Dode Criss

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Dode Criss (March 12, 1885 - September 8, 1955) was a former right-handed Major League Baseball pitcher and pinch hitter who played his entire career from 1908 to 1911 with the St. Louis Browns of the American League. He is considered by historian Bill James as the first player to be used as a pinch hitter regularly.[1]

Criss was born in Sherman, Mississippi. Criss started out in the Texas League where he was a key player for the Cleburne, Texas championship team in 1908. Criss signed with the Browns in the beginning of the 1908 season, where his father told Criss, not to sign for them for less than a dollar a day. In his first season on the big leagues, Criss became the first player to pinch hit at least 40 times in a season, with 41 out of 82 at bats, making 12 pinch hits, (28 overall) for a .341 batting average, higher then the league leader, Ty Cobb.

A minor controversy ensued as St. Louis fans were outraged that the then Commissioner of Baseball, Ban Johnson, declared Cobb as the batting average winner instead of Criss.[2] He led the American League in pinch at-bats and hits in every season of his four year career.[3] After his career with the Browns, Criss went back to the Texas League where he lead the league in batting three times, and pitched three no-hitters for Houston.[4]

Overall, Criss played in 227 games, getting 304 at bats, 84 hits, for a .276 lifetime average. Pitching wise, Criss had a three win and nine losses in his career with a 4.38 earned run average and 70 strikeouts.

Criss passed away in Sherman, at the age of 70. He is a member of the Texas League Hall of Fame.

[edit] Notes and references

  1. ^ Bill James. The New Bill James Historical Baseball Abstract. Free Press, 77. ISBN 0-684-80697-5. 
  2. ^ Frederick George Lieb. The Baltimore Orioles: The History of a Colorful Team in Baltimore and St. Louis. McFarland & Company, 31-32. ISBN 0786415886. 
  3. ^ Paul Votano. Stand and Deliver: A History of Pinch-Hitting. Southern Illinois Univ Press, 186-187. ISBN 0809326191. 
  4. ^ Texas League Hall of Fame Retrieved on July 20, 2007.

[edit] External links