Another Day at the Office — Brandon Crawford

MLB.com/blogs Blocked Unblock Follow Following Apr 13, 2014

By mlblogssfgiants1

I’m still a little damp from Angel dumping the Gatorade cooler on me. I think he got more water on Amy G. than on me.

I’ve watched the replay twice already, I’m not going to lie. I’ll go home and probably watch it again. I might keep it on a loop. Maybe make a GIF for my phone. These don’t happen to me every day. In fact, I have never hit a walk-off home run in my life. Little League, college, minors, anywhere.

I knew it was out as soon as the barrel of the bat hit the ball. You can just tell how it feels and sounds.

Did you like that bat flip? I learned it from Bum the other day on his grand slam. Seriously, though, everybody’s got a bat flip. We call it pimping the home run. (Is that politically incorrect to say?) You give it a little individual style, like a layup in basketball. Not that I have a ton of experience. I bat-flipped only one other time that I can remember. You have to earn a bat flip. I think a walk-off splash-hit in the 10th qualifies.

I dropped the bat, then I thought for a second — with a pang — that it might curve foul. Luckily it stayed in by about ten feet.

I had faced Brothers yesterday and hit a first-pitch fastball for a double. So in this cat-and-mouse game you play with a pitcher, I guessed that he wouldn’t be throwing me a first-pitch fastball again. He has a good slider, so I thought he’d try to get ahead of me with something like that.

Sure enough, he threw a splitter but it was way outside. OK, now I know he doesn’t have great control of his off-speed pitch. So he’s probably going to come back at me with a fastball. I got into hit mode. And there it was. (Of course if he had thrown a first-pitch fastball and gotten ahead, I would have been kicking myself a little bit.)

I’m not sure there’s a better feeling in baseball than rounding third and your teammates are going crazy at home plate, waiting for you. It’s a little overwhelming, actually. Everybody’s whacking you on the head and grabbing at you. I’ll take it. I’ll take it again on Tuesday. And as many times as I can.

When I walked into the clubhouse after my interview with Amy G, there was great music blaring from the speakers and everybody clapping and yelling. Bochy joked that he was going to start sitting me against righties instead of lefties.

I’ve got to ask Bam how many points I get for my Team Brandon hitting team. A walk-off home run has got to be about 50, at least.

Pretty nice way to go into an off day.

-Brandon C.