By Pete Cava
PBR Indiana Correspondent

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INDIANAPOLIS – Lies come in three categories, according to Mark Twain:  “lies, damned lies, and statistics.”

Jarrett Grube’s major league pitching statistics may not lie, but they don’t come close to telling the 34-year-old right-hander’s whole story – a nomadic tale that begins in Indiana and meanders from coast to coast, making stops in Canada, Venezuela, theDominican Republic, Mexico, Taiwan and Japan.  

“I've been all around the world, that's for sure,” said the darkly handsome, easy-going Grube, who came to Indianapolis in mid-April with the Columbus Clippers (Class AAA International) for a four-game series.   

A Fort Wayne native, Grube grew up in Corunna, a town of about 250 in northeastern Indiana.  His favorite baseball team was the Chicago Cubs.  “I was a huge Mark Grace fan,” he said.  “I remember getting the number 17 cut into the back of my hair.”

At DeKalb High School in nearby Waterloo (population 2,242), Grube played three sports.  He dropped football after his sophomore year to concentrate on baseball and basketball.  “I was kind of a Dennis Rodman-type player,” Jarrett said of his hoops ability, “crashing the boards, usually guarding their bigger guys.  I'd take the occasional jump shot if I was open.  I'd hit a three here and there.”

DeKalb’s baseball program ranked among the state’s best.  Between 1969 and 1996, the Barons had won 15 sectionals, three regional titles, two semistate crowns and a 1980 state championship for coach Bill Jones, a member of the Indiana Baseball Hall of Fame. 

The dynasty continued under Chris Rhodes, Jones’s successor.  “We had a lot of success with coach Rhodes, who was there when I was a sophomore, junior and senior,” said Grube.  “DeKalb had a big tradition of winning.  Pretty much lost maybe three or four games a year as a junior and as a senior.” 

Grube helped DeKalb to conference championships in 1999 and 2000.  He posted an 8-2 record as a senior, along with 90 strikeouts and a 1.30 earned run average.  One summer, he pitched for a travel team in Windsor, Ontario. 

The trip to Canada was Grube’s first outside the U.S.  It wouldn’t be his last.   

In the fall of 2000 Grube entered Vincennes University.  He spent the next two seasons under the tutelage of Trailblazers coach Jerry Blemker.  “He taught me a lot,” said Jarrett.  “He got me ready for the real world of baseball.  Man, he was really hard on me.  He didn't let me ever hit cruise control, and always got on my case to give me that extra edge.”

In two years at Vincennes, Grube won 12, lost seven and set a school record with 172 career strikeouts.  “Hopefully, that record still stands,” he said.  “I’m hoping nobody can get to that.”

By now the previous Vincennes career record-holder, Larry Owens, was the pitching coach for the University of Memphis. Owens recruited Grube for the Tigers, whose head coach was former big league infielder Dave Anderson (Dodgers, Giants, 1983-1992).  In his two years at Memphis, Jarrett won 14 and lost 9. 

Selected by the Rockies in the tenth round of the 2004 draft, Grube began his pro career in Troy, N.Y., that summer with the Tri-West Dust Devils (short-season Northwest).  He advanced to Double-A ball in 2008, going 7-3 with a 2.53 ERA for theTulsa, Okla.,  Drillers (Texas). 

In 2009 Grube was one step away from the majors at Colorado Springs (AAA Pacific Coast) when his career hit a snag.   “I needed to learn a cutter in spring training,” he said.  “It kind of ruined my forearm.  It was hurting pretty good.  I went on the disabled list to start 2009 for about three weeks.

“I felt some pressure to get back out there.  And I tried to pitch in the PCL in Colorado Springs with just a four-seam fastball and a changeup, which was about my fourth-best pitch.  I couldn't really throw my slider or my sinker.”

By June 2009, Grube had a combined 1-3 mark with a 6.56 ERA for Colorado Springs and Tulsa.  The Rockies released him and he headed home, waiting for an offer from another big league organization.  “I didn't hear anything for a few weeks,” he said.  “I actually started freaking out a little bit.” 

Then Grube had a phone call from Waldorf, Md, where Butch Hobson, a former big league third baseman (Red Sox, Angels, Yankees, 1975-1982), managed the Southern Maryland Blue Crabs of the independent Atlantic League.  “He was like, ‘Hey, I want to get you in here, get you going, and hopefully get you picked up pretty quick,’” Jarrett recalled.  “I thought it was a good idea, so I did it.”

In 2010 Grube was 3-3 for the Blue Crabs with a 2.06 ERA when the Seattle Mariners came calling.  He spent time inJackson, Tenn., with the West Tenn Diamond Jaxx (AA Southern) and the Tacoma, Wash., Rainiers (AAA Pacific Coast) before heading to Barquisimeto, Venezuela, for winter league play with the Cardenales de Lara.

“I'd always heard stories,” said Grube.  “I didn't know what to expect.  I just ended up loving it.  I'd never been around crowds that loud, with that many people, and the horns, the bells, the whistles and everything they've got there.  There's like 10,000 people on a normal night, and it would sound like 30-40,000.  And then when we did get 20-30,000, it's about like 80,000.” 

Commuting between Jackson and Tacoma in 2011, Jarrett returned to Lara that winter and was 1-0 in six starts.  He reported to Seattle’s spring training camp in 2012 with added velocity.  “I was throwing 92-95 (miles per hour).  It was the hardest I'd ever thrown since college,” he said.  “I only got to throw an inning.  That really affected me:  ‘Hey, why aren't these guys wanting to get a look at me?  Why'd they sign me? ‘” 

With an 0-5 record in 16 appearances for Tacoma, the Mariners cut Grube on July 13, 2012.  Two weeks later he was back in organized ball, this time with the Los Angeles Angels.  “I go over there, I throw awesome,” said Jarrett, who had a 3-3 record with a 3.18 ERA for Little Rock’s Arkansas Travelers (AA Texas). 

After another season in Venezuela, Grube reported to the Angels’ spring camp.  “I throw great,” he said, “and I thought I should have gone up that year.  I didn't.”  He began 2013 with Arkansas, where he went 4-1, and finished the season with theSalt Lake City, Utah, Bees (AAA Pacific Coast), going 7-5. 

That winter Grube pitched for the Leones del Escogido in Santo Domingo, Dominican Republic.  “They really wanted me, so I thought I'd switch over from Venezuela to the Dominican,” he said.  “They're kind of like the Yankees.  They've got a rich history of winning championships.  The baseball's awesome.  The Dominican is just an amazing country, and everybody's so friendly.  They're really passionate.  They definitely leave you with memories that'll last a lifetime.”

In six starts for Escogido, Grube was 2-2 with a miniscule 0.98 ERA.  He pitched well at the Angels’ 2014 spring camp, but opened the season back in Salt Lake.  By now Jarrett was 32 years old, a veteran of 11 minor league campaigns who had never made it to the majors.  “I think it's not gonna happen,” he said.  “I'm gonna play the year out and see what happens.”

All that changed on May 30, 2014, after Grube had gone 3-2 for Salt Lake with a 3.52 ERA in 11 starts.  Bees manager Keith Johnson had Jarrett keeping the pitch chart for that day’s game in Tacoma.  Afterwards, Salt Lake pitching coach Erik Bennett summoned Grube.  “When they call me in, they looked mad,” he said.  “And I thought, ‘Oh no, I messed the chart up!’  And then they say, ‘You're going up to the big leagues!’”  

The next day the Angels played a road game with the Athletics.  Grube’s wife Alyssa, her mother, and Jarrett’s parents flew from Fort Wayne to Oakland for the contest.  In the eighth inning, with one out, two on and the A’s up 8-3, Grube came in from the bullpen.  “It was one of the most special moments,” he said.  “I was running out on the field, and my wife said she was bawling her eyes out.  She was crying in the stands with a bunch of Oakland fans around her.  Kind of like, ‘What's this girl crying for?  We're winning!’” 

Grube retired Josh Donaldson, gave up a homer to Yoenis Cespedes, and got Derek Norris for the final out.  He’d thrown a total of seven pitches.  On June 2 the Angels optioned him to Salt Lake, where he spent the rest of the year. 

When the season ended, Grube reported for winter ball again – this time with the Leones del Caracas in Venezuela’s capital city.  “How could I resist that?” he said.  “They ARE the Yankees of Venezuela!  I can't even name all the huge-name stars that have gone through there.”

A free agent heading into 2015, Grube had feelers from three or four teams, “but no big league camp invite,” he said, “which is kind of sketchy for a guy like me.” 

On opening day Grube found himself in yet another country, pitching for the Tigres de Quintana Roo in the Mexican League. “I was in Cancun,” said Grube, and my agent was like, ‘They'll let you go for nothing if a team wants to sign you back in the States.’  It was an experience that I would never regret.  I learned a lot in Mexico.  And the passion, the atmosphere over there – it was awesome.”

Grube was 4-4 with the Mexican League’s sixth-best ERA (2.98) when the Cleveland Indians signed him on June 21, 2015. Assigned to Columbus, Jarrett went 9-0 with a 2.26 ERA in 15 games as the Clippers finished first in the International League West and defeated Indianapolis for the Governor’s Cup.

“That was definitely the best season I've ever had,” Grube said.  “One of the historian guys said I broke a winning-percentage record from 1870, or something like that.  I don't know how I did it.  I think we just had a really good team.  The days I was on, we always scored two or three runs and I'd give up no runs, one run or two runs.  The couple of starts I struggled, we would score more runs than them.”

In the waning days of the 2015 season, Grube learned that Team USA wanted him for the Premier 12 Tournament.  World Baseball/Softball Confederation (WBSC) had created the quadrennial event in 2014 to replace the Baseball World Cup as the sport’s global championship. 

The field included the twelve top national teams, according to WBSC rankings:  Japan, USA, Cuba, Chinese Taipei,Netherlands, Dominican Republic, Canada, South Korea, Puerto Rico, Venezuela, Italy and Mexico.  First-round play was set for Taiwan, with the top four clubs advancing to the championship round in Japan.  The winning team would receive $1 million, with $600,000 going to the runnerup squad.

Team USA held a three-week camp in Arizona.  Grube joined the American club Taiwan.  “They brought me in from the Domincan,” said Jarrett, who’d been pitching for Escogido. 

On November 14 at the 20,000-seat Taoynan International Baseball Stadium in northern Taiwan, Grube started againstJapan.  “They gave me that Japan game,” he said, “because Japan brought their World Baseball Classic team.”   Over five innings, he gave up one run on four hits and left with a 2-1 lead.  But Japan raked Team USA’s bullpen with a four-run sixth inning and added five more in the seventh for a 10-2 triumph.

Team USA advanced to the semifinal round in Tokyo, but Grube’s start against Japan would be his only outing.  The Americans defeated Mexico 6-1 to reach the title game, where they lost to Korea 8-0.  “It's tough for the U.S.,” said Jarrett. “They could choose anybody they wanted who was not on a 40-man MLB roster.  I don't think we were expected to do as well as we did, but we definitely put it together at the right times with the talent we had, and over-performed.”

Grube reported to Cleveland’s 2016 spring camp in Goodyear, Ariz.  That’s where he was on April 1 when his wife Alyssa gave birth to their first child, Ensley Amber.  Two days later, the Indians assigned Jarrett to Columbus.  When the Clippers headed north prior to their scheduled home opener on April 6, he made the drive from Columbus to Fort Wayne to see his daughter for the first time.

Grube’s season debut came on April 13 in a relief appearance against Louisville.  His next outing was an April 16 start atIndianapolis, where he gave up a hit and one run over three innings. 

It’s not clear what’s in store for Grube.  Another season in Triple-A ball?  A return to the majors?   Or perhaps an overseas team in Japan or Korea?  “I’m kind of rolling just year to year now,” said Jarrett.  “Obviously, I’ve got to perform to finish the year with Columbus, or make it to the big leagues.  I’m not even thinking about next year.  I’m here right now, and we’re gonna play the season out, and see what goes on when all the smoke clears.” 

Pete Cava is the author of Indiana-Born Major League Baseball Players:  A Biographical Dictionary, 1871-2014, now available from McFarland Publishers.