William Patrick Cronin (December 26, 1902 – October 26, 1966) was an American

professional baseball Professional baseball is organized baseball in which players are selected for their talents and are paid to play for a specific team or club system. It is played in leagues and associated farm teams throughout the world. Modern professional ...

player Player may refer to: Role or adjective * Player (game), a participant in a game or sport ** Gamer, a player in video and tabletop games ** Athlete, a player in sports ** Player character, a character in a video game or role playing game who ...

and

manager Management (or managing) is the administration of an organization, whether it is a business, a nonprofit organization, or a government body. It is the art and science of managing resources of the business. Management includes the activities ...

. He played in

Major League Baseball Major League Baseball (MLB) is a professional baseball organization and the oldest major professional sports league in the world. MLB is composed of 30 total teams, divided equally between the National League (NL) and the American League (AL), ...

as a

catcher Catcher is a position in baseball and softball. When a batter takes their turn to hit, the catcher crouches behind home plate, in front of the ( home) umpire, and receives the ball from the pitcher. In addition to this primary duty, the ca ...

for the Boston Braves between 1928 and 1931. He threw and batted

right-handed In human biology, handedness is an individual's preferential use of one hand, known as the dominant hand, due to it being stronger, faster or more dextrous. The other hand, comparatively often the weaker, less dextrous or simply less subjecti ...

and was listed as tall and .

Biography

Nicknamed "Crungy", Cronin was born in the village of

West Newton, Massachusetts West Newton is one of the thirteen villages within the city of Newton in Middlesex County, Massachusetts, United States. Among the oldest of the thirteen Newton villages, the West Newton Village Center is a National Register Historic District. ...

, and played

college baseball College baseball is baseball that is played on the intercollegiate level at institutions of higher education. In comparison to football and basketball, college competition in the United States plays a smaller role in developing professional p ...

for Boston College. In 1923 and 1924, he played summer baseball for Falmouth of the Cape Cod Baseball League, batting .420 in 1923. Cronin made his major league debut with the Braves in 1928. Over parts of four seasons with Boston, he collected 68 hits, including 15 doubles and two triples, in 126 games played."Bill Cronin Statistics and History"
''baseball-reference.com''. Retrieved 2011-01-31. In and , he served as the primary backup catcher to regular Al Spohrer. For most of the rest of that decade, Cronin toiled in the top-level Pacific Coast League. He became a

player-manager A player-coach (also playing coach, captain-coach, or player-manager) is a member of a sports team who simultaneously holds both playing and coaching duties. A player-coach may be a head coach or an assistant coach. They may make changes to the s ...

in 1942, and skippered four minor league clubs over all or parts of four seasons. Cronin died in his home city of Newton at the age of 63.

References

External links

{{DEFAULTSORT:Cronin, Bill 1902 births 1966 deaths Baltimore Orioles (International League) players Binghamton Triplets managers Binghamton Triplets players Boston Braves players Cape Cod Baseball League players (pre-modern era) Dallas Rebels players Falmouth Commodores players Kansas City Blues (baseball) players Leavenworth Braves players Los Angeles Angels (minor league) players Major League Baseball catchers Montgomery Rebels players Newark Bears (International League) players Pittsfield Hillies players Portland Beavers players Providence Grays players Providence Rubes players Schenectady Blue Jays players Sportspeople from Newton, Massachusetts Baseball players from Middlesex County, Massachusetts Syracuse Chiefs players Worcester Panthers players