Grabarkewitz lettered in baseball, basketball, football, golf and track at Alamo Heights High School, and in 1963, he played for the now defunct Sagamore Clouters of the Cape Cod Baseball League. After high school, he attended St. Mary's University in nearby San Antonio, Texas for two years before being selected by the Los Angeles Dodgers in the twelfth round of the 1966 Major League Baseball draft.
Grabarkewitz immediately impressed in his first professional season. The second baseman clubbed eleven home runs and scored a Northwest League leading 62 runs for the Duke Snider led Tri-City Atoms to lead the team to its second straight title. In 1967, Grabarkewitz was shifted to shortstop with the California League's Santa Barbara Dodgers, and continued to impress with his bat. He led his club with 24 home runs, and his 122 runs scored were nearly double his nearest competitor. In 1968, Grabarkewitz won the "Fastest Dodger in Spring training", beating out Willie Davis, Bill Russell and Bobby Valentine. After beginning the season with the Texas League's Albuquerque Dodgers, Grabarkewitz was slated to join the Dodgers on August 3, when he broke his ankle & leg in six places in a home plate collision the very day he was to be called up. According to Dodgers orthopedist, Dr. Frank Jobe, the injury was so severe he likely would not ever play again.
All told, Grabarkewitz batted .283 with 48 home runs, 157 runs batted in and 287 runs scored over his minor league career when he made his major league debut with the Dodgers on April 22, 1969. Grabarkewitz was given the opportunity to earn the Dodgers' starting shortstop job, but struggled in that role. He was batting .120 with five RBIs and no home runs when the Dodgers reacquired Dodgers legend Maury Wills from the Montreal Expos for Ron Fairly and Paul Popovich on June 11. Shortly afterwards, Grabarkewitz was reassigned to the triple A Spokane Indians of the Pacific Coast League, where he played all over the infield. He returned to the majors in late July, and was hitless in fifteen at bats through the rest of the season.

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