The Straw That Stirs The Rays Drink

Most illingest b-boy, I got that feeling.  “Cause I am most ill and I’m rhymin’ and stealin’.  -Beastie Boys

Public Service Announcement:  Ok, here we go!  The Tampa Bay Devil Rays.  The toasts of the town.  See me walking around, I’m the boy about town that you heard of.  Just so many good stories to choose from.  So many good stories you can’t lose from.    Stories like phenom Evan Longoria.  Tower of power.  I’ll devour.  Hitting the ball a country mile.  Stories like a pitching staff with four starters who all throw in the nineties.  Who all throw with consistency.  Stories like a forty year-old reclamation project of a closer in Troy Percival.  Reclaiming his career in one final triumphant stand.  And then there’s Carl Crawford.  That old compromisin’, enterprisin’, anything but tranquilizing, right on Carl!      

You all know it by now.  Everybody’s crowed it by now.  Covered it head to toed it by now.  You all know yesterday Carl Crawford stole six bases.  You all know Carl Crawford tied Otis My Man Nixon, Eddie Collins and Eric Young for the modern day record.  Dexter Fowler who?  Horton hears a what?  You all know Crawford became the first major-league player in ninety-seven years to have six steals and four-or-more hits in one game.  The first major-league player since Hall-of-Famer Eddie Collins had a four-hit/six-steal game for the 1912 Philadelphia Athletics.  Yes, you all know that, but there is more to Carl Crawford than just those six stolen bases.  A lot more.

Up until last year, the Rays have been the dictionary definition of the word futility.  Up until last year, they were just one of only four active teams never to have played in a World Series.  The only team to have never made it to the playoffs.  Finished in last place in every season of their existence.  Except one.  Except in 2004 when they finished fourth.   And through it all, there has been Crawford.  At least most of it. 

Seven of the eleven years of it.  CC is the heart and soul of these new look Rays.  CC is the best baseball player on these new look Rays.  Like my main man Yaz always says, “I think about baseball when I wake up in the morning.  I think about it all day and I dream about it at night.”  Carl Crawford thinks about it when he wakes up in the morning.   Carl Crawford thinks about it all day and dreams about it at night. 

Crawford rejected a scholarship at UCLA to play point guard so he could play baseball.   Crawford rejected a scholarship at Nebraska to play quarterback so he could play baseball.  He turned it all down so he could have had that chance.  Just once.  To stare down a big league pitcher. To stare him down, and just as he goes into his windup, wink.  Make him think you know something he doesn’t.  For a chance to squint at a sky so blue that it hurts your eyes just to look at it.  To feel the tingling in your arm as you connect with the ball.  To run the bases – stretch a double into a triple, and flop face-first into third, wrap your arms around the bag.  And unlike Moonlight Graham, Carl Crawford’s gotten that chance and he’s made the most of it.

What Carl Crawford has done did in a still-young career is nothing short of amazing.  Mesmerizing.  Tantalizing.   Captivating, he’s devastating.  Carl Crawford is an energizing, stolen-base-and-triple machine.  If he had the exposure of a player in a New York, in a Boston, in a Chicago, in places like that there, Crawford would be a perennial All-Star and multiple Gold Glove-winner.  With the Rays new found fame, that still may happen. 

He’s improved his stats every year and should garnish himself an MVP Award before all is said and done.  But what I like most about Crawford is his approach to the game.   He’s a leader by example and rarely makes off-base comments.  He plays hard.  He plays smart.  He plays hurt.  He plays right.  He is the straw that stirs the Rays drink. 

Public Spectacle: 

Peace out homies.  Six two and Even!

Need More? Carl Crawford, MLB, Tampa Bay Rays