Famed Pelham Athlete Bob Cremins Made the Boston Red Sox Team in 1927

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He knew he was ready.  He looked sharp that evening during the twilight baseball game at City Park in New Rochelle.  He was Bob Cremins, famed local athlete and talented pitcher for the Pelham Firemen baseball team.  That evening he faced the New Rochelle Elks and held them to five hits and a single run in a strong 7 to 1 victory for the Pelham Firemen.  Yes, he was ready.

After the victory, Cremins packed his bags.  The next morning, he departed for Boston.  He knew he was good enough to make the Boston Red Sox.  It was time to try out for the team and show Pelham -- and the world -- he was good enough. 

Local baseball was a big deal in Pelham during the Roaring Twenties.  Bob Cremins, an exceptional multi-sport local athlete, was a big deal in local baseball.  Born in Pelham Manor on February 15, 1906, Cremins batted left and threw as a lefty.  He was 5 feet 11 inches tall and reportedly weighed 178 pounds when he tried out for the Boston Red Sox during the 1927.

Robert Anthony "Bob" Cremins, who lived virtually his entire life in Pelham, was a four-letter athlete in high school.  He attended the Grand Central Art School and became a cartoonist for the Philadelphia Evening Bulletin.  He was elected Town of Pelham Receiver of Taxes in 1932 and held that position for 32 years until 1964.  In 1964 he was elected Pelham Town Supervisor and served on the Westchester County Board of Supervisors.  He managed a boxing gym and a schooner sailing business on Long Island Sound.  He died on March 27, 2004 at the age of 98 and was buried on Tuesday, March 30, 2004 following a funeral at St. Catharine's in the Village of Pelham.  

It turned out that when he departed for Boston on that fateful day in 1927, Bob Cremins was indeed ready for the Big Show.  Though the Boston Red Sox team that year has since been described as "talent starved," Bob Cremins made the team as a relief pitcher.  As the New York Daily News noted in his obituary published March 31, 2004, the first batter he reportedly faced in the majors was no other than Babe Ruth of the New York Yankees.  Cremins forced him to ground out to the first baseman.  During his stint in the Majors, he was known as "Crooked Arm Cremins."

In a superb article about Cremins by Bill Nowlin published by the Society For American Baseball Research, Nowlin quotes Cremins from an interview regarding how he made it the Majors:

"Our parish priest knew the Boston Red Sox manager, Bill Carrigan, so in 1927 he told me to go see him and ask him for a job. So, I took the train to Yankee Stadium where the Red Sox were playing that week, but I lost my nerve and I came home.

When I confessed my fear to my brother he said, 'You go back tomorrow. Don’t come home until you get the tryout, or I’ll beat you up!'

The next day I went back down and I met the manager [Bill] Carrigan as he was going in to the stadium. I asked him for a tryout and he said, 'No way.' And I said 'Look, my parish priest sent me down here to talk to you. You know him. He said you would give me a tryout.'

He finally gave in and said, 'Do you have your uniform? Go put it on.' Since I had my baseball uniform from the fire department team in Pelham, I was ready to go. 'I pitched batting practice that day and I must have impressed them because after batting practice they said that they would sign me up after they got back to Boston. I was so excited, but I didn’t drink to celebrate that night. I have never smoked and I only took five cups of coffee in my whole life. I went to Boston and they signed me up right off the bus and I pitched batting practice every day.

Then one day we were playing the Yankees and we were behind 13-1. Carrigan asked for a volunteer to go in and pitch and I said, 'I do.'

He said, 'Warm up because I’m going to put you in.' 

'I had been pitching batting practice that day so I went down to the bullpen and tried to get myself warmed up. So I went in at the eighth inning and who comes up [in the ninth] but Babe Ruth.

Our catcher signaled for a fastball and my first pitch was low. The catcher came out and said, 'God damn it, Cremins, I signaled for a fast ball!'

I said, 'I’m throwing it as hard as I can.'

I don’t remember what I threw next, but I know I was just trying to reach the plate. The second pitch Ruth grounded out to first base.

Then Gehrig came up. He hit a bullet to center field and it went between the hands of the outfielder and they gave Gehrig a two-base hit, but it was really an error.

I finally retired the side and the next day a sports writer wrote, 'The thing you can say about Cremins is that he is the only one to get the Yankees out.'

Source:   Nowlin, Bill, Bob Cremins, Society For American Baseball Research SABR.org (visited Jan. 27, 2018).

Bob Cremins had a rather brief career in the majors.  His Major League debut was August 17, 1927.  He faced only 24 batters in the Majors before he injured his arm and quit the Red Sox in 1928.  His baseball career has been described thusly:

"In four relief appearances, Cremins posted a 5.04 earned run average without a decision in 5 1/3 innings pitched.  According to Baseball Almanac, Cremins faced Babe Ruth once and retired him on a grounder to first base.  His career ended in 1928 due to an arm injury."

Source:  "Bob Cremins" in Wikipedia -- The Free Encyclopedia (visited Jan. 27, 2018). 

 

"BOB CREMINS  Pitcher of the Pelham Firemen's Team who left

Pelham on Tuesday for Boston to join the squad of the Boston Red

Sox.  Source:   Cremins and Lohman Leave Firemen For Higher Circuit

-- Bob Cremins Goes to Boston For Tryout With Red Sox and Ed.

Lohman Leaves For Buffalo to Join Havana Cubans, The Pelham

Sun, Jul. 29, 1927, Vol. 18, No. 23, p. 12, col. 3.  NOTE:  Click on

Image to Enlarge.

 

Detail from Photograph of Bob Cremins Available Via SABR.org.

NOTE:  Click on Image to Enlarge.

*          *          *          *          *

"Cremins and Lohman Leave Firemen For Higher Circuits
-----
Bob Cremins Goes to Boston For Tryout With Red Sox and Ed. Lohman Leaves For Buffalo to Join Havana Cubans
-----

Following the twilight game against the New Rochelle Elks at City Park, Monday evening, which he won 7-1, allowing the antlered tribe but 5 hits, Bob Cremins packed up bag and baggage and departed for Boston where he will make an attempt to break into the big league circles with the Boston Red Sox.  Always a favorite with the baseball fans of Pelham, more so since he has aided the firemen nine to a number of victories, Bob has the well wishing of all the sport fans of Pelham in his latest venture.

'Cannonball' Ed Lohman also has left the fold of Broege, Zernoski and Company, to travel in faster company, that of the Havana Cubans.  Lohman left Sunday night for Buffalo where he will join the Cubans who are a touring nine playing all over the country."

Source:   Cremins and Lohman Leave Firemen For Higher Circuits -- Bob Cremins Goes to Boston For Tryout With Red Sox and Ed. Lohman Leaves For Buffalo to Join Havana Cubans, The Pelham Sun, Jul. 29, 1927, Vol. 18, No. 23, p. 12, col. 3.

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The Earliest Days of Radio in the Town of Pelham

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With the rise of the Internet and the Web, few seem to give the medium of open-air broadcast radio a second thought today.  The broadcasts of radio stations located around the world are available via live streams with the click of a mouse or the swipe of a finger via computers and mobile devices.  Digital satellite radio streams devoted to hundreds of niche music genres and subject matter interests are directed to digital receivers in vehicles, businesses, and residences.  

There was a time, however, when broadcast radio was the latest technology fad -- an expensive entertainment alternative that graced few homes in Pelham. I have written before of the rise of the medium of radio in the Town of Pelham.  See Wed., Jan. 22, 2014:  Pelham Becomes Enthralled with the New-Fangled Entertainment Medium of Radio.

Today's Historic Pelham Blog posting hearkens back to a simpler time when broadcast radio was still an unproved medium.  In 1922 and 1923, virtually no one in Pelham owned a radio.  Few commercial broadcast radio stations existed.  Those that existed broadcast signals that were so weak that they were hard to receive in many areas, including Pelham.  That did not stop the local newspaper, The Pelham Sun, from jumping onto the radio bandwagon quite early.  

In 1922, The Pelham Sun installed a radio receiver in its office on Wolfs Lane and connected it to a loudspeaker to broadcast the announcement of the baseball World Series.  In that series, the New York Giants (whose manager, John McGraw, lived on Edgewood Avenue in Pelham Manor) beat the New York Yankees in five games:  four games to none with one tie.  The following year, The Pelham Sun worked with a local electrical supply company and installed a radio receiver again on September 14, 1923.  Pelhamites gathered at the newspaper's office to listen to the announcement of an historic heavyweight title boxing match between Jack Dempsey and Latin American fighter Luis Ángel Firpo.  

Eighty thousand boxing fans paid to see the fight live at the Polo Grounds in New York City only a short distance away from Pelham.  A large crowd also gathered inside and outside the offices of The Pelham Sun on Wolfs Lane.  The crowd was so large that it spilled into the street.  The fight was not broadcast live.  Its results were announced via broadcast radio.  Yet, the crowd greeted the broadcast announcements "with wild acclaim."

The fight is considered one of Jack Dempsey's "defining fights."  He had held the heavyweight title since 1919, but was fighting the man known as "El Toro de las Pampas" ("The Bull of the Pampas").  At the beginning of the first round, Firpo dropped Dempsey with a right.  Dempsey dropped to one knee but stood immediately to return to the battle.  Firpo knocked Dempsey out of the ring late in the first round and Dempsey suffered a severe cut on the back of his head.  Some believe the count was a slow count that allowed Dempsey to return to the ring with assistance that some claimed was illegal and should have led to a declaration of a knockout by Firpo.  There is a famous photograph as well as a well-known painting of the moment Firpo knocked Dempsey out of the ring (see below).  

 "Dempsey and Firpo," Oil on Canvas 

Painted June 1924 by George Bellows.

Source:  Wikimedia Commons.

"Argentinian Boxer Luis Ángel Firpo throwing 

Jack Dempsey out the ring. September 14, 1923"

Source:  Wikimedia Commons.

Transcribed immediately below is a brief article that appeared on the front page of The Pelham Sun a week later on September 21, 1923, describing the radio event hosted at the newspaper's offices the previous Friday.  

"Fight Returns By Radio Brought Big Crowd to Sun Office
-----
Loud Cheering Followed Announcement of Dempsey's Victory -- Much Excitement
-----

Pelham boxing fans came out in swarms last Friday night to listen to the radio service installed at the Sun office.  They filled the office and overflowed into the street.  The radio set installed by the courtesy of Mandel Osserman of the O.K. Auto and Electrical Supply Co. gave the result of the big bout clearly and distinctly and the news of Dempsey's vicotry was greeted with wild acclaim.

A special loud speaker will be installed in the Sun office for the announcement of the World Series, the same as was done last year.  The Sun came in for many compliments for its enterprise in relaying the news of the championship battle last Friday night."

Source:  Fight Returns By Radio Brought Big Crowd to Sun Office, The Pelham Sun, Sep. 21, 1923, p. 1, col. 6.  

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