Warren Cromartie

Warren Cromartie
Outfielder/First baseman
Born: September 29, 1953 (1953-09-29) Miami Beach, Florida
Batted: Left	Threw: Left
Professional debut
MLB: September 6, 1974 for the Montreal Expos
NPB: 1984 for the Yomiuri Giants
Last professional appearance
NPB: 1990 for the Yomiuri Giants
MLB: September 15, 1991 for the Kansas City Royals
statistics
AVG	.281
Hits	1,104
Runs	459
Teams
Montreal Expos (1974–1983) Yomiuri Giants (1984–1990) (NPB) Kansas City Royals (1991)
Career highlights and awards
Led NL in Intentional Walks (24) in 1980 1989 Central League MVP

Warren Livingston Cromartie (born September 29, 1953, in Miami Beach, Florida) is a retired American baseball player.

Baseball career

Warren Cromartie debuted with the Montreal Expos of the Major Leagues on September 6, 1974 after being picked 6th in the 1973 amateur draft. Expectations were high for the outfielder, but he was, in his own words, "a .300 hitter on a team of superstars." On December 28, 1983, the then-30-year old Cromartie signed with the Yomiuri Giants of Tokyo, Japan. Cromartie was perhaps the most prominent American player still in his prime to sign with a Japanese baseball team. Cromartie spent seven seasons with the Giants. In 1989, he had a .378 batting average with 15 home runs and 78 RBIs and was named MVP of the Central League. In 1991, he returned to Major League Baseball, playing with the Kansas City Royals where he hit .313 in limited action. Cromartie was the manager of the Japan Samurai Bears, an all-Japanese team in the independent U.S. Golden Baseball League which existed for one season.

Popular culture

During Cromartie's time with the Yomiuri Giants, the manager was legendary Japanese slugger Sadaharu Oh. Oh had such an influence on Cromartie that he named his third child, a son born in Japan, Cody Oh Cromartie [1].

In 2005, Cromartie sued the makers of a film based on the manga/anime series Cromartie High School in Japanese court. The series does not feature Cromartie himself but does depict students who "smoke, fight with students from other schools and are depicted as ruffians" which he says defames his character as the school shares his name [2].

A reference to a Warren Cromartie Secondary School appears in the cover art for Rush's 1982 album Signals.

Bibliography

• Cromartie, Warren and Whiting, Robert. Slugging It Out in Japan: An American Major-Leaguer in the Tokyo Outfield, Kodansha, 1991.

Broadcasting

• Currently hosts a radio show on WAXY 790 AM in Miami, Florida. "Talking Hardball with The Cro" currently airs on Saturday during baseball season. Cromartie's previous broadcasting experience includes one year (2004) as the television color commentator for the Montreal Expos.
• Has his own segment on the Team 990 in Montreal. He regularly airs at 4:00 PM Eastern on weekdays with Mitch Melnick.

Filmography

• Season of the Samurai (2006) (himself)

Trivia

• Nicknamed "Cro."

• He mentioned once in an interview that he wanted a candy bar named after him. Shortly afterwards, he got his wish; the Cro-bar was a popular item sold at the Olympic Stadium.

• The fictional "Warren Cromartie Secondary School" is part of an equally fictional subdivision plat that serves as the back cover for the Rush album Signals.

External links

• Career statistics and player information from Baseball-Reference
• Baseballlibrary.com
• IMDB Reference
• HUSTLE homepage Japanese

Awards
Preceded by Genji Kaku	Central League MVP 1989	Succeeded by Masaki Saito