To some degree, Brandon Crawford isn’t different from when he was a little boy. The Giants were in his heart when he was a kid, and it’s still the case in retirement.
As he said Saturday, “I may be stepping away from the field, but I’ll always be a Giant.”
The former shortstop is a year removed from his playing days, two years from the last time he suited up as a Giant, yet he’s very much in tune with the 2025 Giants. That probably has a lot to do with the fact the new boss, Buster Posey, is his old teammate and close friend.
“It’s been fun to watch them this year,” Crawford said. “I’ve definitely been watching. I still have a lot of friends on the team. There seems to be a new energy with Buster leading the way. You feel that in the clubhouse. It’s been fun to watch, and I’d love to see them stay on a roll.”
Saturday was Brandon Crawford Celebration Day at Oracle Park, and the man of the hour was honored before the game and hung around to watch his old team dramatically beat the Texas Rangers 3-2 before 40,153 fans, quite a few of whom were decked out in Crawford jerseys.
Pinch-hitter Patrick Bailey’s walk-off single in the bottom of the ninth scored Heliot Ramos with the deciding run. In the end, small ball triumphed, just as it did so often with Crawford’s championship teams. Earlier in the ninth inning, second baseman Christian Koss put down a sacrifice bunt, sending runners to second and third. Bailey followed by hitting the ball 56.6 mph to the opposite field for the game winner.
The Giants scored their first two runs on a fifth-inning single from Willy Adames, who signed a seven-year contract in the offseason to play Crawford’s position and paid particular attention to the pregame ceremony as he stretched in shallow left field. He was animated in his reactions to Crawford’s highlights on the scoreboard and ensuing speech.
“We respect what he did for this organization and this city,” Adames said. “And just seeing the fans showing up for him today, it was very impressive and special for everybody, including him and his family. He’s got so much swag even off the field, I think everybody loves that about him.”
Adames said he hopes to get to know Crawford better during his time with the Giants and was so impressed with the pregame vibes that he said, “It makes me feel like this was the right decision that I made.”
In the pregame ceremony, Crawford was accompanied by his family, seven former teammates – Posey, Joe Panik, Matt Duffy, Hunter Pence, Matt Cain, Sergio Romo and Gary Brown – his old manager, Bruce Bochy (now managing Texas), and many club officials who participated in his storied baseball journey.
The biggest cheers from fans were for Bochy, Posey and, of course, Crawford.
Posey, in the same draft class as Crawford, told the crowd he remembered the then-short-haired shortstop with a “Zac Efron wannabe type of look,” when they first crossed paths as opponents in the Cape Cod Baseball League. Pence better remembers a long-haired Crawford: “One of the most stylish players I ever played with … the only player who brought his own hair gel wherever we went.”
On a more serious note, Posey credited Crawford as a key figure in World Series title runs in 2012 and 2014 and enjoyed watching him take grounders at shortstop so much that “it kind of made me wish I wasn’t a catcher sometimes.”
“It never seemed like any moment was too big for him,” Posey said. “He was the guy you wanted the ball hit to in big situations, the guy you wanted to be at bat when the game was on the line. His ability to stabilize our team with his presence at shortstop day in and day out was absolutely instrumental to our success.”
In an unscripted pregame speech, Pence added, “There’s not a single player more consistent and committed to defense that I’ve ever seen more than Brandon Crawford.”
Then it was Crawford’s turn to talk. He told reporters afterward that he was “more nervous than Game 7 in Kansas City,” referencing the 2014 World Series, and added, “Speeches are far from my favorite thing to do.”
To prepare, he recalled speeches at the ballpark by Posey, Barry Bonds and Will Clark and recently re-watched Posey’s from 2022 to pick up some pointers. “His cadence was very good,” said Crawford, who kept reminding himself during the speech to slow down.
He nailed it. He thanked all the right people including the fans for supporting him through his career: “I felt it in every single game. I felt it in every cheer, every ovation, every time I ran out on the field. You guys made it more than a career. You made it home.”
Crawford threw the ceremonial first pitch to Posey – juuuust a bit inside – and then joined his extended group to watch the game. Robbie Ray pitched seven innings of two-run ball, closer Ryan Walker threw a scoreless ninth for the win, and Bailey registered his fourth career walk-off hit.
It was especially emotional for Ray, whose son plays on the same Cal Ripken League youth team as Crawford’s son.
“We have a pretty good relationship, and I was able to see him before the game and talk to him and give everybody a hug before I went out,” Ray said. “As I was warming up, I was taking it in and listening to him talk. He’s the greatest shortstop to play in a Giants uniform. Being with the Diamondbacks for so long, I got to see the other side of it. He was a special talent and really fun to watch.”
