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When iconic San Francisco Giants shortstop Brandon Crawford announced his retirement in late November last year, news outlets everywhere were quick to put out stories.
I looked at it, knowing I was going to write something about the 2005 graduate from Foothill High in Pleasanton, but I didn’t want to rush to throw something out for publication.
I mean, I could have regurgitated his accomplishments as a 13-year member of the Giants, such as playing a franchise record of 1,654 games.
There were also four Gold Glove wins, three MLB All-Star games and two-time World Series champion.
But I wanted to write about a different Crawford. I wanted to talk about Brandon Crawford, the high school athlete.
When you spend 35-plus years covering high school athletes, you get thousands you will see over those years, so picking out the top ones is obviously a difficult task.
That is except when it’s not.
For me there has and always will be a top three for me that comes without much thought. In no order, Crawford, Kyle Wright of Monte Vista and Val Arioto of Foothill will always be the top three high school athletes I covered in my lengthy prep sports writing career.
Wright was the Gatorade National Football Player of the Year for the 2002-2003 season as a quarterback, while also being an amazing baseball player, and talented basketball player.
Arioto was all-things softball that starred at Cal-Berkeley after high school, and with the United States National Team, won an Olympic silver and world championship. She was a really good soccer player, and an accomplished wakeboarder.
Crawford is right there with both — and the greatest memory I have is, he made everything look so easy.
Probably the best compliment I could give Crawford is that as a guy that is not a big baseball fan, I found myself going out and watching his games.
I wasn’t particularly covering the games, rather just going out to watch them because Crawford was playing. There wasn’t a baseball player before or since that has brought me out to games.
Now the sport I did cover when Crawford was playing was football.
During his junior season at Foothill, he was the best safety I saw and the consensus was he could have been a Division I safety if football was his choice.
His senior year, the Falcons needed a quarterback, and Crawford made the transition seamlessly, turning into an all-league quarterback, and there was talk of being able to play quarterback in college if he wanted to.
He was that good. And it was effortless — just like watching him play shortstop for the Giants. The more difficult the play, the easier he made it look.
Last year he played his final season with the St. Louis Cardinals, and it was weird not seeing him in a Giants uniform. Now that he has retired it will seem wrong, he is not out there, leaping high to snag a liner or making a seamless double play.
But this is where it gets great. He and his wife have five kids, and now he will have all year to spend with his family. If he is half the father he was as a player (and you know he is!), he is a father or the year candidate.
So, good luck Brandon and enjoy your time as a full-time father and thank you for all the incredible memories!
Girls’ basketball showdown
If there was one East Bay Athletic League girls’ basketball game to watch this year, it will take place this Tuesday when Carondelet faces San Ramon Valley.
For years it was all about Carondelet when it came to power in the area. In fact, the EBAL, a couple years back, said Carondelet would be given the automatic North Coast Section berth as they felt no one else had a chance to beat the Cougars.
The problem — evidently NCS forgot to tell San Ramon Valley.
The Wolves are the two-time defending EBAL champs and look among the elite teams in the section again.
And Carondelet is its usual powerhouse form and at 13-3, has only lost to teams from outside the area. In the EBAL opener last week, the Cougars beat a decent Monte Vista team 76-29.
San Ramon Valley is 12-2 right now with their two losses coming to a very strong Clovis by two, and by 15 to an Acalanes team that is 15-1 and has only lost to a big-time team from South Medford in Oregon.
The Wolves and the Cougars are so good that this game not just should — but will — decide the EBAL regular season.
The game is set for Tuesday (Jan. 14) at 7:30 p.m. but if the past few years are any indicator, the tickets will be gone early. The game will be streamed on the NFHS Network. You can find out more information at www.nfhsnetwork.com.
Editor’s note: Dennis Miller is a contributing sports writer for the Pleasanton Weekly. This column originally appeared in Tri-Valley Preps Playbook, a weekly sports e-newsletter published by Embarcadero Media Foundation.
