Born in a San Francisco basement just months after the devastating 1906 earthquake, Joe Cronin rose to prominence in America's pastime by becoming a reliable batter, a proficient ball catcher and a longtime executive who oversaw the changing times.
The Early Years
Joe Cronin was born to an Irish immigrant and his wife on October 12, 1906. While his family lived in his aunt's basement for the first year of his life, they moved into San Francisco's Excelsior District in 1907 where he discovered his natural love of sports. He played soccer, ran track and won the 1920 city championship in tennis, but baseball was always his first love.
As a sophomore at Mission High School, he teamed up with future major league All-Star Wally Berger to win the city championship in 1922. His future looked bright at Mission, but the school burned to the ground on the heels of their championship season and Cronin was forced to transfer to Sacred Heart Cathedral Preparatory for his last two years of school.
While he continued his education and led the Fighting Irish to the city prep school title as a senior, Joe Cronin found the time to play shortstop for various summer clubs and for a semipro team in nearby Napa. In those days, the San Francisco Seals of the Pacific Coast League were the talk of the town and it was quite an honor that they offered Joe Cronin a contract right out of high school. However, he got a better offer from Major League Baseball's Pittsburgh Pirates that he couldn't refuse.
Early Struggles
Joe Cronin could always swing the bat and stood out for his .313 average in his lone year with the Pirate's minor league affiliate in Johnstown, Pennsylvania. Still, he only hit three home runs while managing to collect 18 doubles and 11 triples. It was enough for the big club to call him up as an extra body in the Pirate's quest for a long waited World Series title, He had the perfect view from the bench later that year as the Pirates beat the Washington Senators.
Cronin played in just 38 games at second base in 1926 before manager Bill McKechnie was fired and replaced with Donie Bush. But Joe Cronin's continued decline in game appearances had little to do with managerial strife, but rather with a loaded roaster. the Pirates were loaded at shortstop (Glenn Wright) and third base (Pie Trayhor) while George Grantham was moved from first to second base for the 1927 season. Their loaded infield worked wonders for the ballclub and they made it all the way to the World Series were they ram right into the New York Yankees and their fabled "Murderer's Row" lineup.
Having played in just 12 games that year, Joe Cronin was almost relieved when the Pirates sold his rights to AA's Kansas City ballclub that offseason. Despite posting a miserable .245 batting percentage, the Washington Senators saw something that they liked in the young ballplayer and bought his rights that July. Joe Cronin's life would never be the same.
Quiet Domination
It took Joe Cronin a couple of years to crack the starting lineup in the nation's capital, but his games played and rbi steadily rose, giving his coaches reason to install him in their lineup and his new teammates to trust him. He finally had his big moment in 1930 when he batted .346, scored 127 runs and drove in 126 scores. Despite slamming just 13 home runs, the young shortstop was named the 1930 AL MVP.
Two years later, Joe Cronin led the American League with 18 triples in 1932. Inspired by his increased value to the game, he earned his first All-Star Game invite in 1933 as well as two more over the next two years.
1933 was quite a year for Joe Cronin. Not only did he earn his first All-Star, but he was also named the manager of the Washington Senators after legendary pitcher/manager Walter Johnson was fired. Serving the dual roles of shortstop and manager is never easy, yet Cronin was blessed with perfect timing.
In his first year fully in charge, Cronin's Senators won 99 games and the AL on their way to the World Series where they would lose to the New York Giants in five games. In 22 plate appearances, Joe Cronin managed to score once, hit seven pitches and drive in two runs with a .318 batting average. Having come so close to winning it all, Joe Cronin would spend the rest of his career striving to return to the Fall Classic.
Boston
Before the 1934 season began, Boston Red Sox owner Tom Yawkey offered $250,000 and Lyn Lary for Joe Cronin's services. At the height of the Great Depression, this was an absurd offer that the Senators couldn't refuse. However, the Red Sox were one of the few teams that could afford it as Yawkey was willing to spend what ever it took to bring Boston another title. As a result of his lavish contracts, the red Sox were dubbed "the Gold Sox" and "the Millionares".
But big spending can only take a team so far. Having finished just above .500 in 1935, things looked promising for the 1936 Red Sox as they had recently acquired the Philadelphia A's Jimmie Foxx. Unfortunately, Joe Cronin broke a thumb and was only able to contribute in half of the season as his Red sox fell from fourth to sixth place.
As t he years went on, Joe Cronin realized that having access to so much money wasn't always a luxury. Lefty Grove regularly hunted and drank with Yawkey while getting away with openly criticizing Cronin to the press. Grove and Ted Williams were just the headliners as Yawkey routinely payed top dollar for top notch players with lousy attitudes. This effectively sank the Red Sox before they could even begin to swim.
During this time of growth, Joe Cronin continued to shine on the field, leading the league with 51 doubles in 1938 and being invited to four more All-Star Games from 1937-1941. Meanwhile, the Red Sox continued to grow, finishing second in the AL behind the hated Yankees in 1941 and 1942. Then World War II took full effect on the national pastime. For two years, the Red Sox toiled in mediocrity while Ted Williams and several of his teammates joined the war effort.
Late in their wait for their stars, Joe Cronin broke his leg against New York and retired as a player after the 1945 season. He would remain in the dugout as Boston's manager.
By 1946, Ted Williams returned from the war and was ready to get back to playing baseball. The Red Sos went 104-50-2 that year, good enough for first place in the AL and the right to play the Cardinals in the World Series. After an eventful first six games, it all came down to Game 7.
Boston scored first and tied the Cardinals in the eighth off of Dom DiMaggio's double. Enos Slaughter put the dagger in Boston's heart in the latter half of the inning by eschewing his third base coach's suggestion that he stop at second, rounded third and rumbled home to give the Cardinals a 4-3 victory over the beleaguered Rox.
Two years later, Joe Cronin stepped down as Boston's manager and stepped into the Red Sox front office.
Later Years
Joe Cronin's years as the Red Sox general manager were rough as the team sank from contender to middle of the pack. He only hurt the franchise by not helping the majors break the color barrier. He had a chance at Jackie Robinson back when he was a manager in 1945, but let him slip through his fingers. By the time Cronin left to become the president of the American League, every other team in the major leagues had broken the color barrier.
Cronin became the last former player to serve as league president and the newly minted Baseball Hall of Famer (class of 1956) oversaw major changes in t he American League. His lasting legacy was overseeing the league's expansion from eight to 12 teams with four teams finding new homes elsewhere, further expanding baseball's hold on America. He retired in 1973, the same year that the designated hitter was introduced. While he never supported the new rule, Joe Cronin reneged and helped write it.
Remembering his time in California, he was inducted into the Bay Area Sports Hall of Fame in 1982. Arguably a much bigger honor waited as Joe Cronin's jersey number was retired by the Red Sox on the same night as Ted Williams on May 29, 1984. At that point of time, Cronin was dying of cancer and the event had to be rushed so that he could be apart of the honor of a lifetime. Overcome with cancer, all he could do was wave to the crowd from his suite. He died on September 7, 1984.
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