Things are getting Creepy around here ...

[Chris-Counts]

Because Halloween is just around the corner, I’d like to pay tribute to the creepiest of all baseball players, Frank “Creepy” Crespi, who had a brief but seriously strange career in the early 1940s.

Although some of the details of Crespi’s life are fuzzy, here is my short summary of the highlights. Born in St. Louis, he grew up in the same neighborhood that would later produce Yogi Berra and Joe Garagiola. He must have been a pretty good player, because he didn’t get stuck in the Cardinals’ vast farm system, and arrived at Sportsman’s Park in 1938 when he was just 20. After a solid season as the Cardinals' second baseman in 1941, he slumped in 1942, but still took home a World Series ring. He also earned some respect for brawling with the notoriously prickly Joe Medwick and getting in some good licks — he received praise from none other than legendary umpire Bill Klem for his efforts. This marks the high point of Crespi’s career — and pretty much the end of it.

After joining the Army — he didn’t have to serve because he was the sole source of support for his mother — he soon suffered a compound left leg fracture in a baseball game. Later, according to some accounts, he reinjured the leg in a “tank accident,” whatever that might entail. Next, after a bunch of operations — he had at least 14 on the leg — he suffered another setback when he crashed racing his wheelchair around a hospital. And while he still held out hope of reviving his baseball career even after that folly, his aspirations were finally put to rest by a nurse who mistakenly bathed his leg in a caustic solution that badly burned it.

With his leg a wreck and his baseball career now just a memory, Crespi went to college on the GI Bill, and went work as a budget analyst for defense contractor McDonnell Douglas. But his baseball odyssey wasn’t yet complete. Through some stroke of luck, the baseball establishment had somehow forgot to put him on the retired list back in the 1940s, and he sat on the disabled list instead. It was discovered by Marvin Miller in 1983 that he was there long enough to be eligible for a pension — which he enjoyed until he passed away seven years later.

I don’t have in my collection the only card of Crespi that I know of, his 1941 Cardinals team issue (can somebody post one?). But I’ve shared a George Burke photo, along with one of the coolest handmade cards I’ve even seen. It was the acquisition of the latter that inspired my research here.

[brianp-beme]

Unfortunately Frank looks the part of a happy creepster on his W754 Cardinals team set card.


Brian (card not mine...that would be creepy)

[samosa4u]

Originally Posted by Chris Counts

Because Halloween is just around the corner, I’d like to pay tribute to the creepiest of all baseball players, Frank “Creepy” Crespi, who had a brief but seriously strange career in the early 1940s.

I just read everything that you wrote, and I don't get it, exactly what did he do that was creepy?? And what's the connection with Halloween?

[ALR-bishop]

Not sure about Halloween but he once told Jack Buck why he was Creepy

[brianp-beme]

Originally Posted by samosa4u

I just read everything that you wrote, and I don't get it, exactly what did he do that was creepy?? And what's the connection with Halloween?

Creepy was his nickname...below is from his Wikipedia entry:

Frank Crespi's nickname, 'Creepy', is widely considered one of the more colorful and unusual names in baseball history. In a 1977 radio interview with future Hall of Fame broadcaster Jack Buck, Crespi told Buck people still called him by his nickname. Buck followed up with, "Why do they call you that?" Crespi replied, "Well, it's an involved thing...I used to hear a lot of different stories. But I think the best one is [from] some sportswriter. He said the way I creep up on a ball, because I run low to the ground after a ground ball."

And Halloween is associated with the word creepy, so there you have it.

Here is his 1941 Double Play card with Jim Brown...because of Crespi's nickname reputation, it appears that Brown broke ties with Crespi and is in the process of distancing himself from him as well. I might add if he had lived another 30 years or so, Krispy Kreme at this time of the year would likely have a limited edition orange and black baseball themed donut named in his honor, called the Krispy Kreme Creepy Crespi October Classic.


Brian

[Chris-Counts]

Thanks for the explanation Brian. I had no idea Creepy had a 1941 Double Play. It must have been hard for kids to keep those Double Plays together because every one I have in my collection is also cut in two — and taped back together again.

[doug.goodman]

https://sabr.org/bioproj/person/frank-crespi/

In regard to the Medwick incident and Klem's comment :

Crespi returned to the lineup on June 18 versus the Dodgers at Ebbets Field and found himself at the center of a brouhaha. In the bottom of the sixth inning, Brooklyn’s Joe Medwick attempted to advance to second base on a wild pitch. St. Louis catcher Walker Cooper quickly recovered the ball and threw to Marion covering at second. Medwick was 10 feet from the bag when the ball arrived, but he nonetheless slid spikes high into Marion. As Marion and Medwick exchanged words, Crespi took Medwick down with a “flying tackle” as both benches emptied.24 After cooler heads prevailed, Medwick and Crespi were ejected, and each was subsequently fined $25 by National League President Ford Frick.25 Bill Klem, umpiring supervisor of the National League, asked Crespi about the incident the next day. After Crespi admitted he got a couple of good licks in on Medwick, Klem offered his hand and said, “Put ‘er there kid, you’re alright.”

[BillyCoxDodgers3B]

Creepy Crespi and Skeeter Skalzi...is it any wonder I get them confused?

[GeoPoto]

Ed Stroud who played for Washington 1967-1970, had the nickname "The Creeper". As Edgar Munzel wrote in the October 1, 1966, issue of The Sporting News, it was "because of a narrow-brimmed, dark green hat he wears and the hunch-shouldered walk that makes him look like he's sneaking up up on somebody."

Sent from my motorola edge 5G UW (2021) using Tapatalk

[Exhibitman]

This guy is way creepier:

[FrankWakefield]

I thought I had a card or postcard of him... And I might have a contract. But I don't have those bunched. I do have this that I found, mainly because I have most of the autographs in alphabetical order. Imagine that.

Thank you, Mr. Smalling, you enabled me to gather several autographs of Cardinals players.

https://www.net54baseball.com/attach...1&d=1729559052