Dick Groat dead at 92: Tributes paid to legendary Pittsburgh Pirates shortstop and Pitt broadcaster

LEGENDARY Pittsburgh Pirates shortstop Dick Groat has died at the age of 92.

The Pirates confirmed the two-time World Series champion's passing on Thursday morning.

2

2

"We are saddened to confirm the passing of former Pirates great Dick Groat," the MLB team wrote on Twitter.

"Dick was a member of our World Series Championship team in 1960 and our Hall of Fame.

"Our thoughts and prayers go out to the entire Groat family."

Groat played both basketball and baseball before the Pirates forced him to focus solely on his MLB career in 1954.

READ MORE ON MLB

After retiring, he served as a color analyst for the Pitt Panthers men's basketball team for 40 years.

The Pennsylvania native was drafted by the Fort Wayne Pistons with the No. 3 overall pick out of Duke in the 1952 NBA Draft.

By that time, he had already played his first season with the Pirates.

But Groat's rookie NBA season was interrupted when he enlisted in the Army in February 1953.

Most read in Baseball

After his stint with the military ended, the Pirates told their shortstop they would take away his signing bonus if he didn't give up on basketball, convincing him to switch exclusively to baseball.

Groat returned to MLB for the 1955 season before spending seven seasons with the Pirates.

He won his first World Series in 1960 when he helped Pittsburgh defeat the New York Yankees in seven games having claimed the National League batting champion and MVP honors earlier that season.

Groat added the second championship to his resume in 1964, two years after the Pirates traded him to the St. Louis Cardinals for pitcher Don Cardwell.

He retired in 1967 after short stints with the Philadelphia Phillies and San Francisco Giants.

Groat was one of the most accomplished two-sport athletes in American history and became the first person to be inducted into both college basketball and baseball halls of fame in 2011.