Doug Crothers

Douglass Crothers

• Bats Right, Throws Right
• Height 5' 9", Weight 140 lb.

• Debut August 3, 1884
• Final Game September 3, 1885
• Born November 16, 1859 in Natchez, MS USA
• Died March 29, 1907 in St. Louis, MO USA

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Biographical Information

"You see, I was willing to be on the same nine with Higgins, to be civil to him and to help him. But I couldn't appear in the same group with him." - Doug Crothers, about being willing to play on the same team with a black player but not appear in the same photograph, quoted in the book Jim Crow at Play

"Doug Crothers' days as a pitcher have faded and gone, and to the cause of a suffering public he should be relegated to some secluded hospital for wrecks, for he has lately made himself the most piteous spectacle that could be imagined in the box. In the game with Dallas on the third Doug was in the box; he was hit with such frequency that it grew irritating, and the longer he was in the box the longer the hits grew, until Doug, wrought up to such a pitch of vexation upon a trivial cause, forfeited the game to Houston by 9 to 0 by taking his men off the field." - Sporting Life's Houston correspondent, June 12, 1889

Doug Crothers was the first major leaguer born in Mississippi, coming up 12 years earlier than the next one, Sport McAllister (Frank Hoffman has since been discovered to be the second Mississippi-born player, with McAllister the third). He played 22 games in the bigs: four with the Kansas City Cowboys in 1884 and 18 with the New York Metropolitans in 1885. In 21 starts, all complete games, he was 8-13, 4.63 with a shutout.

In 1886, he was the star pitcher for minor league Syracuse, going 27-16. There was an incident in 1887 when Crothers refused to appear in a photograph with a black player, Robert Higgins. Manager Joe Simmons suspended Crothers who then punched Simmons. In 1888, Crothers was no longer on the Syracuse team, while Higgins went 17-7. In 1889, he was 18-11 for Dallas. He managed the Evansville Hoosiers and Dallas Tigers in 1889. In 1890, he was working in a tax collector's office, earning $125/month.

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