Brandon Crawford Reveals His Favorite San Francisco Giants World Series

At the end of November, former San Francisco Giants shortstop Brandon Crawford announced his retirement from Major League Baseball.

After spending the first 13 years of his career with the Giants, who selected him in the fourth round of the 2008 MLB Draft, he spent his final year with the St. Louis Cardinals. The 37-year-old played in 28 games but struggled at the plate with a .169/.263/.282 slash line, as he was released midseason.

Riding off into the sunset, Crawford has had some time to reflect on his impressive career. There are plenty of things to highlight, but arguably the most impressive was that he won two World Series in his career.

In 2012 and 2014, he was able to help San Francisco to the title, defeating the Detroit Tigers and Kansas City Royals.

In the first, a sweep, Crawford went 3-for-12 with one RBI and stolen base as his team handled business with ease. The second was an epic seven-game series that he hit 7-for-23 during, providing stellar defense up the middle like always.

Each championship is special to the long-time Giants shortstop for different reasons. Recently, during an appearance on KNBR’s “Murph and Markus”, he was asked to pick which of them that he enjoyed more.

He provided a response that won’t shock some people, as choosing between the two is impossible.

“No, I’ve always said that’s like trying to pick a favorite kid. You like them for different reasons, you love them for different reasons. And it’s hard to pick a favorite. I feel like 2012 was such a whirlwind, that was my first full season. And I just felt like we were on the brink of elimination in the LDS and the LCS.

“And then the World Series went by so fast. So, it was like, ‘Oh wow we just won the World Series.’ But obviously, that was the first time, it was special. And then 2014, going to a Game 7, battling our way through the Wild Card and then getting to the World Series and going seven games with the tying run on third base, it was crazy,” as shared by Andy Lindquist of NBC Sports Bay Area.

While San Francisco made quick work of the Tigers in their series, getting there was a challenge. It took seven games to get past the Cardinals in the NLCS after they were pushed to the brink in the NLDS by the Cincinnati Reds.

In 2014, Crawford got the party started in the Wild Card Game against the Pittsburgh Pirates with an epic grand slam.

They won the NLDS and NLCS with room to spare in four and five games. But the Royals gave them everything they could handle, it was just too much Madison Bumgarner for them to overcome.

Along with the two rings, Crawford was an All-Star three times and won the Gold Glove Award four times, with one Silver Slugger Award in 2015. He finishes his career with a slash line of .249/.318/.395 and it would not be surprising to see his number eventually placed in the ring of honor.