George Daniel Crowe was a
Major League first baseman died he was 89.. He attended Franklin High School in
Franklin, Indiana, graduated from Indiana Central College, now the
University of Indianapolis, in 1943 and played baseball and basketball. He was the first
Indiana "Mr. Basketball". He was a first baseman with a nine-year career from 1952–1953, 1955–1961 and played for the
Boston Braves,
Milwaukee Braves,
Cincinnati Redlegs and
St. Louis Cardinals (all of the
National League). Crowe hit 31 home runs in 1957, filling in most of the season for the injured
Ted Kluszewski.
(March 22, 1921– January 18, 2011)
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Crowe also played with the
Negro National League's (Rochester)
New York Black Yankees in 1948, and played professional basketball for the barnstorming New York Renaissance Big Five (aka "Rens"). In 1947 Crowe played basketball for the integrated Los Angeles Red Devils, a team that also included future Brooklyn Dodger
Jackie Robinson.
He was elected to the National League
All-Star team in 1958, although Crowe was not used in the All-Star Game. Coincidentally,
the year before, fans of his team — the Cincinnati Redlegs (as the Reds were called at the time) — had been involved in a
ballot stuffing campaign to put all of the team's regulars in the starting lineup.
Ed Bailey,
Johnny Temple,
Roy McMillan,
Don Hoak,
Frank Robinson,
Gus Bell and
Wally Post had been "voted" into the lineup, but Crowe was beaten out in the final vote tally by future Cardinal teammate
Stan Musial. Crowe set a record (later broken by
Jerry Lynch and subsequently by
Cliff Johnson) for most pinch-hit home runs in major league baseball history with 14.
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