Washington DC Baseball

[GeoPoto]

Player #128D: Joseph E. "Joe" Cronin. Shortstop for the Washington Senators in 1928-1934 and the Boston Red Sox in 1935-1945. 2,285 hits and 170 home runs in 20 MLB seasons. He had a career OBP of .390. He was a 7-time All Star. Boston Red Sox #4 retired. Boston Red Sox Hall of Fame. In 1956, he was inducted to the MLB Hall of Fame. His best season was probably 1930 for Washington as he posted a .422 OBP with 127 runs scored and 127 RBIs on 686 plate appearances. He managed the Washington Senators in 1933-1934 and the Boston Red Sox in 1935-1947. He was General Manager of the Boston Red Sox in 1948-1958. He was president of the American League in 1959-1973. When he left the Red Sox in 1959, they were the only MLB team without a black player. He and team owner Tom Yawkey are generally viewed as responsible for this injustice which ended six months after Cronin's departure.

Deveaux on Cronin's 1934 season and his eventual departure: All of these tribulations (injuries to many of Washington's front-line players) had to weigh heaviest on Joe Cronin, who was hard-pressed to pencil in a decent starting lineup every day, let alone fulfill his duties as a shortstop. Cronin's average dipped to .284, but he led the club once again with 101 RBIs. For the fifth straight year, he was selected the top player at his position in all of baseball. Cronin did, unlike his subordinates, manage to stay healthy, at least until early September, when he broke his wrist in a baserunning mishap. His season was over, his hand in a cast for the duration. . .

. . . All added up, it is little wonder that the Washington Senators, the proud defending champions of the American League, finished 34 games out of first place in 1934. They'd gone from 99 wins to 66 in one year. How bad had things gotten? Bad enough that Allen Benson, a member of the House of David baseball team, was signed by Griffith in an effort to boost fan interest in his sagging franchise. The House of David team consisted of good amateur players who toured the country, playing teams of local all-stars wherever they went. Their gimmick, apart from playing good baseball, was that every member of the club wore a long beard.

Griffith thought that might work well at Griffith Stadium, and Benson, known as "Bullet Ben", attracted a large Sunday crowd on August 19, 1934. He was battered about by the league-leading Tigers, but apparently not so badly that Griffith wouldn't give him another shot. Slated to next appear against the St. Louis Browns, Benson begged the owner to let him shave his beard so that he wouldn't feel like he was making such a spectacle of himself. Griffith insisted that if the beard went, Bullet Bob would have to go too. So, the pitcher relented and was trounced by the Browns as well.

So ended an ill-advised career in the major leagues, with Allen Benson having allowed 19 hits in 9.2 innings, for a 12.10 ERA that lives on in infamy. These same words could be used to describe the '34 season for the Washington Senators. The injured Joe Cronin turned over his managing chores toward the end of the season to Al (the Clown Prince of Baseball) Schacht. This somehow seemed fitting -- Schacht had already made his mark in baseball as a comedian. . . .

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