Crawford comes home ... to Oakland
OAKLAND >> Curious about seeing Brandon Crawford in a uniform other than the Giants?
The best chance will be Monday through Wednesday at the Coliseum when Crawford comes back to the Bay Area as a reserve shortstop for the St. Louis Cardinals, who play a three-game series against the Athletics.
“It will be a strange for sure,” said A's pitcher Alex Wood, a former teammate. “In this day and age not many guys play the length of time he played with an organization. He's an icon in the Bay. It will be strange but it will be nice to catch up with him and see how things are going in St. Louis.”
A return to Oracle Park and the scene of some of Crawford's greatest triumphs wont happen until the season is almost over. The Cardinals don't visit San Francisco until the final series of the regular season, Sept. 27 -29.
“I honestly kind of got the chills when I saw that,” Crawford told reporters upon joining the Cardinals. “Butterflies in my stomach. I'm not a very emotional game for that I probably will be.”
Plenty of time to get that statue ready. Although Crawford grew up in Pleasanton and starred at Foothill High, his heart as a young fan was across the bay with the Giants. It was the place he spent the first 13 years of his major league career, winning a pair of World Series rings and four Gold Gloves before the Giants said farewell after hitting .194 in 93 games in 2023.
Whether it's Oakland or San Francisco, former teammate Kevin Frandsen thinks it will be a startling sight.
Like Crawford, Frandsen was a Bay Area product (Los Gatos, San Jose State) who came to the Giants. He befriended Crawford on that basis.
“He was drafted ( by the Giants) when I was there. I remember having a conversation with him about being a Bay Area guy, coming up through the system, and the expectations that are put upon you,” said Frandsen, who was in town with the Washington Nationals as part of the broadcast team. “It's hard to make everything seem right and at ease.”
Whether Crawford actually gets into a game is an open question.