Early career On June 4, , Gross was selected by the
Houston Astros in the fourth round (79th overall) of the June Baseball draft. He led the league in hits in 1970 while playing for Covington in the
Appalachian League, batting .351. He also tied for the league lead in double plays by outfielders. In 1971, Gross was promoted to the
Columbus Astros of the
Southern League, where he played outfield and first base. In 1972, Gross played most of the season at Columbus, then was promoted to the
Oklahoma City 89ers, which was the Astros' AAA farm club. In 1973, Gross started the season with the
Denver Bears, which by that point had become the Astros' new AAA farm club.
Houston Astros The Astros decided to call up Gross late in 1973. On September 5, , Gross made his MLB debut with the Astros, going 0-for-1 (ground out to third baseman
Denis Menke) as a pinch hitter against pitcher
Pedro Borbon, which was the last out of the ninth inning in a game that went extra innings and ended in a 9-3 loss to the Cincinnati Reds at the
Astrodome. Gross finished the season going 9-for-39, for a .231 average. In 1974, Gross became the Astros' starting right fielder and leadoff hitter, playing in 156 games and batting .314. Gross was named
The Sporting News' National League Rookie Player of the Year and finished second in the voting for
National League Rookie of the Year. Gross also finished the season with a .393 on-base percentage, giving him one of the highest on-base percentages of any rookie since 1970. In 1974, Gross also set a major league record for most times caught stealing in a rookie season with 20. In 1975 and 1976, Gross continued to be a starting outfielder for the Astros, hitting .294 and .286, respectively. The 1975 season saw him reach base in 52 straight games. Nearly half of his hits (142) and walks (63) in the season came during the streak, which saw him collect 70 hits and 30 walks from June 25 to August 18. The streak tied
Jimmy Wynn (1969) for the longest on-base streak in franchise history, a record that stands as of 2022.
Chicago Cubs Gross was traded from the
Astros to the
Cubs for
Julio González at the
Winter Meetings on December 8, . In 1977, Gross hit his first major-league home run, connecting a total of five times while hitting .322 in 115 games.
Philadelphia Phillies After a busy 1978 season, Gross was traded by the Cubs on February 23, to the
Philadelphia Phillies with
Manny Trillo and
Dave Rader for
Jerry Martin,
Barry Foote,
Ted Sizemore,
Derek Botelho and
Henry Mack. Gross established himself as a key platoon outfielder and first baseman for the Phillies, getting to play in the 1980
National League Championship Series (he went 3-for-4—all pinch hits—with one RBI in four games), the
1980 World Series (0-for-2 in four games), the
1983 NL Championship Series (0-for-5 in four games with a run scored), and in the
1983 World Series (0-for-6 in 2 games). Gross was an invaluable pinch hitter. In 1982, he led the league in pinch hits with 19. Gross has said he had hoped to be a full-time player for the Phillies in the late 1970s and early 1980s, but the team just had too many other talented outfielders, namely
Bake McBride,
Greg Luzinski,
Garry Maddox, and
Lonnie Smith. "I...didn't figure I should be playing part-time at that point in my career," Gross told the
San Diego Union-Tribune in an article that appeared on March 18, 1991. "But they had those three guys and I knew they should be playing ahead of me. Plus, they were winning and that changes your thinking a lot. Before, I was playing on second-division teams and we were out of it pretty early. But when you get your first taste of winning, when you're in the playoffs and the World Series, you want more of it." In addition, Gross acknowledged in an interview in 2007 the difficulty of being a starting player when he was neither fast nor a power hitter. "The cycle that baseball was in back then, with the AstroTurf and everything, centered on the stolen base or the home run, and I did neither of those," Gross told
The Patriot-News of
Harrisburg in an article that was published on April 8, 2007. "It was just a matter of survival. You made the best out of it. The big break for me was when I got onto a real good club." Gross remained with the Phillies through the 1988 season, in which he hit just .203 in 133 at-bats but posted the unusual statistic of striking out just three times during the entire season. Over his entire career of 3,745 at-bats, Gross struck out just 250 times.
Later career On April 5, , Gross rejoined the Houston Astros as a free agent, hitting .200 largely in a pinch-hitting role. Despite his historic success as a prolific pinch-hitter, Gross struggled in 1989, hitting just .184 (7-for-38). In October 1989, as part of a rebuilding movement, the Astros told Gross and many other veterans—including
Bob Forsch,
Rick Rhoden,
Dan Schatzeder,
Terry Puhl and
Harry Spilman—that they would not negotiate new contracts with them before the free agent filing period, which was to begin after the
1989 World Series, if at all. On November 2, 1989, Gross filed for free agency. Gross had hoped to be invited to a major-league club for a tryout in 1990. After a lockout by the owners in early 1990, Gross never received a single tryout, and he wound up sitting out the 1990 season. Gross again tried to extend his baseball career. On February 7, , the
San Diego Padres announced that they had invited Gross to spring training. Gross came to spring training at the recommendation of his old teammate and then-Phillies coach
Larry Bowa, who had asked then-Padres manager
Greg Riddoch to invite Gross to camp. "I love this game so much," Gross told the
Los Angeles Times in an article that appeared on February 28, 1991. "I can't leave it alone. It's not the money. It's not the attention. It's just being around this game. And I'm not going to cheat myself from playing as long as someone will let me." On March 30, 1991, the
Los Angeles Times reported that Gross had made the Padres as a pinch-hitter. However, on April 5, 1991, the Padres cut Gross, choosing instead to sign
Mike Aldrete to its final roster spot. The move ended Gross' major-league career. Several weeks later, there was reported interest in Gross by the
Boston Red Sox, according to a May 14, 1991 article in
The Boston Globe, but nothing ever materialized. "I've enjoyed my career, I really have," Gross told the
San Diego Union-Tribune in March 1991. "There've been frustrations, sure, but the good times and being at this level of the game outweigh any of the negatives. I wanted to play every day, sure, but it didn't work out for me. But I found that niche and it worked out. Probably, if I'd been an everyday player, I wouldn't have lasted this long. I'd rather have the longevity." == Pitching ==