Arthur F. Croft (January 23, 1855 – March 16, 1884) was an American

Major League Baseball Major League Baseball (MLB) is a professional baseball league composed of 30 teams, divided equally between the National League (baseball), National League (NL) and the American League (AL), with 29 in the United States and 1 in Canada. MLB i ...

player. He played for three teams during three-year professional and Major League career.

Career

Born in

St. Louis, Missouri St. Louis ( , sometimes referred to as St. Louis City, Saint Louis or STL) is an Independent city (United States), independent city in the U.S. state of Missouri. It lies near the confluence of the Mississippi River, Mississippi and the Miss ...

, Croft began his professional career in when he joined the St. Louis Red Stockings of the National Association. He

played Played may refer to: * ''Played'' (album), a 1987 album * ''Played'' (film), a 2006 film * ''Played'' (TV series), a 2013 TV series See also * Plaid (disambiguation) * Play (disambiguation) * Player (disambiguation) Player may refer to: ...

in 19 games that season, all of which he played in the

outfield The outfield, in cricket, baseball and softball is the area of the field of play further from the batsman or batter than the infield. In association football, the outfield players are positioned outside the goal area. In bat and ball games ...

, and batted .200 in 75

at bat In baseball, an at bat (AB) or time at bat is a batter's turn batting against a pitcher. An at bat is different from a plate appearance. A batter is credited with a plate appearance regardless of what happens upon completion of his turn at bat, ...

s. His next season, in , when he joined the St. Louis Brown Stockings of the

National League National League often refers to: *National League (baseball), one of the two baseball leagues constituting Major League Baseball in the United States and Canada *National League (division), the fifth division of the English football (soccer) system ...

, and played in 54 of the team's 60 games. He split his playing time between

first base A first baseman, abbreviated 1B, is the player on a baseball or softball team who fields the area nearest first base, the first of four bases a baserunner must touch in succession to score a run. The first baseman is responsible for the majori ...

and

left field In baseball, a left fielder, abbreviated LF, is an outfielder who plays defense in left field. Left field is the area of the outfield to the left of a person standing at home plate and facing towards the pitcher's mound. In the numbering syst ...

, and hit a career high .232, while scoring 23 runs, and had 27

RBIs A run batted in or runs batted in (RBI) is a statistic in baseball and softball that credits a batter for making a play that allows a run to be scored (except in certain situations such as when an error is made on the play). For example, if th ...

. The following season, , Croft joined the

Indianapolis Blues The Indianapolis Blues were a baseball team in the National League for one season (1878), in which they finished fifth in the six-team league with a 24–36 record. They were managed by outfielder/first baseman/catcher John Clapp, and played t ...

, also of the National League, his last season in the Major Leagues. He played in all 60 of the team's games as the starting first baseman. He batted .158 in 222 at bats, and scored 22 runs. Croft finished his three-year career with a .195 batting average in 139 games, scored 50 runs, 45 RBIs, and hit 14 doubles. He died in St. Louis on March 16, 1884 at the age of 29 of Typhoid Pneumonia, and is interred at Calvary Cemetery in St. Louis.

References

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{{DEFAULTSORT:Croft, Art 1855 births 1884 deaths 19th-century baseball players 19th-century American sportsmen Baseball players from St. Louis Major League Baseball first basemen Major League Baseball left fielders St. Louis Red Stockings players St. Louis Brown Stockings players Indianapolis Blues players Deaths from pneumonia in Missouri Davenport Brown Stockings players Burials at Calvary Cemetery (St. Louis)