Player #129C: Alvin F. "General" Crowder. Pitcher for the Washington Senators in 1926-1927 and 1930-1934. 167 wins and 22 saves in 11 MLB seasons. 1933 All-Star. 1935 World Series champion. 1932 and 1933 AL wins leader. His nickname came from General Enoch Crowder, who designed the World War I draft lottery in the United States. His best season was 1932 for Washington as he posted a 26-13 record and a 3.33 ERA in 327 innings pitched. He was known as "Yankee Killer", for his success against the Yankees and Babe Ruth in particular. He finished his career with the Detroit Tigers in 1934-1936, including a complete-game, 2-1 victory in Game 4 as the Tigers won the World Series in 1935. He pitched in three consecutive World Series in 1933-1935.
General Crowder was a durable right-handed pitcher who won more games (124) than any big-league pitcher other than the immortal Lefty Grove in a six-year span from 1928 to 1933. A three-time 20-game winner, Crowder led the American League in victories in 1932 and 1933 as a member of the Washington Senators. “If you’d let him,” said Walter Johnson, who managed Crowder with the Senators, “he’d pitch every day. His arm is made of rubber, and he doesn’t know the meaning of fatigue.” After leading Washington to the World Series in 1933, Crowder appeared washed up in 1934, but a late-season waiver transaction took him to Detroit, where he briefly revived his career. Playing in his third consecutive World Series in 1935, Crowder notched his only postseason victory, a five-hitter over the Chicago Cubs in Game Four, to help the Tigers capture their first World Series championship. . . .
. . . (After enlisting in 1919, hoping to travel the world,) Crowder was stationed in the Russian seaport of Vladivostok and Lake Baikal in Siberia. When his division was transferred to the Philippines in 1920, he reluctantly volunteered for the baseball team in order to avoid the menial, mundane tasks of an enlisted soldier. The team recognized that the hesitant ballplayer had a strong arm. They asked him to pitch, and his new career was born. . . .
. . . (In 1926, after being acquired from Birmingham,) Crowder reported to the reigning American League pennant winners in mid-July with the (Washington) team fighting to remain above .500. At 5-feet-10 and about 170 pounds, Crowder did not possess an intimidating presence on the mound (though his tattoo of a naked woman draped over his shoulders and arms was often described as risqué). . . .
. . . (After struggling in Washington and after a mid-1927 trade to St. Louis,) In his first full season with the Browns (1928), Crowder unexpectedly transformed from a reliever assigned to mop-up duty to the hottest and one of the best starters in the American League. . . . En route to walking just 91 batters in 244 innings, Crowder concluded the 1928 season by winning 10 of 11 decisions, including his last eight in a row, and finished his “sensational” campaign with 21 wins against just five losses for a league-leading .808 winning percentage. The Sporting News described Crowder and right-handed teammate Sam Gray, himself a 20-game winner acquired from the Philadelphia Athletics in the offseason, as the “greatest pair of ‘discard’ pitchers” in baseball as they led the Browns to a surprising third-place finish.
. . . Crowder and (Sam) Gray were the Browns’ workhorses for a second consecutive season in 1929. Crowder pitched better than his 17-15 record suggested. In ten of his losses, the Browns scored three runs or fewer (a total of 22 runs). The General pitched his best during the last two months of the season, completing 12 of his 14 starts (many on short rest) and logging 121 innings. In a six-week period, he tossed three complete-game victories over the eventual World Series champion Athletics (including a two- and a four-hitter) and shut out the second-place New York Yankees twice. The first shutout was a masterful two-hitter that took just 1:38 to play. Crowder amassed 266⅔ innings for the fourth-place Browns, completed 19 games for the second consecutive season, and led the junior circuit with four shutouts.
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