Bill Crowley (baseball)

William Michael Crowley (April 18, 1857 – July 14, 1891) was an American Major League Baseball player who played mainly as an outfielder from 1875 to 1885. He played for the Philadelphia White Stockings, Louisville Grays, Buffalo Bisons, Boston Red Caps/Beaneaters, Philadelphia Athletics, and Cleveland Blues.[1]

Bill Crowley
Outfielder
Born: (1857-04-08)April 8, 1857
Philadelphia, US
Died: July 14, 1891(1891-07-14) (aged 34)
Gloucester, New Jersey, US
Batted: Right
Threw: Right
MLB debut
April 26, 1875, for the Philadelphia White Stockings
Last MLB appearance
October 10, 1885, for the Buffalo Bisons
MLB statistics
Batting average.263
Hits540
Runs batted in225
Teams

Born in Philadelphia to Irish immigrant parents, Crowley worked for a print factory in Gloucester, New Jersey, before beginning his professional baseball career with the Philadelphia White Stockings in 1875.[2] He was the youngest player in the National Association that year, having turned 18 just days before his debut.[3]

Crowley threw out four men from the outfield during a May 1880 game with the Buffalo Bisons, and he did it again in August of that year.[4]

In 1881, Crowley was one of several players blacklisted from the National League by the league president, William Hulbert. The bans were thought to take aim at drunkenness, rowdy behavior and game fixing among the league's players, but all of the blacklisting was lumped under a broad category: "general dissipation and insubordination."[5] Crowley was reinstated in 1883.

On June 7, 1884, while Crowley was playing for the Boston Beaneaters, Providence Grays pitcher Charlie Sweeney struck out Crowley to end the game and to set a single-game major league strikeout record (19 strikeouts). That record was tied several times before Roger Clemens struck out 20 batters in a 1986 game.[6] The rest of the 1884 season was better for Crowley, as he set career highs in games played, at bats, hits and runs batted in.[1]

Crowley's last season in the major leagues was an unpredictable one. He played 92 games for the 1885 Buffalo Bisons, a team that finished with a 38–74 win–loss record. In mid-September, the team was bought out by the Detroit Wolverines. Two days later, four of Crowley's teammates appeared in uniform for the Wolverines, but they did not play after the league threatened the Wolverines with a forfeit. The team's purchase was later reversed by the league. In the last three weeks of the season, the Bisons finished with no wins, sixteen losses and one tie.

From 1886 to 1888, Crowley appeared with four minor league teams before leaving professional baseball.[3] He died at the age of 34 of Bright's disease[7] in Gloucester, New Jersey, and is interred at St. Mary's Cemetery in Bellmawr, New Jersey.[1]

References
  1. "Bill Crowley's career statistics". retrosheet.org. Retrieved 2008-09-06.
  2. Batesel, Paul (2012). Players and Teams of the National Association, 1871-1875. McFarland. p. 46. ISBN 9780786490769.
  3. "Bill Crowley Stats". Baseball-Reference.com. Retrieved May 1, 2019.
  4. Martin, Brian (2016). Pud Galvin: Baseball's First 300-Game Winner. McFarland. p. 92. ISBN 9781476625515.
  5. Bock, Hal; Press, The Associated (2017). Banned: Baseball's Blacklist of All-Stars and Also-Rans. Diversion Books. ISBN 9781635760309.
  6. Achorn, Edward. "June 7, 1884: Charlie Sweeney strikes out 19 for Providence | Society for American Baseball Research". sabr.org. Retrieved April 30, 2019.
  7. "Too Young To Die". thedeadballera.com. Archived from the original on 23 September 2008. Retrieved 2008-09-06.
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