SF Giants legend Brandon Crawford officially retires after 14 MLB seasons

In an unsurprising move, SF Giants legend Brandon Crawford officially retired from major league baseball. He played for 14 seasons and was the best shortstop in franchise history, fulfilling a lifelong dream to play for his hometown team.

He made the announcement via his Instagram.

It is hard to explain just how fun it was to have Crawford be the starting shortstop for the Giants for over a decade. For basically all of those years, it was just taken as a given that the Giants had one of the best defensive shortstops on their team who was going to make a least a couple of plays a month that made you involuntarily go, "Wow." He was that good.

Legendary SF Giants shortstop Brandon Crawford has retired

After last season for the Giants, where they cycled through several shortstops, perhaps we can now appreciate how fortunate the Giants were to have their long-haired bastion of stability. He began his career as a defensive stalwart, but over time he became a genuine threat in the lineup. That speaks to his tenacity and determination that he refused to be pigeon-holed as a player who could only field.

Probably his most indelible moment as a Giant will be the grand slam he hit in the 2014 NL Wild Card game that silenced all of Western Pennsylvania. This tribute video the Giants posted gives a good overview of his career as a Giant.

The fact that he was a kid from Mountain View who had a picture from when he was 5 next to a sign pleading for the Giants to stay in San Francisco makes his story all the more remarkable. His story almost seems like it was from a movie with how poetic it was and how it all happened with the team he grew up cheering for.

He also did it with a coolness and swagger that never crossed the border into arrogance or cockiness. He embodied the ethos of the Giants when Buster Posey was on the team: a quiet confidence and belief without any of the unnecessary theatrics and bluster that so often accompany the over-the-top celebrations of today.

On this day of Thanksgiving, any Giants fans who were fortunate enough to watch Crawford either in person or on TV will forever be grateful they had the honor of watching a great athlete play shortstop at the highest level. Let's hope we see him around Oracle Park or helping the team out in Spring Training going forward. We at Around the Foghorn wish Crawford all the best in his retirement and thank him for all of the memories.