John William Grabow, nicknamed "Grabes" (born November 4, 1978) is an American former professional baseball left-handed reliever. He played for the Pittsburgh Pirates and Chicago Cubs of the Major League Baseball (MLB). In his MLB career, he held opposing batters to a .218 batting average and a .293 slugging percentage when there were runners in scoring position. He made 340 appearances between 2004–08, which ranks him fourth in the majors and first among left-handed relievers in the National League for that period. In nine years in the MLB he played in 506 games and had a 24–19 record, using a fastball, slider, and change up. Early and personal life Grabow grew up in Arcadia, California, and was a Dodgers fan, playing first base. Grabow is Jewish, as is his mother, and his Lebanese-Jewish maternal grandmother had the surname Mizrachi and immigrated from Beirut, Lebanon. There were 13 Jewish players in the majors in 2008, including Kevin Youkilis, Ryan Braun, Jason Marquis, and Ian Kinsler. Grabow was one of three Jewish ballplayers on the Team USA 2009 World Baseball Classic team, joining Braun and Youkilis. His 448 career games pitched through 2010 placed him 3rd on the all-time list for Jewish major league pitchers, three games behind Ken Holtzman. Grabow married Kindra Townsend Grabow in 2016. High school He was a pitcher at San Gabriel High School in California, and was named his league's most valuable player as well as All-California Interscholastic Federation in baseball in his senior year in 1997. He was drafted by the Pittsburgh Pirates in the 3rd round of the 1997 amateur draft. Baseball career Minor leagues In 1998, Grabow was hit on the ear by a foul ball while sitting in the dugout and spent some time on the disabled list. In 1999 Grabow led the Hickory Crawdads (A) in victories, starts, and innings pitched, and ranked third in the South Atlantic League in strikeouts with 164, in 156 innings. Grabow matched the Altoona Curve record for career wins, with 24. Until 2003, he had pitched only 10 times in relief as a pro. That season Altoona manager Dale Sveum and pitching coach Jeff Andrews asked Grabow to make the switch, suggesting it might be a good career move. "I didn't know if it was a step backwards", Grabow said. But Grabow was then promoted to Class AAA Nashville in July, and pitched exclusively as a