Atlanta Braves Franchise best catchers: Del Crandall

Moving up the list of the best Catchers in Atlanta Braves Franchise history, we slip back to the team’s success in Milwaukee, and another of baseball’s best backstops. In at number three is Del Crandall.

The Atlanta Braves franchise spent a long time looking up at the rest of baseball after their worst-to-first season in 1914. The club began to emerge as a threat after the war, adding players from the Negro leagues to their homegrown talent.

Jim Murray of the LA Times wrote that Delmar Wesley “Del” Crandall became a catcher because he was at the back of the line when they were handing out baseball equipment, that all the coach had left was a mask and a catcher’s mitt.

Crandall backed Murray’s prose up when he interviewed with his SABR biographer Gregory Wolf.

“I became a catcher when I was in fifth grade. I was a pudgy little kid and not a very good athlete, but I was enthusiastic. . . a coach, came to my elementary school, . . . looked at me with a mask and a catcher’s glove, and I told him I can catch . . .

Even then, Crandall set high standards for himself; once he decided he was a catcher, his goal was becoming the best catcher around.  Along the way, he met the city recreation director — manager of the semipro Fullerton Merchants and one-time minor league catcher — J. F. Lemon.

Lemon coached him, and after six years of tutoring arranged for Crandall to catch Dodgers starter Hal Gregg, an 18 game-winner in 1945. When his senior year arrived, the pudgy kid was a memory. In his place stood a 6-1, athletic all-American boy whose bat and defense led the Dodgers to make him a bonus baby, by offering him $20K signing bonus – about $231,500 today.

Bonus babies were required to spend two years on the active roster, and Brooklyn had already signed Roy Campanella. Crandall’s dad did his research and advised him to sign with the Braves for $4K –about $46k today – instead.

GameChanger

At 5-9 and 190 pounds, Roy Campanella had the typical body type for a catcher of that era. Crandall presented a different look and style; a slim, agile, athletic catcher with a rocket for an arm, he moved quickly behind the plate, blocked pitches well, and cut down 17 of 33 runners (52%) attempting to steal in his first season.

Crandall would throw to any base if a runner wandered too far off the bag, something unheard of at that time, and caused considerable angst to his manager and coaches. That didn’t stop the Braves from penciling him in as primary catcher in 1950, but a broken finger limited his play, and Crandall caught just 79 games his sophomore year.

Crandall spent the 1951 and 1952 seasons in the military and returned to spring training in 1953, a stronger, fitter, and more mature player. A month before the season started, the Boston Braves became the first team to relocate since 1903 and took the name of their new home city, the Milwaukee Braves.

Del Crandall takes charge

Crandall started the 1953 campaign by catching a three-hit shutout and doubling in the fifth inning, and scoring the Braves second run. On June first, he was batting .326/.381/573/.954, with five homers, five doubles, and a stolen base.

NL manager Charlie Dressen selected Crandall him for the first of eight All-Star games, but on June 8, Crandall took a foul ball off his right hand that created a deep cut between his ring and middle finger. He missed the All-Star game and the next 13 Braves games, and when he returned, the sore hand and the layoff affected his bat.

He finished the season batting .272/.330/.429/.759 with 15 homers and threw out 27 of 53 attempted stealers (48%) in 105 games. His bat and defense help the Braves reach second-place and earned him 24th place in NL MVP voting.

Fast forward now to the 1957 campaign which Milwaukee won going away at 95-59, setting them up for a World Series face-off against the mighty Yankees (98-56).

Crandall caught Warren Spahn’s victory in game one, all three of Lew Burdette’s complete-game wins over the Yankees. When Burdette got the ball on two days rest, the Milwaukee bullpen was on standby from the first inning on, but Crandall guided Burdette through the rough patches and homered in the eighth inning of game seven to give the Braves a 5-0 lead.

When Burdette loaded the bases in the bottom of the ninth, Crandall reminded him that a slam wasn’t enough to beat the Braves. Burdette responded by coaxing a hard-hit grounder to Eddie Mathews to end the 1957 World Series and bring the Atlanta Braves Franchise its first world title since 1914.

The Braves failed to repeat as World Series champs in 1958, but they took the Yankees to seven games, and Crandall once again homered in game seven to bring the Braves within two.

Not destined to join the Atlanta Braves

Crandall batted .262/.322/.432/.754 with a 105 OPS+ and averaged 14 homers a season hitting mostly eighth in the lineup from 1953 through 1962. And although a sore arm limited him to 15 games in 1961, only Yogi Berra hit more home runs in that ten season span than Crandall’s 159.

GM John McHale suggested Crandall should attend Spring training without a contract because of his arm issues.  Crandall took that as an insult and told McHale how he felt.

I’ve been a big part of this ballclub for ten years and have represented the Braves on and off the field. I was important to you, and the Braves needed me. I was naïve to think that when I needed the Braves, you’d be there.

McHale relented, and Crandall played 107 games in 1962, splitting time with a young catcher named Joe Torre. He proved his arm was still sound, but the handwriting was on the wall.

When the Milwaukee Braves were sold to a group from Chicago – selling a team to a group from a rival city sounds like a bad idea – they installed Bobby Bragan as skipper, and he named Torre starting catcher.

An already disgruntled Crandall didn’t get along with his new skipper, and when the season ended, Crandall asked for and got a trade. The Braves sent him to the Giants as part of the trade for Felipe Alou. Torre became the primary catcher and remained in that role when the team moved south and became the Atlanta Braves.

Epilogue

Like most catchers, Crandall became a journeyman backstop, playing for the Pirates, and Indians before hanging up his glove. He turned down a contract to become Sam McDowell’s personal-catcher because he knew his defense was slipping. He felt he couldn’t play up to the standard he expected of himself, and announced his retirement.

Two years later, he transitioned to managing, first for the Dodgers AAA team where he won a Texas League championship, and then to the Brewers AAA team before taking over a stumbling expansion team in 1972 helped make Darrell Porter learn the catching craft.

He managed in the Angels system and spent time back in the Dodgers system before getting a shot at managing the recently added Mariners, a weak team that was a long way from ready for prime time. He retired from the game altogether in 1997.

That’s a wrap

Del Crandall was a defensive specialist who learned to hit line drives and use the whole field by playing pepper. He transitioned into a power hitter in the late 50s but knew the strike zone well.  Crandell struck out only 477 times while walking 424 in 5,583 PA.

After injuries and age caused his bat to decline, he remained one of the best defensive catchers in the game. Running on Del Crandall was a fool’s errand, and pitchers loved to throw to him.