  We report single crystal synthesis, specific heat and resistivity
measurements and electronic structure calculations for BaCr$_2$As$_2$. This
material is a metal with itinerant antiferromagnetism, similar to the parent
phases of Fe-based high temperature superconductors, but differs in magnetic
order. Comparison of bare band structure density of states and the low
temperature specific heat implies a mass renormalization of $\sim$ 2.
BaCr$_2$As$_2$ shows stronger transition metal - pnictogen covalency than the
Fe compounds, and in this respect is more similar to BaMn$_2$As$_2$. This
provides an explanation for the observation that Ni and Co doping is effective
in the Fe-based superconductors, but Cr or Mn doping is not.
