Brandon Crawford probably has no comparison in the shortstop position when professional baseball is mentioned. He is an American athlete who has played for the San Francisco Giants of Major League Baseball (MLB) since his 2011 draft.
His achievements in his MLB career have been punctuated by phenomenal milestones, including three consecutive Rawlings Gold Glove Awards (2015-2017), two Wilson Defensive Player Awards, the highest number of hits (seven) in a single game in the history of the Giants franchise, and he has been involved in two notable Giants wins in the World Series.
He is considered one of the best shortstops in MLB history and is the sixth player in MLB history to hit a grand slam in his first major-league game, as well as the first shortstop to hit a grand slam in an MLB postseason game.
Apart from his debut in the 2011 Major League, he also exchanged vows with his college sweetheart Jalynne that same year.
Brandon Crawford Bio
Brandon Michael Crawford is from San Francisco, was born on January 21, 1987, in Mountain View, but grew up in Pleasanton after his family moved away from Menlo Park when he was still in grade school.
Growing up, he loved baseball and was a big fan of the San Francisco Giants, where he played his career in the big leagues. Brandon was a three-sport athlete at Foothill High School in Pleasanton, which he graduated from in 2005. He played football, basketball, and of course baseball and was the starting quarterback for the Foothill Falcons. Before college, he played in the Northwoods League for the amateur baseball team Mankato Moondogs in the summer of 2005.
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However, when the time came for college, he chose baseball over other sports. He studied physiology at the University of California, Los Angeles (UCLA), and played for the UCLA Bruins from 2006 to 2008, where he was twice named Most Valuable Player (MVP). While on the team, he helped the Bruins break the school record by leading them to the National Collegiate Athletic Association (NCAA) Regional Championships for three consecutive seasons.
Between 2006 and 2007, Brandon Crawford was appointed MVP of the team for both seasons and in 2007 was named All-Pac 10 Conference Team. He was part of the national team that led the United States to the 2006 FISU World Championship. During his studies, he played for the college summer baseball team Orleans Firebirds of the Cape Cod Baseball League in 2007.
Brandon Crawford MLB Career
He was selected by the San Francisco Giants in the fourth round, finishing 117th overall in the 2008 Baseball League, and after his draft, he played with minor-league teams such as the Class-A Advanced San Jose Giants, the Double-A Connecticut Defenders, and the Double-A Richmond Flying Squirrels, where he received an all-star nod from the Eastern League. Looking ahead to the 2011 season, Brandon was the sixth-best candidate in the Giants’ organization.
He made his big league debut against the Milwaukee Brewers on May 27, 2011, having been called up the day before. He hit his Grand Slam in the third stroke of the game, making him the sixth player in MLB history to hit a Grand Slam in his first game. This made him the sixth player in the history of the MLB to hit a grand slam in his first game. He also joined his colleagues Bobby Bonds and Brian Dallimore, whose first major league goal in his career was a Grand Slam.
Brandon hit a Grand Slam in his second career and rode in 5 runs to secure the Giants’ win over Philadelphia Phillies on July 20, 2012. He also helped his team win the 2012 World Series title with a 4-0 win over the Detroit Tigers, his shortstop skills also earned him third place in the National League (NL) shortstops in the defensive runs, which were saved with +12, and he was awarded the Wilson Defensive Player of the Year Award at shortstop.
In the following years, he continued his outstanding performances, beating Edinson Vólquez in his third career and the first Grand Slam of the post-season. In 2014, he became the first shortstop to hit a Grand Slam in the post-season history of Major League Baseball. He made his fourth Grand Slam in 2015.
In 2015, he reached several career milestones and won several awards, including six runs against Mike Leake of the Cincinnati Reds, who was named MLB All-Star, hit .256 with 21 home runs, 84 RBIs, 33 doubles, and 130 goals, was the Giants’ first shortstop to lead the team in home runs since Bill Dahlen in 1905 and won his first Rawlings Gold Glove Award and Silver Slugger Award, the first Giants to win both in the same year since 1997.
Brandon agreed to extend his contract with the Giants until 2021 after the 2015 season in a $75 million deal. He raised his batting average in 155 games in 2016 to the best result of his career of 0.275 and was awarded the Willie Mac Award alongside his teammate Javier López. He received his second and third Gold Glove awards after the 2016 and 2017 seasons in a row.
Widely regarded as one of the best shortstops in the league, he was the first Giants player since 1991 to make a walk-off solo home run and win a 1-0 game in 2018. The game was against the Colorado Rockies. He beat .300 with ten home runs and 39 RBIs and was named starting shortstop for the MLB All-Star Game 2018.
Wife – Jalynne Dantzscher, Kids
2011 was a watermark year for Brandon Crawford. Not only was it his MLB debut year, but he also made the bond with his college sweetheart Jalynne Dantzscher, the younger sister of Olympic gymnast Jamie Dantzscher. The duo met at UCLA in 2005 as freshmen during an orientation program for first-year athletes.
Jalynne was born together with her identical twin sister Janelle Leopoldo on December 26, 1987, in Lancaster, California. She was a competitive gymnast at UCLA before moving to the University of Pepperdine. The couple married on November 26, 2011, in Kona, Hawaii.
They are parents of four children: two girls, Braylyn Ann (born December 18, 2012), Jaydyn April (born March 8, 2014), and two boys, Braxton (born 2016) and Bryson Ryder (born June 2018).
Jalynne is active in social media and has more than 20k followers on Twitter and more than 40k on Instagram, where she treats her followers to interesting pictures and updates on her lovely family.
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Family – Sister
He was born into a family of six and also has a family with the same number of children. He was the first of the four children and the only son of Michael and Lynn Crawford, born alongside his sisters: Amy, Jenna, and Kaitlin Crawford.
Brandon Crawford grew up knowing that he wanted to play ball, and baseball was it for him. He became a huge Giants fan, and his parents, who were Giants season ticket holders, regularly took him and his younger sisters to fan-related events. His parents also donated money for the construction of AT&T Park, which opened in 2000 and whose names are engraved on one of the stadium’s brick slabs.
Of all Brandon’s sisters, Amy is perhaps the most famous because she is married to Houston Astros pitcher Gerrit Cole since November 12, 2016. She was born on January 10, 1989, and was an athlete at UCLA, where she met Cole and graduated with a BA in Sociology and Social Sciences in 2011. She played softball on both her high school and college teams and helped the Lady Bruins (UCLA) win a national championship in 2010.