RetroSimba

George Crowe was a pinch-hitter and reserve first baseman for the Cardinals from 1959-61. He played a more valuable role to the team as a mentor to Curt Flood.

Acquired by the Cardinals from the Reds in an October 1958 trade, Crowe was 37, a veteran who had played in the Negro National League and who broke into the majors in 1952 with the Boston Braves.

Flood, 21, was in his second full season in the majors in 1959 and still trying to establish himself as an everyday center fielder. His fielding was superb, but his hitting was inconsistent. Cardinals manager Solly Hemus was giving time to veteran Gino Cimoli in center field.

In his book, “The Way It Is,” Flood said, “During 1959 … I was playing in fewer games and having trouble hitting above .250. I now became more worried about my swing, and more receptive to help.

“The coaches were willing to coach, but were not good enough theoreticians or communicators to do me much good. As usually happens when a player needs assistance of that kind, I finally got it from another player _ George Crowe, who knew batting theory and was more articulate about it than anyone else on the Cardinals.

“… George straightened me out. He taught me to shorten my stride and my swing, to eliminate the hitch, to keep my head still and my stroke level. He not only told me what to do, but why to do it and how to do it. He worked with me by the hour.”

In his book, “Stranger To The Game,” pitcher Bob Gibson said, “Flood … benefited from the soft wisdom of George Crowe, who was an independent, unconventional thinker and a father figure to both of us when we came up.

“Although Crowe never played regularly with the Cardinals, he was an established home run hitter and he knew one when he saw one. He also knew that Flood, at 165 pounds, wasn’t one … So Crowe talked Curt out of being another Willie Mays and gently persuaded him to guide the ball to right field in pursuit of .300.”

Crowe hit .301 with eight home runs in 77 games for the 1959 Cardinals. A left-handed batter, he had 21 RBI with his first 24 hits for St. Louis.

Crowe’s eighth-inning solo homer off Art Fowler snapped a 5-5 tie and lifted St. Louis to a 6-5 victory over the Dodgers on April 25, 1959. Boxscore

Two weeks later, on May 7, Crowe ripped a three-run, pinch-hit homer off the Cubs’ Moe Drabowsky in a 4-3 Cardinals victory. Stan Musial won it for St. Louis with his 400th career homer. Boxscore

And on Aug, 13, 1959, Crowe belted a pinch-hit grand slam against the Dodgers’ Roger Craig. Boxscore

Crowe slumped to .236 in 73 games in 1960. When his big-league career ended, after playing in seven games for the 1961 Cardinals, Crowe held the major league record for career pinch-hit homers (14).