Giants legend and long-time shortstop Brandon Crawford has announced his retirement in a post on his personal Instagram account Wednesday. The Giants announced, via Justice delos Santos of The Mercury News, that Crawford will be celebrated at the club’s upcoming game on April 26, when they will be hosting the Rangers, managed by Crawford’s former skipper Bruce Bochy.
“Growing up in the Bay Area and going to games at Candlestick,” Crawford says, “I always dreamed of playing for the San Francisco Giants. Being drafted by my hometown team and spending most of my career with them far surpassed any dream I had as a kid. I definitely pretended to win a World Series in my backyard — but winning two? That was beyond my wildest dreams.”
He goes on to express gratitude to that organization as well as the Cardinals, his family members, coaches, teammates, fans and many others who he crossed paths with.
As Crawford himself mentioned, he could hardly have asked for more of the platonic childhood baseball dream. In 2008, he was drafted by the club he grew up cheering for, with the Giants selecting him in the fourth round out of UCLA. In 2010, the Giants won the World Series, their first title since the club moved from New York to San Francisco. However, Crawford was still a minor leaguer at that time.
He was able to make his major league debut in late May 2011, and he did so in memorable fashion. In his first game in the show, he hit a grand slam in the seventh inning, his first major league hit. That gave the club a 5-3 lead over the Brewers and they held on to win 5-4. Despite that notable start, the first season wasn’t great overall. He hit just .204/.288/.296 and only got into 66 games. The Giants finished 86-76 and missed the playoffs.
In 2012, Crawford took a firmer hold of the shortstop job in San Francisco, getting into 143 games. His offense still wasn’t especially impressive but it was better than the year prior and his defense was well regarded. The club went 94-68, winning the National League West and advancing to the postseason. Crawford hit just .217/.321/.283 in the playoffs but the Giants went on to defeat the Reds, Cardinals and Tigers, earning their second title in three years.