George Crowe

George Daniel Crowe (b. March 22, 1923 in Whiteland, Indiana) was a Major League first baseman. He graduated from Indiana Central College, now the University of Indianapolis, in 1943 and played baseball and basketball. He was the first Indiana "Mr. Basketball". He was a first baseman with a nine year career from 1952-1953, 1955-1961 and played for the Boston Braves, Milwaukee Braves, Cincinnati Redlegs and St. Louis Cardinals (all of the National League). George Crowe hit 31 home runs in 1957, filling in most of the season for the injured Ted Kluszewski.

He was elected to the National League All-Star team in 1958, although Crowe was not used in the All-Star Game. Coincidentally, the year before, fans of his team—the Cincinnati Redlegs (as the Reds were called at the time)—had been involved in a ballot stuffing campaign to put all of the team's regulars in the starting lineup. Ed Bailey, Johnny Temple, Roy McMillan, Don Hoak, Frank Robinson, Gus Bell and Wally Post had been "voted" into the lineup, but Crowe was beaten out in the final vote tally by future Cardinal teammate Stan Musial. Crowe set a record (later broken by Jerry Lynch and later Cliff Johnson) for most pinch hit home runs with 14.