Sam Crawford
|
|
Sam_Crawford_Baseball.jpg
- For the Union general in the American Civil War, see Samuel W. Crawford
Samuel Earl (Wahoo Sam) Crawford (April 18, 1880 – June 15, 1968) was a professional baseball player, primarily playing as a right fielder. He batted and threw left handed, standing 6'0" tall and weighing 190 pounds.
His nickname comes from his birthplace, Wahoo, Nebraska.
Crawford played 19 big league seasons, starting his career in 1899 with the Cincinnati Redstockings, before jumping to the newly founded American League's Detroit Tigers in 1903, where he finished out his career.
Crawford twice led the major leagues in home runs, hitting 16 in 1901 and 7 in 1908. He still maintains the major league record for the most inside-the-park home runs in a season with 12 in 1901. He retired with a career batting average of .309, and holds the career major league record for triples with 309, a record unlikely to be beaten given the difference in the style of baseball played in the modern era compared to that of the dead-ball era of Crawford. Crawford fell just short of the magical 3000 hit club compiling 2961. He played 12 years in the same outfield with Ty Cobb, accompanying him to the 1907, 1908, and 1909 World Series, falling to Honus Wagner's Pittsburgh Pirates in 1909 in seven games.
He was selected by the Veteran's Committee to the Baseball Hall of Fame in 1957. He was inducted into the Cincinnati Reds Hall of Fame in 1968.
On his passing in 1968, Sam Crawford was interred in the Inglewood Park Cemetery in Inglewood, California