Athletes - Del Crandall

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	Athletes - Del Crandall

Delmar Wesley Crandall (born March 5, 1930 in Ontario, California) is a retired American baseball player and manager. He was considered one of the premier catchers in the National League during the heyday of his career, the 1950s, with the Milwaukee Braves.

Crandall was only 19 when he first played in a Major League Baseball game, with the 1949 Boston Braves. He appeared in 146 games for Boston in 1949-50 before entering military service during the Korean War. When his two-year hitch was over, in March 1953, the Braves suddenly abandoned Boston for Milwaukee, where they soon became both successful on the field and phenomenally popular off it. Crandall seized the regular catcher's job and held it from 1953 through 1960, handling star Braves pitchers such as Baseball Hall of Fame lefthander Warren Spahn and righthanders Lew Burdette and Bob Buhl. The Braves won NL pennants in 1957 and 1958, and the World Series championship in '57. Crandall was a superb defensive catcher with a strong arm; he was selected as an All-Star in 1955, 1958, 1959, 1960 and 1962. A powerful righthanded hitter, he topped the 20 home run mark three times.

Crandall averaged 125 games caught during the peak of his career, and he paid the price, missing most of the 1961 season due to arm trouble. While Crandall did come back to catch 90 games in 1962 - and make his final NL All-Star squad - he was soon replaced by Joe Torre as the Braves' regular catcher. After 1963, he was traded from the Braves and spent his final three major league seasons with the San Francisco Giants (1964), Pittsburgh Pirates (1965), and Cleveland Indians (1966). In 1,573 games over 16 seasons, he finished with a batting average of .254 with 179 home runs.

Crandall eventually turned to managing and piloted two American League clubs, the Milwaukee Brewers (1972-75) and the Seattle Mariners (1983-84). In each case he was hired to try to right a losing team in mid-season, but he never enjoyed a winning campaign with either team, and finished with a managing record of 364-469 (.437). In between those AL stints, he was a highly successful manager of the Los Angeles Dodgers' top farm club, the Albuquerque Dukes of the AAA Pacific Coast League, and he remained in the Dodger organization as a special catching instructor well into his 60s.

Crandall appeared on the cover of Sports Illustrated twice: Once by himself, and once with a group of other players.

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