Warren Livingston Cromartie (born September 29, 1953) is an American former professional baseball player best remembered for his early career with the Montreal Expos.

He and fellow young outfielders Ellis Valentine and Andre Dawson were the talk of Major League Baseball (MLB) when they came up together with the Expos in the late seventies.

[2] Leroy played quarterback at Florida A&M College, and led his team to Southern Intercollegiate Athletic Conference championships in 1944 and 1945.

He went into Spring training 1975 competing for the open right field job, but was sent to "Expoville," the Expos' minor league complex in Daytona Beach, for reassignment to the triple A Memphis Blues in late March.

[4] After a disappointing 1975 season in Memphis, he rebounded nicely in 1976 to bat .337 for the American Association's Denver Bears, and receive a call up to the Expos in mid-August.

The Expos battled the Pirates and Philadelphia Phillies for first place in the National League East throughout the season, with their lead in the division peaking at 6.5 games on July 2.

Cromartie had played some first base in the minor leagues, and was shifted there for the 1980 season[9] after the Expos acquired outfielder Ron LeFlore from the Detroit Tigers at the Winter meetings.

[12] The Expos again found themselves in a pennant race in 1980 despite key injuries to LeFlore, Valentine, Larry Parrish and pitcher Bill Lee, among others (Cromartie was the only player on the team who managed to play a full 162 game schedule).

When Valentine was dealt to the New York Mets shortly before the players strike,[15] Cromartie shifted to right field with Willie Montañez assuming first base duties.

As a result of the players strike, the owners decided to split the 1981 season into two halves, with the first-place teams from each half in each division meeting in a best-of-five divisional playoff series (the first time that Major League Baseball used a split-season format since 1892).

Cromartie went two-for-four with an RBI double off Steve Carlton in the opening game of the 1981 National League Division Series to help bring his club to a 3–1 victory over the future Hall of Famer.

[19] From there, he brought his average up to a far more respectable .250 with decent power numbers (10 home runs, 49 RBIs); however, the Expos still elected to acquire right fielder Joel Youngblood from the New York Mets for a player to be named later on August 4.

The .192 batting average he put up in his first month with his new club, however, prompted manager Jim Fanning to give the job back to Cromartie full-time.

With the arrival of new manager Bill Virdon in 1983, Cromartie found himself in a battle with Terry Francona, who was coming back from a knee injury, for the right field job the following spring.

After receiving some interest from the San Francisco Giants, he instructed agent Cookie Lazarus to send out feelers in Japan.

The Central League suspended Cromartie for seven days and fined him $2143 for inciting a brawl with Masami Miyashita, a Chunichi Dragons pitcher who hit him in the back.

[27] He even intended to leave after that season after Oh was let go from his managerial position that year, but was convinced by second stint manager Motoshi Fujita to stay to help the Giants christen the then-newly constructed Tokyo Dome.

In 1989, Cromartie batted .378 with 15 home runs and 78 RBIs to be named MVP of the Central League, and lead his team to the Japan Series championship.

In the deciding game of the series with the Kintetsu Buffaloes, who had the Pacific League MVP, fellow foreigner Ralph Bryant, Cromartie doubled in the fourth inning to ignite a three-run rally and homered in the seventh.

Cromartie was invited to Spring training with the Kansas City Royals in 1991,[30] and earned a one-year deal at the league minimum to serve as a left-handed bat off the bench.

Danny Gold and Matthew Asner of Mod 3 Productions filmed a documentary of the club entitled Season of the Samurai.

[36] He, Andre Dawson and Cecil Fielder of the Detroit Tigers (whom Cromartie met while the two played in Japan) teamed up to form "Sports Dent" in 1993.

He and Ryoji Sai took on Tiger Jeet Singh and An Joenosuke in a tag team match at Tokyo's Saitama Arena.