1927

Bob Cremins  was born on February 15, 1906, in Pelham Manor, New York. He was a sickly kid, having pneumonia three times but eventually was made captain of the football and basketball teams at Pelham.

His athletic talents, which also included baseball and track, earned him a four-year scholarship to Hamilton College. He was never able to attend Hamilton, because his father needed him to help run the family business, a dress making supply company.

He was involved in the two most popular sports in America during the Twenties – boxing and baseball, and fought in the New York Golden Gloves getting third place in the middleweight division.

Bob learned how to pitch from the great Hall of Fame pitcher, ‘Iron Man’ Joe McGinnity. He put in the time it took to become good and when he was a senior, he pitched a no hitter for the high school team. He also played semipro ball for the Pelham Fire Department team, the New Rochelle A.C., and the Young Men’s Republican Club of White Plains.

Bob was signed directly to the Boston Red Sox. His parish priest knew the Red Sox manager,  Bill Carrigan, so in 1927, he got to pitch batting practice and impressed him. One day the Sox were playing the Yankees at Yankee Stadium and behind 13-1. Carrigan asked for a volunteer to go in and pitch. Bob had been pitching batting practice that day so he went down to the bullpen and got warmed up. He went in and Babe Ruth comes up. On Bob's second pitch, Ruth grounded out to first base. Then Lou Gehrig came up and hit a bullet to center field that went between the hands of the outfielder. Bob finally retired the side.

The only other game Bob ever pitched in the majors was against the Tigers at Fenway, in September. He was the fifth and final pitcher in the game, giving up one run on no hits and walked a man. His career ERA was 5.06 in 5 1/3 innings of work, without a decision. 

The Sox let his contract go after the 1927 season. He traveled to Bradenton, Florida and trained with the team in the spring of 1928 and started the season with them, but in April, was optioned to Waterbury’s Eastern League club. In June, he was released to Akron (Central League). He played for both Wilkes-Barre and Akron in 1928, and for the Springfield Ponies in the Eastern League in 1929. 

Bob spent the next 50 years of his life involved in politics and boxing. In the early 1940s he was the founder of the Pelham, New York Boys Club. He taught boxing for more than 45 years and was active with community Police Athletic League programs. He was elected to the Westchester Sports Hall of Fame.

At the age of 37 years he entered the US Army Air Force and  was commanding officer of P-440 Air Sea Rescue Vessel with the Fifth Air Force in the Philippines during World War II.

His work in Pelham included being a town supervisor and tax receiver, a position he held from first being elected in 1942 until 1964, elected eight times in all. He also served on the Westchester County Board of Supervisors, and was Town of Pelham Supervisor from 1965-69.

Somehow he also found time in 1950 to get into the schooner cruise business and had two 90-foot schooners, a business he ran for eight years 

Bob Cremins died in Pelham, New York, at the age of 98, on March 27, 2004. At the time of his death, he was the second-oldest surviving major league baseball player.