Baseball shoes worn by Jimmie Crutchfield
date: label: date made
content: 1941 - 1950
label: date made
content: ca 1941
name: label: user
content: Crutchfield, Jimmie
notes: label: Description
content: At five foot seven Jimmie Crutchfield may not have been as tall as teammates James “Cool Papa” Bell or Josh Gibson, but the man Bell called “the best team player in baseball” made a huge impact on the baseball diamond. A speedster, defensive wizard and four-time All-Star, Crutchfield starred for several Negro League clubs during the 1930s and 1940s, most notably the Pittsburgh Crawfords, considered by many to be black baseball’s greatest team.
label: Description
content: Crutchfield wore these shoes in the early 1940s, a period when he manned the outfield for the Chicago Americans, and briefly, the Cleveland Buckeyes. During this period, he also served in the Second World War, attaining the rank of staff Sergeant in the US Army. He retired from baseball in the mid-1940s, remaining in Chicago to become a postal worker and banker. Crutchfield passed away in 1993, with his originally unmarked grave being given a formal tombstone by members of the Society for American Baseball Research in 2003.
label: Description
content: The Negro Leagues developed in response to Major League Baseball’s exclusion of African Americans, a practice held from the late 19th century until 1947, when former Negro Leaguer Jackie Robinson took first base for the Brooklyn Dodgers opening day. While independent teams comprised of black players had competed since baseball’s origins, the organized Negro Leagues primarily existed from 1920 and lasted until 1955. Today, Major League Baseball includes statistics from the seven main Negro Leagues in their official records.
topic: label: name of sport
content: Baseball
label: level of sport
content: negro leagues
label: level of sport
content: Professional
label: web subject
content: African American
label: web subject
content: Sports
setName: label: See more items in
content: Culture and the Arts: Sport and Leisure
label: See more items in
content: Many Voices, One Nation
label: Exhibition
content: Many Voices, One Nation
label: Exhibition Location
content: National Museum of American History
creditLine: label: Credit Line
content: Jimmie Crutchfield
dataSource: label: Data Source
content: National Museum of American History
identifier: label: ID Number
content: 1981.0129.01
label: accession number
content: 1981.0129
label: catalog number
content: 1981.0129.01
objectType: label: Object Name
content: shoes, baseball
physicalDescription: label: Physical Description
content: leather (overall material)
label: Physical Description
content: metal (overall material)
label: Measurements
content: overall: 4 in x 11 in; 10.16 cm x 27.94 cm