San Francisco Giants Select Perfect Day to Honor Brandon Crawford

The San Francisco Giants ensure that they selected a day to honor Brandon Crawford in which a team legend could participate.

Sep 17, 2023; Denver, Colorado, USA; San Francisco Giants shortstop Brandon Crawford (35) leaves the field in the fourth inning against the Colorado Rockies at Coors Field. / Ron Chenoy-Imagn Images

Former San Francisco Giants star Brandon Crawford announced his retirement from Major League Baseball on Wednesday evening, ending a prolific 14-year career in which he played 13 seasons with the Giants.

Crawford was the first to announce his retirement on Instagram. Shortly after, the Giants released a statement from president of baseball operations Buster Posey, who played most of his career with Crawford.

The Giants even announced the date in which they would honor Crawford for his career which will be April 26.

San Francisco was intentional with that selection. The Texas Rangers will be in town to face the giants and that means that former Giants legend Bruce Bochy, who now manages the Rangers, will be able to attend the pregame ceremony.

Bochy was Crawford's manager for nine seasons, during which Crawford participated in two World Series championships in 2012 and 2014.

Bochy stepped away from the dugout after the 2019 season and Crawford continued to play for the Giants until 2023. He spent last season with St. Louis.

The 37-year-old California native was a three-time All-Star selection, won four Gold Gloves and was the Silver Slugger at his position in 2015. He also played for the U.S. in the 2017 World Baseball Classic, where the U.S, won the gold medal.

Bochy didn't have a statement after Crawford announced his retirement, but in 2023 when he visited Oracle Park for the first time as Rangers manager he did relate his favorite memory of one his favorite players.

“It’s so hard to pick because he came up clutch in so many different ways, defensively, offensively,” he said. “But you look at that Wild Card game in Pittsburgh and the grand slam. It was such a big game, you know, a must-win game. But he brought me a lot of good memories.”

That Wild Card game, back in 2014, saw the Giants beat the Pirates on the back of Crawford’s home run. That grand slam was the first by a shortstop in Major League history. The Giants went on to win the World Series.

The Mountain View, Calif., product finished his career with a slash line of .249/.318/.395/.713 with 147 home runs and 748 RBI. His best single season was in 2021, when he slashed .298/.373/.522/.895 with 24 home runs and 90 RBI. He was selected an All-Star for the last time, won his last Gold Glove and finished fourth in National League MVP voting.