SAN FRANCISCO — Brandon Crawford knew how to handle baseball’s biggest stages and brightest lights. He won two World Series titles with the Giants. He played in three All-Star Games. He grew comfortable with the pressure of those environments.
But reciting a speech in front of a packed Oracle Park on Saturday — the longest speech he’d ever made — instilled unparalleled nerves.
“It’s far from my favorite thing to be the center of attention, all eyes on me,” Crawford told reporters afterward, “but definitely appreciate it and it was definitely a special day.”
All eyes were, indeed, on Crawford as the team celebrated his legacy.
Crawford, the hometown kid who played 13 seasons for his favorite team. Crawford, who played more games at shortstop than anyone else in franchise history. Crawford, the four-time Gold Glover, three-time All-Star, two-time champion and one-time Silver Slugger.
“He’s the best shortstop we’ve ever had in our franchise history,” said starter Logan Webb, Crawford’s teammate from 2019-23. “He’s a Bay Area legend. He’s from here, born here, grew up a Giants fan. I’m excited to see the crowd here for him today.”
The 38-year-old Crawford, who announced his retirement this past offseason after a lone season with the St. Louis Cardinals, had an idea of how the afternoon would unfold after watching the Giants in recent years honor Barry Bonds, Will Clark and Buster Posey. Ahead of Saturday’s ceremony, Crawford re-watched Posey’s celebration from 2022 to “make sure my speech was kind of along similar lines,” spending the majority of his eight minutes at the podium thanking the people who helped him reach his heights as a player.
“As a kid growing up here in the Bay Area, my dream wasn’t just to play in the big leagues,” said Crawford, who was born in Mountain View and lived in Palo Alto before his family moved to Pleasanton when he was in elementary school. “It was to play here in this stadium wearing a Giants uniform. Somehow, I got to live that dream.”
The list of former teammates who attended Saturday’s festivities included Posey, Matt Cain, Hunter Pence, Joe Panik, Sergio Romo, Matt Duffy and Gary Brown, but the person who received the loudest non-Crawford applause was former Giants manager Bruce Bochy. The cheers for Bochy, now managing the Texas Rangers, the Giants’ opponent this weekend, were so loud and lengthy that the skipper rose from his seat and tipped his cap.
Before Crawford took the podium to close out the ceremony, the video board showed a montage of the best moments of Crawford’s career, from the grand slam in the 2014 NL wild-card game to his double play with Panik in the 2014 World Series and a litany of his other defensive highlights. After walking out with his family to “Jungle” by Andre Nickatina, his long-time walk-up song, he sat and listened to praise offered by Dave Flemming, Larry Baer, Posey and Hunter Pence.
Posey delivered the line of the afternoon, recalling how he initially thought of Crawford as a “Zac Efron wannabe” upon first meeting him in the 2006 Cape Cod League.
“You could tell right away that he was supremely confident without being cocky at all,” Posey said of that first interaction. “He believed in his ability, defensively and offensively. Fast forward five years, he brought the same confidence out here on this field for his entire career.”
While Crawford read from a prewritten speech, Pence went from the heart, praising Crawford’s calmness, leadership and flowing hair during his three-minute freestyle. At the end of his time, Pence asked the crowd if they were going to miss Crawford playing shortstop for the Giants. They, in turn, replied, “Yes! Yes! Yes!” — an allusion to Pence’s famous speech over a decade ago.
“You were very calm. I was definitely the opposite of that,” Pence laughed.
Manager Bob Melvin, who never managed Crawford, was not among those who spoke before Saturday’s game. As Melvin joked pregame, it may have been all for the better.
“I was getting questions all day about what are my favorite Brandon Crawford moments. Well, I don’t have any. I have just the opposite,” Melvin, managed against Crawford with the A’s and the Padres, said with a laugh. “You bring in a left-handed matchup and (he’s) two for his last 20 and shoots a ball the other way and knocks in two runs at the biggest moments. Makes all the big plays, especially the ones that really matter.
“That’s what I remember about him the most: he was at his best in the big parts of the game, both defensively and offensively.”
Added reliever Tyler Rogers, Crawford’s teammate from 2019-23: “The first thing that comes to mind is the 12 Opening Day starts in a row. In today’s game, that’s unheard of — especially with the same franchise. That just speaks to his consistency and the kind of person he is. He’s everything that everybody says: great on the field, great off the field, great father, great husband. You can’t say enough good things about the guy.”
