Harry Craft
| Harry Craft | |||
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| Centerfielder/Manager | |||
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Born: April 19, 1915 Ellisville, Mississippi |
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Died: August 3, 1995 (aged 80) Conroe, Texas |
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| MLB debut | |||
| September 19, 1937, for the Cincinnati Reds | |||
| Last MLB appearance | |||
| July 14, 1942, for the Cincinnati Reds | |||
| MLB statistics | |||
| Batting average | .253 | ||
| Home runs | 44 | ||
| Runs batted in | 267 | ||
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As Player
As Manager
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| Career highlights and awards | |||
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As Player
As Manager
Harry Francis Craft (April 19, 1915 – August 3, 1995) was an American Major League Baseball player and manager. Born in Ellisville, Mississippi, he was a center fielder for the Cincinnati Reds from 1937 to 1942. Craft attended Mississippi College, threw and batted right-handed, stood 6 feet 1 inch (1.85 m) tall and weighed 185 pounds (84 kg). He was the first manager in Houston Major League history as skipper of the expansion Houston Colt .45s, later the Astros.
A well-praised defensive center fielder, Craft was an average hitter in his short career. His best season came, basically, as a rookie (he had 42 at bats the previous season) in 1938. On June 15 of that year, Craft caught the ninth-inning pop fly (batted by Leo Durocher) to make the final out in the historic game that gave Johnny Vander Meer his second consecutive no-hitter. That same season, Craft batted a solid .270 as the Reds' everyday center fielder with 15 home runs and 83 RBIs in 151 games. He had 165 hits that season in 612 at bats. All those numbers ended up being career-highs. The next two years were Cincinnati's best seasons as they went to the World Series in both, winning in 1940 against the Detroit Tigers. However, Craft did not play a large part in the victory, having only 1 at bat. He ended up with just one postseason hit, which came the year before.
On June 8, 1940, he hit for the cycle in a 23–2 win over the Brooklyn Dodgers. Craft joined the Navy in 1942. By the time he returned to baseball his skills had deteriorated and he never made it back to the major leagues as a player.
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