Sam Crane (second baseman)

Infobox MLB retired
name=Sam Crane
position=Second baseman


bats=Right
throws=Right
birthdate=birth date|1854|1|2|mf=y
city-state|Springfield|Massachusetts
deathdate=death date and age|1925|6|26|1854|1|2
city-state|New York|New York
debutdate=May 1
debutyear=by|1880
debutteam=Buffalo Bisons
finaldate=June 28
finalyear=by|1890
finalteam=New York Giants
stat1label=Batting average
stat1value=.203
stat2label=Home runs
stat2value=0
stat3label=Runs batted in
stat3value=35
teams=As player
*Buffalo Bisons (by|1880)
*New York Metropolitans (by|1883)
*Cincinnati Outlaw Reds (by|1884)
*Detroit Wolverines (by|1885–by|1886)
*St. Louis Maroons (by|1886)
*Washington Nationals (by|1887)
*New York Giants (by|1890)
*Pittsburg Alleghenys (by|1890)As manager
*Buffalo Bisons (by|1880)
*Cincinnati Outlaw Reds (by|1884)

Samuel Newhall Crane (January 2 1854 – June 26 1925) was an American second baseman and manager in Major League Baseball born in Springfield, Massachusetts. Crane played for eight different teams during his seven year career that spanned from by|1880 to by|1890. [ [http://www.baseball-reference.com/c/cranesa01.shtml Baseball-Reference player page] ] During two of those seasons, he acted as a player-manager, once for the 1880 Buffalo Bisons of the National League and the by|1884 Cincinnati Outlaw Reds of the short-lived Union Association. [ [http://www.baseball-reference.com/teams/COR/1884.shtml Baseball-Reference manager page] ]

After his playing days, Sam had a long and distinguished career as a sportswriter. In by|1895, when he was writing for the New York Advertiser, he had become the center of a controversy when he wrote an article that harshly criticized the owner of the New York Giants, Andrew Freedman. Freedman, upon learning of existence of the article, barred Sam from entering the Polo Grounds. When Crane showed up for the August 16 game, he learned that his season pass was taken and his efforts to purchase a ticket were foiled. [ [http://bioproj.sabr.org/bioproj.cfm?a=v&v=l&bid=1578&pid=14892 SABR Project Biography: Harvey Watkins] ]

It was his connection to baseball as a player, manager, and sportswriter that lent credibility to his assertion that Cooperstown, New York be the location for a "memorial" to the great players from the past. Cooperstown was, at the time, the place that many people believed where Abner Doubleday had invented the game of baseball. It was this idea of a memorial that eventually led to the creation of the National Baseball Hall of Fame and Museum in by|1939. [ [http://muse.jhu.edu/demo/nine/v009/9.1kossuth.pdf Boondoggling, Baseball, and the WPA, Pg. 63; Kossuth, Robert] ]

Sam died at the age of 71 of pneumonia [ [http://www.time.com/time/magazine/article/0,9171,728571,00.html Time Magazine Online] ] in New York, New York, and is interred at the Lutheran All Faith Cemetery in Middle Village, New York. [ [http://www.baseball-almanac.com/players/player.php?p=cranesa01 Baseball-Almanac player page] ]

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External links

Persondata
NAME = Crane, Sam
ALTERNATIVE NAMES = Crane, Samuel Newhall
SHORT DESCRIPTION = Major League Baseball player, manager, sportswriter
DATE OF BIRTH = January 2, 1854
PLACE OF BIRTH = Springfield, Massachusetts
DATE OF DEATH = June 26, 1925
PLACE OF DEATH = New York, New York