Type

Frank Crosetti - Baseball Memorabilia

Frank Crosetti autographed items. This a LOT SALE. All items included in the LOT. Quantities are in parentheses (. ). Total: 227 signed items. Baseball cards (7), Photos (127), Index cards (83). Message me for more information. $11,120.00 for the LOT. Make a reasonable offer. 227 items. ($49.00 per item) Will NOT break up the lot. CASH ONLY, NO EXCEPTIONS. ALL SALES ARE FINAL. NO RETURNS. No lowballing, will not reply. Frank Crosetti Frankie Crosetti Frank Peter Joseph Crosetti Nickname: Crow Born: Oct. 4, 1910 in San Francisco, Calif. Died: Feb. 11, 2002 Died: Stockton, CA Debut: 1932 | Pos: SS Ht: 5'10" | Wt: 165 | B: R | T: R There may be no one, in the history of any sport, who shook more hands, patted more backs or slapped more fannies, than Frank Crosetti. After all, the “Crow” was able to congratulate a lot of players in his 37 years with the Yankees—a stretch that ran from an aging Ruth right through to Mantle’s final days. Crosetti was there for everything from the so called “Called Shot” that the “Cro” said never happened, to the gift HR that Denny McLain gave to the Mick. Crosetti came up at the age of 21 in 1932, and stayed the Yanks’ regular SS through 1940. Never a great hitter (career B.A. .245, OPS+ 83), he hit .241 as a rookie. He was selected to two All-Star teams, in 1936 and 1939. Three times he received MVP consideration (1938, and the WWII years of 1943 and 1944). He was a master at getting plunked by a pitch. Eight times he led the league in getting HBP, and seven times he led all of MLB. He was also a master of the hidden-ball trick, a skill another Yankees’ SS, Gene Michael, would pull off some thirty years after the “Crow.” His best year was probably 1936, when he had career highs in BA, HR and RBI, hitting .288-15-78, with 18 SB. He led the majors in SB in 1938 with 27. After the .241 rookie year of 1932 (2 for 15 in the WS), Crosetti had years of .253, .265 and .256 before his career year of 1936 (7 for 26 WS). He had a rough 1937, hitting just .234, and a worse WS (1 for 21). He rebounded to hit .263 in 1938 (WS 4 for 16, 1 HR, 6 RBI, the HR a big one off of the Cubs’ Dizzy Dean) but dropped down to .233 in 1939 (WS 1 for 16). In 1940, the Yanks made a mistake which probably cost them the pennant. Crosetti’s bat, never good to begin with, was nonexistent as he only hit .194. Meanwhile, in KC, level AA, young Phil Rizzuto hit .347. Rizzuto wasn’t called up. Rizzuto replaced Crosetti in 1941, hitting .307 and finishing 20th in the MVP vote (no ROY back then). Crosetti was now relegated to a backup, but that situation would be changed in future years due to world events. Crosetti only got into 50 games in 1941, hitting .223. The Yanks won four consecutive WS then won it again in 1941 and 1943. They won the pennant in 1942, but lost the WS. Had Rizzuto been brought up in the middle of 1940 to replace Crosetti, maybe the Yankees could have won the WS. They finished 3rd, 88-66, 2 games back. Who knows. They could have won six consecutive WS and eight consecutive AL pennants (7 WS) if only they’d have gone to the “Scooter” in mid-1940. The only thing that could stop them in those days was WWII. In 1942, Crosetti hit .242 in 74 games. WWII would see Crosetti once again getting regular playing time because many top players were now in the service. The “Crow” got into 95 games in 1943, and despite only hitting .233, he finished 31st in MVP voting. The experience and veteran leadership of players like Crosetti and Dickey were instrumental to the Yanks winning the WS in that strange era of wartime baseball—an era that would see the Browns, of all teams, win the 1944 AL pennant. The Crow only got into 55 games in 1944. He hit .239, but then wartime baseball put Crosetti back as an everyday player. He saw 130 games of action in 1945. It was the first season of 100 or more games for him since 1940. He hit .238. When WWII was over, Crosetti went back to being a backup, then a coach. Crosetti was 0 for 3 in the 1942 WS, but 5 for 18 in 1943. His WS record was .174-1-11 in 29 games. But as a player, he was on WS winning teams 8x (only 3 games in 1947 however) and 9 AL pennant teams. Despite his .245 B.A. (OPS+ 83), Crosetti played with the Yanks for 17 seasons, He then became a coach and would stay in that capacity from 1948 to 1968 with the Yankees. He spent 37 consecutive years with the organization. Between his playing career and coaching career with the Yankees, Crosetti was part of 17 WS champions and 23 AL Pennant winners. After the 1968 season, Crosetti left the organization. He spent 1969 with the Seattle Pilots as a coach, then was a coach for the Twins in 1970 and 1971. Lived in Stockton, CA