LAST BOSTON BRAVE DIES

Del Crandall, a star catcher who played on two Milwaukee Braves teams that reached the World Series in the 1950s before managing the Milwaukee Brewers and Seattle Mariners, has died. He was 91.

He had Parkinson’s disease and died Wednesday in Mission Viejo, California, surrounded by family, son Bill Crandall said.

“Dad was a humble man,” Bill Crandall said. “He was just a good man, a good example of what a man should be. He treated everybody fairly. He didn’t take his celebrity seriously at all.”

Crandall was one of the best defensive catchers in the 1950s and ‘60s. He was a member of the Braves’ 1957 World Series championship team as well as the 1958 squad that lost the World Series. He homered against the New York Yankees in each of those matchups.

According to the Society for American Baseball Research, Crandall was the last surviving member of the Boston Braves.