The Morning Journal (Lorain, OH)
Crisp goes 1-for-3 as Crusher for the day
Coco Crisp signed a onegame contract with the Crushers to play Aug. 3 against the River City Rascals. Crisp went 1-for-3 with a single in a 1-0, loss to the Rascals.
“The first at-bat, I usually have like a routine, a rhythm, a thought process in the box from pitch to pitch, and after that second strike on me, I think it was a slider,” Crisp said. “I stepped out and I was like, ‘Dang, I missed that.’ Instead of hopping into the mentality where I go through the pitch sequence, and get back in with a thought process, I didn’t do that. I took a pitch right down the middle, so I was like ‘OK, OK.’ So, when I went back into the dugout, I was like, ‘Oh, OK you got to stay in it pitch to pitch.’
“The next at-bat, I ended up ahead in the count, took 3-0. I don’t know if it was a changeup, or whatever. But it was middle away, just kind of jabbed it over there in between first and second. My last at-bat, I can’t tell what it was either, a changeup or a fastball. But it was the first pitch all day I saw. I licked my lips, and I was like ‘Oh baby,’ then I rolled over to third base. But he pitched well. Has a good breaking ball. You know, he got it right underneath my bat, his ball ...”
It was not a great first atbat for Crisp, as he had runners on the corners with the opportunity to cash in at least one run. However, he went down swinging in the bottom of the first inning.
In the third inning, Crisp hit a single to right field. In the bottom of the fifth, he grounded out to end the inning. Crisp was subbed out by Jake Vieth in the bottom of the eighth.
It was a scoreless game through five innings. But with two outs in the top of the sixth, the Rascals were able to come away with a score. Lee-Jun Kalawaia hit a double. Then later on, Trevor Achenbach hit a single to bring Kalawaia home to make, 1-0, Rascals, which was all that was needed for the Rascals.
Crisp discussed if he can still play at a high level if a team from MLB decided to see if he would play.
“I mean, I feel like I can still play the game. When I retired, I was ready to retire. I had my neck injury, and I had to have wrist surgery, and all that. Now, that is all healed up, I feel like I can get back out there and play. It’s just a matter of spending some time getting back at the level of 90, 95, 100 mph. Those guys are throwing nowadays and just seeing those pitches again. But, I am OK where I am at. It’s my kids time to shine. They’re playing. We just finished with U-Triple USA, All-American Baseball, up in Florida. That’s where I flew in from. I’m flying back out there. My younger boy, I was coaching my 12-yearold son’s team. We won our first four games. We ended up losing, getting knocked out. But, the boys played well. My 8-year-old’s team went to the championship, got to play on a nice field like this out there. So, its really nice to see my son play on a big-league field for the first time. Both kids had a lot of fun out there.”
Crushers catcher Bryan De La Rosa, and second basemen Aaron Hill discussed what it was like to play with Crisp on Aug. 3.
“That’s a great experience,” De La Rosa said. “I’m sure that any other player can tell you the same thing. It’s a great experience you have a guy like Coco Crisp to have on the team for us. Just to be able to be next to him, having a conversation with him. Get a little, tiniest of knowledge that he can give us from his experience, all the years he played in the big leagues and stuff his career. It’s always a blessing.”
Hill added: “That’s awesome man. I remember growing up watching him when he was on Oakland, when he was on the Red Sox. I was a Yankees fan. So when every time, any Red Sox I was like ‘man I want this guy to get out.’ But you know, Coco was always a threat to get on base and steal bags. He was always that guy like you didn’t want there. Their lineup back in the day, the Red Sox line up was always nasty. Coco a class act. Guys been in the league for 15 years, he knows how to play the game. Perfect guy to look up too.”