Hugh Melville Critz (September 17, 1900 – January 10, 1980) was an American second baseman in Major League Baseball for the Cincinnati Reds in the 1920s and the New York Giants in the 1930s.
Career overview
Critz was born in Starkville, Mississippi, the oldest of three children. He attended college in his home town at Mississippi State University, where his father, Professor Colonel Hugh Critz Sr., was a respected instructor and was appointed president of the university, then known as Mississippi A&M, in 1930.
Critz began playing in the Cotton States League. He was tall and weighed ; one New York writer described him as "one of the little fellers in baseball".
In May 1924, the second baseman of the Cincinnati Reds, Sam Bohne, was injured; the team reached out to the Minneapolis Millers and obtained Critz, then 23 years old, on May 29.