Ray Crone

Raymond Hayes Crone

• Bats Right, Throws Right
• Height 6' 2", Weight 185 lb.
• High School Christian Brothers High School
• Debut April 13, 1954
• Final Game July 14, 1958
• Born August 7, 1931 in Memphis, TN USA

BR page

Biographical Information

Pitcher Ray Crone signed as an amateur free agent with the Boston Braves in 1949. He was assigned to the Class D Owensboro Oilers of the Kitty League, finishing 9-3 with a 2.93 ERA. The following season, with the Class B Evansville Braves, he went 11-9 with a 3.62 ERA. After a solid year in 1953, with the Class A Jacksonville Braves, where he tied for the league lead in wins with 19, pitched 253 innings and had a 2.38 ERA, the now Milwaukee Braves gave him a look in 1954. Ray got into 19 games, going 1-0 in 49 innings with a 2.02 ERA. Of all the pitchers on the team that season, he had the second-lowest ERA (trailing only Charlie Gorin's 1.86). He was also with the AAA Toledo Mud Hens that year, going 7-3 with a 3.00 ERA.

Crone was with the Braves for all of 1955, going 10-9 with a 3.46 ERA while pitching 140 innings. He was back in 1956, finishing 11-10 in 170 innings with a 3.87 ERA. The following year, [[1957 Braves|1957], he went 3-1 with a 4.46 ERA. On June 15th, he was traded to the New York Giants, along with Danny O'Connell and Bobby Thomson, for Red Schoendienst. The trade cost him a chance to play in the World Series, as the Braves won the pennant after his departure. Crone finished the 1957 season with the Giants, going 4-8 in 25 games, pitching 121 innings with a 4.33 ERA. In 1958, Ray went 1-2 in 14 outings with a 6.75 ERA for the now San Francisco Giants. He finished the year with the AAA Toronto Maple Leafs (to whom he had been traded on July 15th in return for Don Johnson), where he went 0-2 in 7 outings. Crone finished his big league time 30-30, 3.87 in 543 innings.

Only 27, Ray stuck with the game for three more seasons, all in the high minors, finishing his career in 1961 with the Jacksonville Jets of the Class A South Atlantic League. In the minors, he was 90-77, 3.21 in 1,336 innings (234 games). A resident of Waxahachie, TX, he was a scout in Texas and Oklahoma for the Baltimore Orioles for 20 years and, as of 2017, was still a scout for the Arizona Diamondbacks. He is responsible for the signings of Don Welchel and Paxton Crawford, among others.

Crone's son, Ray Jr., spent two years in the minors, then scouted for the California Angels, Boston Red Sox, and Detroit Tigers.

Sources

Baseball-Reference.com
Baseball Players of the 1950s
SABR MILB Database:page

Further Reading

• Gregory H. Wolf: "Ray Crone", in Gregory H. Wolf, ed.: Thar's Joy in Braveland: The 1957 Milwaukee Braves, SABR, Phoenix, AZ, 2014, pp. 67-72. ISBN 978-1933599717

Related Sites

• Ray Crone at the SABR Bio Project