Frank Crosetti

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

Frank Peter Joseph Crosetti (sometimes referred to as Frankie or The Crow) was a shortstop and coach in Major League Baseball.

He was born in San Francisco, California on October 4, 1910 and grew up in the same neighborhood as his teammate-to-be Joe DiMaggio. He played his first game on April 12, 1932 at age 21. His entire major league career, 17 years long from 1932 to 1948, was spent on the New York Yankees, mostly at shortstop but with some time at second and third base. He originally wore uniform number 5, but in 1937 was switched to number 1 and in 1945 to number 2. After playing nearly 1700 games, he went on to coach for the Yankees as well, serving 20 years in that role.

He died on February 11, 2002 in Stockton, California. Crosetti is interred in the same cemetery as Joe DiMaggio; Holy Cross Cemetery in Colma, California [1].

[edit] Quote

"We talk a lot about not drawing fans. At the same time most of the players are still telling the fans they'll be fined $50 if they sign any autographs. If some of the guys spent as much time signing autographs as they do shooing kids we'd have a lot more friends around here. Chief kid-shooer is (John) O'Donoghue. He enjoys the work. One of these days he's going to make another Frank Crosetti." -- Jim Bouton in Ball Four (August 22, 1969)