Where Brandon Crawford ends up next year is still up in the air, but it does appear the Pleasanton native and legendary San Francisco Giants shortstop has played his last game for his hometown team.
Farhan Zaidi, the president of baseball operations for the Giants, has made it known that Marco Luciano will be Giants shortstop moving forward.
Crawford is a free agent for the first time in more than a decade with the organization. If he decides to keep playing, the 36-year-old would be a tremendous stabilizing influence for a young team with talent.
If Crawford hangs up his cleats, it will certainly be a well-earned retirement.
The 2005 Foothill graduate, who excelled in both baseball and football, went to UCLA for baseball and then played in the minor leagues before spending 13 years in San Francisco.
He won a pair of World Series titles with the Giants and was the best defensive shortstop in Major League Baseball for a long time, winning four Gold Gloves and making three All-Star teams.
In my mind -- and those who know me well can confirm -- his greatest accomplishment is he made me not root against the Giants! A lifelong Oakland A's fan, I almost took as much joy in a Giants loss as an A's win.
Then Crawford became a pillar of the Giants organization and that dislike dissipated. Don't get me wrong: There was not going to be any orange and black in my wardrobe, but I would watch the occasional Giants game.
When he won his two World Series, I was happy for him, sitting there with a smile on my face when Crawford and the Giants were celebrating.
He was that kind of student-athlete -- one you rooted for. He should be an inspiration for every single youngster today who has dreams of playing professional sports.
As he did when he was playing shortstop for the Giants, Crawford always made things look easy and effortless.
He was one of the best safeties I saw play high school football and when the Falcons needed a quarterback his senior year, Crawford made the smooth transition and was one of the best in the East Bay Athletic League.
To this day I am convinced he would have been a Division I safety and likely an NFL one as well.
When Crawford likely played his last game for the Giants on Oct. 1, it was a sad day for all Giants fans -- and even this A's fan. It wasn't just that a Giants legend would be leaving the team, but the team also lost one of the great people in professional athletics.
Best of luck moving forward Brandon, and thank you for all the memories.
Foothill girls' volleyball
The Falcons went out and swept a pair of EBAL matches to run their win streak to 25 matches.
The Falcons beat Dublin 25-11, 25-10, 25-17 in one match. The highlights came from Kaycie Burdick (12 digs, 11 kills), Sophia Burdick (10 digs, 5 kills) and Kait Vogel (8 service points, 5 digs).
The other win came against Livermore in a 25-9, 25-8, 25-14 final. This time the highlights came from Sophia Zhang (13 service points, 10 digs), Maddy Snodgress (5 kills) and Nisa Kincaid (4 kills).
Amador tennis
In the 6-3 win over Dublin, the Dons got wins from Montana Parkinson-Lubold, Neha Reddy and Megha Reddy in singles.
The Amador Valley doubles teams swept the competition with Sanvi Sharma/Aditi Deshpande, Alayna West/Bella Cheng and Avital Belau/Rhea Anand all getting the job done.
In a tough loss to Foothill, Parkinson-Lubold kept her winning ways on a roll. Sharma and Deshpande combined to get a doubles win for the Dons.
Student Athlete Community Foundation event
Ani Murugesan always wanted to give back to young athletes as he was going through Foothill, and he has kept it going in college at UC Davis.
The latest event for the 2021 Foothill graduate's nonprofit took place on Sept. 30 at Foothill when the current varsity players at Foothill ran a free basketball camp for ages 7-13.
The event was for all skill levels and was free with a donation of school supplies. In a partnership with the Oakland Unified School District, all the donations went to them.
This time they got 25 kids to the camp and collected 200 packs of donations that added up to 8,000 school supplies that are being delivered to Oakland this week.
Editor's note: Dennis Miller is a contributing sports writer for the Pleasanton Weekly. To contact him about his Pleasanton Preps column, email acesmag@aol.com.
