John "Jimmie" William Crutchfield (March 25, 1910 – April 1, 1993) was a professional baseball

outfielder An outfielder is a person playing in one of the three defensive positions in baseball or softball, farthest from the batter. These defenders are the left fielder, the center fielder, and the right fielder. As an outfielder, their duty is to cat ...

Negro league baseball The Negro leagues were United States professional baseball leagues comprising teams of African Americans and, to a lesser extent, Latin Americans. The term may be used broadly to include professional black teams outside the leagues and it may be ...

from 1930 to 1945.

Career

Crutchfield began his career with the

Birmingham Black Barons The Birmingham Black Barons were a Negro league baseball team that played from 1920 until 1960. They shared their home field of Rickwood Field in Birmingham, Alabama, with the white Birmingham Barons, usually drawing larger crowds and equal pres ...

in 1930 but the following year moved to the

Indianapolis ABC's Indianapolis (), colloquially known as Indy, is the state capital and most populous city of the U.S. state of Indiana and the seat of Marion County. According to the U.S. Census Bureau, the consolidated population of Indianapolis and Mario ...

. When the team ran into financial difficulties, he left to play with the

Pittsburgh Crawfords The Pittsburgh Crawfords, popularly known as the Craws, were a professional Negro league baseball team based in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania. The team, previously known as the Crawford Colored Giants, was named after the Crawford Bath House, a recrea ...

, where he remained for the next five years. Teamed with Ted Page and

Cool Papa Bell James Thomas "Cool Papa" Bell (May 17, 1903 – March 7, 1991) was an American center fielder in Negro league baseball from 1922 to 1946. He is considered to have been one of the fastest men ever to play the game. Stories demonstrating Bell's s ...

, they formed what is considered the best outfield in the Negro leagues. During this time, his performance earned him three appearances in the East-West All-Star game. In the 1935 game, Crutchfield made an astonishing catch when he chased down a long drive and leapt in the air, catching the ball in his bare hand. In 1941 he was named an All-Star again, this time as a member of the

Chicago American Giants The Chicago American Giants were a Chicago-based Negro league baseball team. From 1910 until the mid-1930s, the American Giants were the most dominant team in black baseball. Owned and managed from 1911 to 1926 by player-manager Andrew "Rube" Fo ...

. Crutchfield served in the military during

World War II World War II or the Second World War, often abbreviated as WWII or WW2, was a world war that lasted from 1939 to 1945. It involved the vast majority of the world's countries—including all of the great powers—forming two opposin ...

from 1943 to 1944. After his baseball career was over, he went to work for the

United States Postal Service The United States Postal Service (USPS), also known as the Post Office, U.S. Mail, or Postal Service, is an independent agency of the executive branch of the United States federal government responsible for providing postal service in the U ...

Crutchfield died in Chicago in 1993 and was interred in the nearby Burr Oak Cemetery, Alsip, Illinois, buried in an unmarked grave until 2004 when

Peoria, Illinois Peoria ( ) is the county seat of Peoria County, Illinois, United States, and the largest city on the Illinois River. As of the United States Census, 2020, 2020 census, the city had a population of 113,150. It is the principal city of the Peoria ...

anesthesiologist Jeremy Krock contacted members of the

Society for American Baseball Research The Society for American Baseball Research (SABR) is a membership organization dedicated to fostering the research and dissemination of the history and record of baseball primarily through the use of statistics. Established in Cooperstown, New ...

to try to get a proper headstone on the grave of Crutchfield, who originally comes from the same town as Krock. This launched the

Negro Leagues Baseball Grave Marker Project The Negro Leagues Baseball Grave Marker Project is an effort started by Peoria, Illinois anesthesiologist Jeremy Krock and with support of the Society for American Baseball Research to put a proper headstone on the graves of former Negro league bas ...

of which Dr. Krock still works with today."Negro League project marks history" ESPN's Outside The Lines, ESPN Network
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References

External links

an
Baseball-Reference Black Baseball stats
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Seamheads
{{DEFAULTSORT:Crutchfield, Jimmie 1910 births 1993 deaths Birmingham Black Barons players Indianapolis ABCs (1931–1933) players Pittsburgh Crawfords players Chicago American Giants players Cleveland Buckeyes players Homestead Grays players Newark Eagles players Toledo Crawfords players People from Macon County, Missouri Baseball players from Missouri African-American baseball players Burials at Burr Oak Cemetery African Americans in World War II United States Army personnel of World War II African-American United States Army personnel