Crowe's most important contribution was not his statistical production, but his self-assumed role as mentor to young players in general and young African-American players in the 1950s and early 1960s.
In an interview with the author Robert H. Boyle for the 1963 book Sport, Mirror of American Life, Vada Pinson, the former Cincinnati center fielder, said that Crowe had taken him under his wing.
"He came up to me and said, `If there are any problems, you come to me,'" Pinson recalled. "He was the big daddy. When I see him now, I call him Dad. We look up to him."
Not surprisingly, Crowe says he thinks many of today's wealthy young athletes, possessing no sense of mission and facing fewer barriers, have lost their way.
"I am amazed at these players," he said. "At the lack of self-control they have. They act like little kids. They're out here making a million dollars with their skills, and they fly off the handle."
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