Miscellaneous
Major League baseball players are blaming the lack of video for their hitting woes. J.D. Martinez is among those complaining that players' access to in-game video has been limited because of Covid-19 and recent cheating scandals. How did the players of yesteryear manage without videos? When Pat Crawford died at a nursing home in Morehead City, N.C. 26 years ago, he was the last surviving member of baseball's famous Gashouse Gang, the 1934 St. Louis Cardinals team which on e the World Series over the Detroit Tigers in seven games. He died three days shy of his 92nd birthday on Jan. 25, 1994. Eleven years before his death, Crawford was living in Kinston, NC, where I was broadcasting the Carolina League games of the Toronto Blue Jays affiliate. Through the club's owner, Ray Kuhlman, I met up with Crawford in his home. He graciously gave me a interview, reminiscing about his baseball playing days, including the Cardinals, for whom he played in 1933 and 1934. Crawford got into two games in that infamous 1934 World Series. The series became renown because it was played closely until the final game, when the Cards annihilated the Tigers, 11-0 in Detroit. However, the game made headlines because of a hard slide into third base in the top of the sixth inning by the Cardinals' Joe Medwick. That led to a brief fight between Medwick and Detroit third baseman Marv Owen. However, when Medwick took his position in left field in the last of the sixth, frustrated Detroit fans pelted him with fruit, vegetables, bottles and cushions. Commissioner Kennesaw Mountain Landis, in attendance, ordered Medwick removed from the game. It became the only time in the history of the major leagues that a commissioner ejected a player from a game. Crawford played 318 games in the big leagues with the New York Giants, Cincinnati Reds and Cardinals. He had a lifetime .280 average and played first base, second base and third base. He also played collegiate baseball with Springfield College in Springfield, MA, Ohio State and Davidson College. I hope you enjoy the interview, as Pat Crawford, whose real name was Clifford Rankin Crawford, takes us back to a different era of Major League Baseball.