Shag Crawford

Who was Shag Crawford?

Henry Charles "Shag" Crawford was an American umpire in Major League Baseball who worked in the National League from 1956 to 1975. During his twenty seasons in the National League, Crawford worked more than 3,100 games and as a home plate umpire was notable for getting in a low crouch and resting his hands on the back of the catcher in front of him. Crawford wore number 2 after the National League adopted numbers for its umpires, which was then transferred to his son Jerry Crawford, who wore it from 1976 until his 2010 retirement.

Crawford was born in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. Growing up, he played baseball and football and was involved in boxing, and later played in the minor leagues as a catcher in the Philadelphia Phillies' system. He served in the United States Navy during World War II, and was on the destroyer Walke when its bridge was struck by a Japanese kamikaze on January 6, 1945 during the invasion of Luzon, in which commanding officer George Fleming Davis suffered fatal injuries and was awarded the Medal of Honor. Crawford became a minor league umpire in 1950, working for two months in the Canadian-American League before moving to the Eastern League from 1951 to 1953 and the American Association in from 1954 to 1955; his contract was purchased by the National League in November 1955.