Sam Crawford

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For the Union general in the American Civil War, see Samuel W. Crawford

Samuel Earl Crawford (April 18, 1880 – June 15, 1968), nicknamed "Wahoo Sam", was an American right fielder in Major League Baseball who primarily played for the Detroit Tigers. He batted and threw left-handed, standing 6'0" tall and weighing 190 pounds. His nickname comes from his birthplace, Wahoo, Nebraska.

Contents 1 Professional playing career 2 Post professional career 3 See also 4 External links

[edit] Professional playing career

Sam Crawford is a member of the Baseball Hall of Fame

Crawford played 19 big league seasons, starting his career in 1899 with the Cincinnati Reds, 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, and the most in a career with 51.

Crawford also 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. When he retired, he had a career batting average of .309. Crawford fell just short of the magical 3000 hit club, compiling 2961. There has been debate about whether Wahoo Sam deserves inclusion in the 3,000 hit club. Crawford maintained that the 87 hits he got in the Western League, which became the American League in 1900, were supposed to be included in his official total under the 1903 agreement between the two leagues.

He played twelve 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.

[edit] Post professional career

In retirement, he became somewhat reclusive, staying away from official baseball functions. In 1962, he was interviewed by Lawrence Ritter for his book The Glory of Their Times, a series of interviews with the players of the early 20th Century. Crawford's tales of Tiger teammates such as Cobb, Cincinnati teammates like deaf player William "Dummy" Hoy, and opponents such as Wagner helped to make the book one of the most admired ever written about baseball.

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. In 1999, he ranked Number 84 on The Sporting News' list of the 100 Greatest Baseball Players, and was nominated as a finalist for the Major League Baseball All-Century Team.

[edit] See also

• Triple
• List of major league players with 2,000 hits

[edit] External links

• Baseball Hall of Fame
• Baseball-Reference.com - career statistics and analysis
• BaseballLibrary.com - biography and career highlights

Preceded by: Herman Long	National League Home Run Champion 1901	Succeeded by: Tommy Leach
Preceded by: Harry Davis	American League Home Run Champion 1908	Succeeded by: Ty Cobb
Preceded by: Gus Henderson	University of Southern California Head Baseball Coach 1924–1929	Succeeded by: Sam Barry