Player Defections
In 1937, Paige led several Crawfords players, including Gibson and Bell, to the Dominican Republic to play for the dictator Rafael Trujillo's team. The Crawfords plunged to fifth place out of six teams with a 12-16 record. They partly recovered the next season, finishing third with a 24-16 record, but, with the exception of the 41-year-old Charleston, whose playing career was nearly over, the heart of the old Crawfords' team—Paige, Gibson, Bell—had all moved on to other teams.
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Famous quotes containing the word player:
“If women were umpiring none of this [rowdyism] would happen. Do you suppose any ball player in the country would step up to a good-looking girl and say to her, “You color- blind, pickle-brained, cross-eyed idiot, if you don’t stop throwing the soup into me I’ll distribute your features all over you countenance!” Of course he wouldn’t.”
—Amanda Clement (1888–1971)