Charlie Grimm (August 28, 1898 - November 15, 1983), nicknamed "Jolly Cholly", was an American first baseman and manager in Major League Baseball best known for his years with the Chicago Cubs; he was also a sometime radio broadcaster, and a popular goodwill ambassador for baseball. He played for the Pittsburgh Pirates early in his career, but was traded to the Cubs in 1925 and worked mostly for the Cubs for the rest of his career. Born in St. Louis, Missouri, Grimm was known for being outgoing and chatty, even singing old-fashioned songs while accompanying himself on the banjo. As a manager for the Cubs, he led the team to National League championships in 1932, 1935 and 1945. He later managed the Milwaukee Braves for their first four years after their move from Boston. Being of German extraction, he was popular in the Beer City, but left the Braves the year before they went to - and won - the World Series in 1957.
He was brought out of retirement to direct the Cubs again in early 1960, but the team got off to a slow start, and owner P.K. Wrigley made the novel move of swapping Grimm with another former manager, Lou Boudreau, who was doing Cubs radiocasts at that time. Grimm had done play-by-play in the past, so he gave it one more go in 1960, before stepping back to the ranks of coaching and then front office duties.
It was in 1961 that Wrigley began his "College of Coaches", of which Grimm was a part but was never designated "Head Coach". One of the Cubs' coaches during that 5-year experiment was baseball's first black coach, Buck O'Neil. In an apparent negative on his otherwise positive career, it has been alleged that Grimm had a hand in preventing O'Neil from becoming one of those temporary "managers" under the Wrigley system; otherwise the Cubs might have effectively had the first African-American manager in baseball history.
Grimm died in Scottsdale, Arizona at age 85, from cancer.
