Sure he can hit. Sure he can field. But what Carl Crawford does best is steal bases. The lefty out of left field has led the American League in stolen bases four times in the seven seasons he has played in the Major Leagues. With 304 career stolen bases, including the two he has stolen so far in the 2009 season, at the age of 27, he is tied with Reggie Sanders for 148th place on the list of career stolen base leaders. His career high record was 59 in 2004, with which he led the American League. In second place in the AL was Ichiro Suzuki with a mere 36. He is only the eighth player in MLB history to have stolen 200 bases before his 25th birthday. He man has even stolen home.
His speed has also helped him with another statistic. He led the Major Leagues in triples in 2004 and has led the American League two more seasons since then, in 2005 and 2006. It helps to be so fast that you can squeeze a double into a triple.
Crawford made his debut in a Tampa Bay Rays jersey in 2002 at the tender age of 20.
Besides his trademark speed, his career has shown a steady progression in improved performance. From 2002 through 2006, Crawford improved both his batting average and his home run count in each successive year. Only one other player has shown such relentless progress for five straight years, the legendary Rogers Hornsby.
In 2004, he was chosen for the All-Star Team for the first time. In 2005, he became only the third player in a Tampa Bay Rays jersey to cross the .300 mark for batting average when he ended the season at .301. In 2007, he made the All-Star Team again, the first Devil Rays player to do so more than once, and hit a home run in the game. In 2008, he got his 1000th hit, becoming only the eighth player in MLB history to get 1000 hits and steal 250 bases before his 27th birthday.
But best of all, in 2008, he played in the World Series. Tampa Bay, having changed their name from the "Devil Rays" to the "Rays," defied all odds to defeat the high-salaried New York Yankees and Boston Red Sox to win the American League East Division championship. They went on to defeat the wild card Boston Red Sox again for the American League Championship and play the Philadelphia Phillies in the World Series. The Rays lost to the Phillies in five games.
If 2008 was the break-out year for the team in the Tampa Bay Rays jerseys, however, it was not one of Crawford's better years. He had trouble with his legs for most of the season then missed several weeks late in the season with an injured tendon in his right hand. He spent the off-season working on his conditioning, however, and has come back in 2009 looking strong and healthy. His numbers for the season were not as strong as they had been earlier in his career.
If he stays healthy and enjoys a long career, who knows how many bases he can steal.
Kathleen Hobbins is a baseball fan extraordinaire. She grew up in Boston, where the Red Sox taught her to love baseball. She now lives in Chicago, where she baseball choose between the Cubs and the White Sox. So her cup runs over with three home-town teams. Follow Kathleen on Twitter at http://www.Twitter.com/KathleenHobbins And for more about the Tampa Bay Rays, visit http://www.BaseballFanSiteOnline.com/Tampa-Bay-Rays
No comments:
Post a Comment