discovered that the World Series record book was largely incomplete.
"I took it upon myself to update a record book that had about less than 100 entries to now we're over almost 1,500 different categories and names," Grubb said.
The process of building out both the LCSC and the World Series record books involved perusing the Lewiston Tribune archives and sending letters to coaches and athletic departments who provided Grubb with a slew boxscores and other information.
What started as a two, maybe three-year commitment to the World Series soon expanded.
LCSC kept renewing its hosting contract and the World Series stayed in Lewiston from 1984-91.
Daily headlines, straight to your inboxRead it online first and stay up-to-date, delivered daily at 7 AM
When the series moved to Iowa in 1992, Grubb stayed involved. The NAIA flew him out to Des Moines, Iowa, and to Sioux City, Iowa, for much of the '90s to serve as the stat keeper.
He took a three-year hiatus from statkeeping the event when it moved once again but in 2000 found himself right back in his familiar chair come the last week of May as LCSC was once again the host.
For the 24 World Series since, the Lewiston native has played a pivotal role in covering and recording what has become one of his community's marquee events.
Grubb's impact
On Saturday, the Warriors played their longest game in terms of innings, losing a 17-inning marathon to Oregon Tech in the second game of a doubleheader.
"That 17-inning game, it was just business as usual for him," said LCSC Sports Information Director Alisha Alexander. "Whenever anything statistically significant (happens), be it a big factoid or just a little nugget, he'll let you know."
The NAIA presented Grubb with the Robert E. Smith Award in 2011 in recognition of his promotion of NAIA baseball. In 2013, LCSC welcomed him to its Athletics Hall of Fame.
However, this NAIA Hall of Fame induction is extra special for Grubb.
"The fact that a guy can get into the Hall of Fame without ever throwing a pitch or hitting a ball," Grubb said. "I don't know what other achievement a guy could ask for that is a statistician, other than to be inducted into a baseball or into a sports Hall of Fame."
Alexander said that Grubb has dedicated countless hours to LCSC and to the NAIA World Series, many of them as a volunteer.
"He is the reason there is a record book for NAIA baseball in the World Series," Alexander said. "He is the reason there are record books at LC State for almost every sport."
Grubb tried to retire from his role about five years ago, but his absence was short-lived. He would still listen to his friend, longtime Warrior baseball broadcaster Brian Danner, call the game on the radio, and would send notes to both Danner and Alexander during the games.
He realized he couldn't stay away and was back in the press box for the second half of the season.
In 2022, LCSC named the Harris Field press box the "Denny Grubb Press Box."
"There is nobody else like Denny Grubb," Alexander said.
After 47 years, thousands of Warriors events and over 670 World Series contests, Grubb is still where he has always been: sitting in a seat in the press box named after him.
"It's the best seat in the house," Grubb said. "You could go to a game and keep track of things and maybe see a new record, and I just enjoy baseball."
A trio of Warriors in the Hall
Grubb will join the hall alongside two other LC State legends, distance runner Sam Atkin and former women's basketball coach Brian Orr.
Atkin represented his home country of England in the past two Olympic games. Orr coached Warrior women's basketball for 22 seasons and elevated the program to unprecedented success.
Articles highlighting Atkin and Orr will be published in the coming days.
Taylor can be reached at 208-848-2268, [email protected], or on X or Instagram @Sam_C_Taylor.
Continue reading...
"Has this ever happened before?"
That question — asked countless times for nearly five decades at numerous Lewis-Clark State baseball, men's and women's basketball and NAIA World Series baseball games — has led Grubb to dedicate much of his life to being Lewiston's resident stat guru and to serve as the official scorer for 37 of the past 40 NAIA World Series.
On Saturday, the NAIA will welcome Grubb, a Lewiston native and long-time LC State statistician, into the Hall of Fame as a meritorious induction for his four decades of dedicated record keeping.
Grubb will make the trip to the NAIA Convention in San Diego with his family for the celebration.
"I never dreamed that a guy just keeping the official scorebook could get into a Hall of Fame anywhere," Grubb said.
A love for numbers
For a kid who was good at math, baseball was a natural love.
Grubb showed an affinity for arithmetic early in life, taking math tests for a grade above his own while in elementary school and later keeping statistics for his brother who broadcasted Lewiston and then Clarkston High School sports on the radio.
When he would get sick as a kid, his mother would give him baseball cards to entertain him. In 1969, Denny and his family traveled to Seattle to see the Pilots host the Baltimore Orioles, which started his lifelong love for the O's and emboldened his love for baseball.
"Baseball is numbers driven," Grubb said. "And that's kind of the way my mind has always worked."
Grubb played baseball at Lewiston High School. After he graduated in 1977, his coach, Dwight Church, reccomended him to LC athletic director Richard Hannan.
"They decided that my athletic skills proved that I would be a good stat man," he said.
Grubb was brought on as the Lewis-Clark State sports information director, although the position did not have that specific title at the time. He got a full-time job at the post office in 1979, but stayed involved with LCSC, keeping the stats for every home LC State baseball and basketball game.
He maintained this level of involvement for over 20 years until 2000 when LCSC hired a full-time sports information director.
Grubb continued to keep stats for baseball games and kept LCSC and local media such as KOZE radio, KLEW TV and the Lewiston Tribune updated on the Warrior record books.
Statkeeper of the NAIA World Series
In 1984, LCSC secured the hosting rights to the World Series for the first time. Grubb signed on to serve as statkeeper and soon discovered that the World Series record book was largely incomplete.
"I took it upon myself to update a record book that had about less than 100 entries to now we're over almost 1,500 different categories and names," Grubb said.
The process of building out both the LCSC and the World Series record books involved perusing the Lewiston Tribune archives and sending letters to coaches and athletic departments who provided Grubb with a slew boxscores and other information.
What started as a two, maybe three-year commitment to the World Series soon expanded.
LCSC kept renewing its hosting contract and the World Series stayed in Lewiston from 1984-91.
Daily headlines, straight to your inboxRead it online first and stay up-to-date, delivered daily at 7 AM
When the series moved to Iowa in 1992, Grubb stayed involved. The NAIA flew him out to Des Moines, Iowa, and to Sioux City, Iowa, for much of the '90s to serve as the stat keeper.
He took a three-year hiatus from statkeeping the event when it moved once again but in 2000 found himself right back in his familiar chair come the last week of May as LCSC was once again the host.
For the 24 World Series since, the Lewiston native has played a pivotal role in covering and recording what has become one of his community's marquee events.
Grubb's impact
On Saturday, the Warriors played their longest game in terms of innings, losing a 17-inning marathon to Oregon Tech in the second game of a doubleheader.
"That 17-inning game, it was just business as usual for him," said LCSC Sports Information Director Alisha Alexander. "Whenever anything statistically significant (happens), be it a big factoid or just a little nugget, he'll let you know."
The NAIA presented Grubb with the Robert E. Smith Award in 2011 in recognition of his promotion of NAIA baseball. In 2013, LCSC welcomed him to its Athletics Hall of Fame.
However, this NAIA Hall of Fame induction is extra special for Grubb.
"The fact that a guy can get into the Hall of Fame without ever throwing a pitch or hitting a ball," Grubb said. "I don't know what other achievement a guy could ask for that is a statistician, other than to be inducted into a baseball or into a sports Hall of Fame."
Alexander said that Grubb has dedicated countless hours to LCSC and to the NAIA World Series, many of them as a volunteer.
"He is the reason there is a record book for NAIA baseball in the World Series," Alexander said. "He is the reason there are record books at LC State for almost every sport."
Grubb tried to retire from his role about five years ago, but his absence was short-lived. He would still listen to his friend, longtime Warrior baseball broadcaster Brian Danner, call the game on the radio, and would send notes to both Danner and Alexander during the games.
He realized he couldn't stay away and was back in the press box for the second half of the season.
In 2022, LCSC named the Harris Field press box the "Denny Grubb Press Box."
"There is nobody else like Denny Grubb," Alexander said.
After 47 years, thousands of Warriors events and over 670 World Series contests, Grubb is still where he has always been: sitting in a seat in the press box named after him.
"It's the best seat in the house," Grubb said. "You could go to a game and keep track of things and maybe see a new record, and I just enjoy baseball."
A trio of Warriors in the Hall
Grubb will join the hall alongside two other LC State legends, distance runner Sam Atkin and former women's basketball coach Brian Orr.
Atkin represented his home country of England in the past two Olympic games. Orr coached Warrior women's basketball for 22 seasons and elevated the program to unprecedented success.
Articles highlighting Atkin and Orr will be published in the coming days.
Taylor can be reached at 208-848-2268, [email protected], or on X or Instagram @Sam_C_Taylor.
Continue reading...
