Del Crandall
Height, Weight, Size, Body Measurements, Biography, Wiki, Age

As manager

Delmar Wesley Crandall (born March 5, 1930) is an American former professional baseball player and manager. He was born in Ontario, California. He played as a catcher in Major League Baseball and played most of his career with the Boston & Milwaukee Braves. He led the league in assists a record-tying six times, in fielding percentage four times and in putouts three times.

Crandall was signed as an amateur free agent by the Braves in 1948. He was 19 when he first played in a major league game with the 1949 Boston Braves. He appeared in 146 games for Boston in 1949-1950 before entering military service during the Korean War. When his two-year hitch was over in March 1953, the Braves departed Boston for Milwaukee, where – benefiting from an offense featuring Hank Aaron, Eddie Mathews and Joe Adcock. Crandall seized the regular catcher's job from Walker Cooper in 1953 and held it for eight years, handling Braves pitchers such as left-hander Warren Spahn and right-handers Lew Burdette and Bob Buhl. Between 1953 and 1959, the Braves' pitching staff finished either first or second in the National League in team earned run average every year except 1955. Burdette credited Crandall for some of his success saying, "I never- well hardly ever- have to shake him off. He knows the job like no one else, and you can have faith in his judgment". On September 11, 1955, with the Braves trailing the Philadelphia Phillies 4-1 with two outs and a 3-2 count in the ninth inning, Crandall hit a grand slam home run to win the game. The Braves won National League pennants in 1957 and 1958, also finishing in second place five times between 1953 and 1960, and captured the 1957 World Series championship – the franchise's first title since 1914. Although he batted .211 in the 1957 Series against the New York Yankees, Crandall had a solo home run for the Braves' last tally in a 5-0 win in the deciding Game 7.