Former San Francisco Giants Franchise Icon Tells Favorite Willie Mays Story

Former San Francisco Giants infielder Brandon Crawford got to face his former team on Thursday at Rickwood Field in Birmingham.

Apr 17, 2024; Oakland, California, USA; St. Louis Cardinals infielder Brandon Crawford (35) signs autographs before his team takes on the Oakland Athletics at Oakland-Alameda County Coliseum. / D. Ross Cameron-USA TODAY Sports

To a younger generation, few players are as connected to the San Francisco Giants as Brandon Crawford.

The Giants drafted Crawford in 2008 and he reached the majors in 2011. He helped San Francisco win the 2012 and 2014 World Series titles. He was a three-time All-Star, a four-time Gold Glove winner, a Silver Slugger winner and a two-time Defensive Player of the Year award winner.

In 13 years with the Giants he batted .250/.319/.395 with 146 home runs and 744 RBI.

After San Francisco opted not to re-sign him after last season, he landed with the St. Louis Cardinals.

That enabled him to cross paths with his former team as they played in the Rickwood Field game in Birmingham, Ala., a game designed to honor the legacy of the Negro Leagues.

Birmingham and Rickwood Field is where the Black Barons played. It’s also where Giants legend Willie Mays — who passed away on Tuesday at 93 — started his professional career in 1948.

Crawford, like many current and former San Francisco players, has stories about Mays’ kindness every spring training.

Brandon Crawford shares his favorite Willie Mays memory 🥹

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“There are a lot of times seeing him in the clubhouse during spring training, the question and answer (sessions) and sitting down with him,” Crawford told NBC Sports Bay Area during pre-game activities on Thursday. "He signed about five or six different things out of my locker because he told me to just keep bringing him more stuff.  He signed a ball, my bat, one of my brand-new gloves … so I mean there are there are a lot of good memories.”

Earlier this month, former Giants manager and current Texas Rangers manager Bruce Bochy said that one of his favorite times during spring training was those question-and-answer sessions with Giants legends like Mays, Willie McCovey, Gaylord Perry and Orlando Cepeda.

Naturally, one of Crawford’s favorite memories of Mays came from one of those Q&A’s.

“Somebody asked him what he would do when he got in a slump and Willie goes ‘I don't remember ever being in a slump. I might have gone 0-for-4 one time.’ That was just classic Willie and nobody questions it either.”

Mays was signed by the Giants while they were still in New York and he started his Major League career in 1952. He spent the vast majority of his career with the Giants before he was traded to the New York Mets in 1972, where he finished his career in 1973.

Mays was a 24-time All-Star, a two-time National League MVP, the NL Rookie of the Year, a 12-time Gold Glove winner, a .302 career hitter with 3,293 hits and 660 home runs. He was elected to the Hall of Fame in 1979 and his number, 24, is retired by both the Giants and the Mets.