Del Crandall
| Del Crandall | |||
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Crandall in 1955.
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| Catcher / Manager | |||
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Born: March 5, 1930 Ontario, California |
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| MLB debut | |||
| June 17, 1949, for the Boston Braves | |||
| Last MLB appearance | |||
| September 14, 1966, for the Cleveland Indians | |||
| MLB statistics | |||
| Batting average | .254 | ||
| Home runs | 179 | ||
| Runs batted in | 657 | ||
| Managerial record | 364–469 | ||
| Winning % | .437 | ||
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As player
As manager |
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| Career highlights and awards | |||
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As player
As manager
Delmar Wesley Crandall (born March 5, 1930 in Ontario, California) is an American former professional baseball player and manager. He played as a catcher in Major League Baseball and played most of his career with the Boston & Milwaukee Braves. Considered one of the National League's top catchers during the 1950s and early 1960s, he led the league in assists a record-tying six times, in fielding percentage four times and in putouts three times.
Crandall was signed as an amateur free agent by the Braves in 1948. He was only 19 when he first played in a major league game with the 1949 Boston Braves. He appeared in 146 games for Boston in 1949-1950 before entering military service during the Korean War. When his two-year hitch was over in March 1953, the Braves departed Boston for Milwaukee, where – benefitting from a powerful offense featuring Hank Aaron, Eddie Mathews and Joe Adcock – they soon became both successful on the field and phenomenally popular off it. Crandall seized the regular catcher's job from veteran Walker Cooper in 1953 and held it for eight years, handling star Braves pitchers such as left-hander Warren Spahn and right-handers Lew Burdette and Bob Buhl. As a testament to Crandall's pitch calling skills, between 1953 and 1959, the Braves' pitching staff finished either first or second in the National League in team earned run average every year except 1955. Burdette credited Crandall for some of his success saying, "I never- well hardly ever- have to shake him off. He knows the job like no one else, and you can have faith in his judgment". On September 11, 1955, with the Braves trailing the Philadelphia Phillies 4-1 with two outs in the ninth inning, Crandall hit a dramatic grand slam home run to win the game. The Braves won National League pennants in 1957 and 1958, also finishing in second place five times between 1953 and 1960, and captured the 1957 World Series championship – the franchise's first title since 1914. Although he only batted .211 in the 1957 Series against the New York Yankees, Crandall had a solo home run for the Braves' last tally in a 5-0 win in the deciding Game 7.
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Wikipedia