Blind to a star
Carl Crawford has the stats, style and charisma to be nationally renowned. To his frustration, playing on a bad team in a small market won't let that happen.
By MARC TOPKIN
Published September 12, 2006
NEW YORK - Carl Crawford is considered the fastest player in the game.
But he can't catch the average baseball fan's eye.
Crawford is three weeks from completing another dazzling season dotted with accomplishments of historical significance, but he is doing so in the relative anonymity of playing for the Devil Rays, raising the question:
If a star forms in Tampa Bay, does anyone see it?
"Clearly, people like Crawford don't get the recognition they deserve because of the market they play in," Rays senior vice president Gerry Hunsicker said. "If he played for a New York team, or the Boston Red Sox, every baseball fan in America would know who Carl Crawford is."
"Carl Crawford would be a superstar if he was in a big market," said Minnesota centerfielder Torii Hunter, who would, too. "If he was in Boston, New York, L.A., Chicago, he'd be a star. He'd be on a Nike commercial. I tell him that all the time - 'You just don't know how big a star you'd be if you were in any other market.' "
Crawford, 25, has been around long enough to get it. But that doesn't mean he really understands.
He knows where the Devil Rays rank in baseball's world order - that the Tampa Bay market is on the small side, that players on losing teams ( aren't going to grab the attention like those on winners.
"Definitely, it's been a drawback for me," Crawford said. "That's not a big secret. Everyone knows that. All I can do is try to put up better numbers each and every year. All I can do is make my case every year. What happens after that is really out of my control."
But then he looks around the leagues, as well as the Rays locker room, and is puzzled by the attention and accolades some others get.
"There's guys putting up the same numbers as me that are starting the All-Star Game, and I'm sitting home watching, so it just doesn't make any sense to me," Crawford said.
"(Mets shortstop) Jose Reyes is like everything to people right now, and I don't see anything different that he's doing and I'm doing. But nobody knows what I'm doing and he's like a big megastar, the best player ever, the most exciting player and all that stuff. And I'm like, 'Okay, what's the difference?' "
Crawford felt snubbed when he wasn't selected to join teammate Scott Kazmir on the American League All-Star team, and he cracked that baseball couldn't handle having two Devil Ray All-Stars.
But the fan balloting was a telling indication of Crawford's lack of national stature: His 538,939 votes were fewer than 37 other outfielders, including such pedestrian players as St. Louis' So Taguchi and Juan Encarnacion, Detroit's Curtis Granderson, Houston's Jason Lane and Willy Taveras, the White Sox's Scott Podsednik and Colorado's Brad Hawpe.
Even among the Rays, he isn't necessarily the biggest star. Kazmir and outfielder Rocco Baldelli at times get more attention, and Jonny Gomes, who hadn't played a full season in the majors, finished with only 118,000 fewer All-Star votes.
"I'm clueless about some of that," Crawford said. "We need guys like Rocco, who have the attention, to get people to see the whole team, to see other guys play. ... I bring excitement to the game. But it's like the harder I try, the more quiet I'm kept."
Crawford is generally approachable, accommodating and affable and has a tremendously athletic build and an effervescent smile. But he has yet to be tapped for any endorsements or commercials nationally or even locally, where it seems he could be a big hit. His only foray were some photos and brief interview-style comments for the Rawlings equipment company's Web site, which are relatively hidden beneath those of featured players Derek Jeter, Alex Rodriguez, Johnny Damon and Albert Pujols.
There would appear to be two things that could increase Crawford's fame.
One would be to play for a big-market team.
"If he was in New York, they would love him there," Hunter said. "He smiles all the time, he plays hard and he's good. He's better than Johnny Damon. He's better than a lot of guys. He has some talent, sick talent."
Damon knows the situation, given how his stature and celebrity status blew up as he moved from Kansas City to Oakland to Boston and now New York. And he knows how big Crawford would be if he took a similar path.
"Gigantic," Damon said. "He's one of the best players out there in my opinion. He can just do so much. He'd be a superstar."
The other would be to play for a winning team in Tampa Bay.
"He'd be much more of a household name, there's no question," Rays manager Joe Maddon said. "He probably would have made the All-Star team this past year. There'd be more Carl Crawford jerseys sold throughout the country.
"He's going to get that due with us here also. It's going to take a little bit longer because of our situation, but as we expand and become a playoff-contending team he's going to be right in the middle of that whole thing. I think he'll just burst onto the scene like it's a big surprise, but everybody in baseball knows about him already."
Hunsicker saw that happen during his nine seasons as general manager in Houston. On an individual basis with Carlos Beltran, who went from anonymity in Kansas City to postseason stardom in Houston to superstar status with the Mets. And on a team basis as the Astros developed into regular contenders, with their games chosen for more national telecasts, their highlights getting more air time and their players getting more attention.
"All of a sudden they realized there is baseball in Houston," Hunsicker said. "And the same thing is going to happen here. You have to establish yourself and you have to win on the field for the players to get the recognition they deserve."
Crawford said he wants to win more than anything - "I can't even explain to you how bad I want to be on a winning team," he said - and figures the attention will follow. The lack of it is not something he dwells on, just more a curiosity and topic of conversation than anything else, like whether he'll one day end up on the cover of a video game.
Finishing the second season of a six-year, $32-million contract that could keep him with the Rays through 2010, he is unlikely to be traded anywhere. He ranks among the American League leaders in hits, average, stolen bases and triples and is on the verge of some impressive feats: joining Rogers Hornsby as the only regular players to increase his average, home runs and RBIs for five consecutive seasons; becoming the first player in 76 years to have three consecutive seasons of 15 or more triples; and notching his third season of 50 or more steals, the eighth player to do so by age 25.
Unfortunately, not too many people may know it.
"The only reason I'm not real upset about it is that my game's still raw. I've got to iron out some things," Crawford said. "I'm just curious to see what happens when we start winning. Then we'll know. The tough part is trying to keep the game exciting until then."