Warren Cromartie

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Warren Cromartie bigraphy, stories - American baseball player

Warren Cromartie : biography

September 29, 1953 –

Warren Livingston Cromartie (born September 29, 1953, in Miami Beach, Florida) is a retired American baseball player best remembered for his early career with the Montreal Expos. He and fellow young outfielders Ellis Valentine and Andre Dawson were the talk of Major League Baseball when they came up together with the Expos in the late seventies.

Nicknamed "Cro", he was incredibly popular with the fans in Montreal. When Standard Brands introduced the "Reggie Bar" in honor of Reggie Jackson’s heroics in the World Series, Cromartie joked in an interview that he wanted a candy bar named after him. Shortly afterwards, he got his wish; the CroBar (almonds in 100% chocolate) was a popular item sold at Olympic Stadium.

Kansas City Royals

Cromartie was invited to Spring training with the Kansas City Royals in , and earned a one year deal at the league minimum to serve as a left-handed bat off the bench. In limited duty, Cromartie batted .313 with one home run and twenty RBIs. He retired during the season with twenty games still remaining on the schedule.

Early years

Upon graduation from Miami Jackson High School, Cromartie was drafted by the Chicago White Sox in the seventh round of the 1971 Major League Baseball Draft, but opted to attend Miami Dade College instead. After the Minnesota Twins drafted him in the third round of the January secondary draft, he became a first round selection for the San Diego Padres in the June secondary draft and the Oakland Athletics in the January secondary draft, but did not sign with either club. Finally, when the Expos selected him in the first round of the June 1973 secondary draft, he signed.

Cromartie batted .336 with thirteen home runs, 61 runs batted in and thirty stolen bases in his first professional season () with the Quebec Carnavals. This performance earned him a September call-up to the major leagues all the way from double A. He went three-for-seventeen with three walks during his short stint with the Expos.

He went into Spring training competing for the open right field job, but was sent to "Expoville," the Expos’ minor league complex in Daytona, for reassignment to the triple A Memphis Blues in late March. After a disappointing 1975 season in Memphis, he rebounded nicely in to bat .337 for the American Association’s Denver Bears, and receive a call up to the Expos in mid-August. He spent the rest of the season pretty much platooning with Ellis Valentine in right field, batting .210 with two RBIs.

Leroy Cromartie

Cromartie was the only child of Leroy and Marjorie Cromartie. Leroy played quarterback at Florida A&M College, and led his team to Southern Intercollegiate Athletic Conference championships in 1944 and 1945. Having also played basketball and baseball in high school, he left FAMC to play semi-pro baseball with the Miami Giants, which led to a brief stint as a second baseman with the Cincinnati and Indianapolis Clowns of the Negro Leagues. After which, Leroy returned to FAMC, and led the Rattlers to another SIAC championship in 1947 and a national championship in 1950.

Broadcasting

Right as his only season in Kansas City was set to start, his autobiography (co-written with Robert Whiting) detailing his playing days in Japan, Slugging It Out in Japan: An American Major-Leaguer in the Tokyo Outfield, hit bookstores.

Cromartie began doing Florida Marlins pre-game shows for WQAM radio in , and remained a broadcaster with the Marlins in one form or another through . He served as the television color commentator for the Montreal Expos in the team’s final year of existence (). He currently hosts a radio show on WAXY 790 AM in Miami, Florida. "Talking Hardball with The Cro" currently airs on Saturday during baseball season. He has his own segment on the TSN 690 in Montreal, and regularly airs at 4:00 PM Eastern on weekdays with Mitch Melnick.

In , 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.