Hall of Fame Spotlight: Marty Crawford
10/10/2008 12:00:00 AM | Baseball, General, "B" Association
Oct. 10, 2008
By Jerry Hill
Baylor Bear Insider
This is the first of a series of articles on the 2008 induction class for the Baylor Athletic Hall of Fame
In the eyes of every little boy who's ever dreamed of playing professional baseball, Marty Crawford was living the dream.
Batavia, N.Y. and Kannapolis, N.C. are barely on the map, but they were Crawford's stopping points on a path that would hopefully lead to the big leagues with the Philadelphia Phillies.
After hitting .414 with 10 homers, 24 doubles and 67 RBIs as a senior at Baylor, the 5-foot-7, 175-pound second baseman from Grand Prairie was taken by the Phillies in the 23rd round of the 1996 draft. He was drafted ahead of future all-star pitchers Roy Oswalt and Ted Lilly.
The only problem was he was making $1,200 a month and basically living out of the team bus, while his wife and baby were back home in Texas.
"I think it's every little boy's dream to play as long as you possibly can," said Crawford, 34, who is one of six former athletes who will be inducted into the Baylor Athletic Hall of Fame on Nov. 7. "It's hard to give up a game you love. I had been basically living baseball since I was 5 years old. I got a chance to see what it was like living on the bus and playing baseball every night. But it was time for me to make a decision and grow up and start my career in education."
In hindsight, Crawford knows he made the right choice. While watching the Phillies reach the National League Championship series this year, he realized that shortstop Jimmy Rollins was the only player still left from his brief stint in the minors. Rollins and Crawford were teammates with the Class A Piedmont Boll Weevils in Kannapolis in 1997.
"I was hitting .400 for the first two months and made the all-star team," said Crawford, who had a combined .242 batting average with six homers, 81 RBIs and eight stolen bases in his two seasons in the minors. "But it didn't take them long to realize that all you had to do was throw this guy a changeup, and he would break his back trying to hit it. I just didn't have the kind of success that I thought I would."
His biggest success has come in a post-baseball career that included coaching stints in Oklahoma, Highland Park and Euless Trinity, where he was the head baseball coach and an assistant football coach.
"Coaching isn't the same as being a player," he said. "So I kind of got coaching out of my blood. I probably miss Friday nights as much as anything. I really enjoyed coaching football."
Making the transition to school administration, Crawford took a position as assistant principal at Hillcrest High School in Dallas six years ago and is now in his fourth year as principal.
"I haven't looked back since I left baseball," he said. "I don't regret it at all, because I know I'm doing what I was built to do, and we're doing great things here at Hillcrest. When you think about the chances of actually making it to the big leagues and how I would have spent my last 11 or 12 years, I know I made the right choice. I have a wife and two kids and a solid professional career."
The Bears were coming off a 40-win season and an NCAA Regional appearance in Wichita, Kan., when Crawford signed with Baylor. Mickey Sullivan, the head coach at the time, immediately inserted the "18-year-old, snot-nosed kid" into a lineup filled with veterans.
"It's always a very emotional time when I see Coach Sullivan, because he means so much to me," said Crawford, who set freshman records with a .350 batting average and 82 hits. "He was taking a big risk putting in a young player like that from Day 1.
One of the main reasons I came to Baylor was to play for what I considered one of the most legendary figures in the Southwest Conference. And not just baseball. Everybody knew who Mickey Sullivan was."
That 1993 Baylor team finished 41-19, won the Southwest Conference championship and was ranked as high as 14th before losing to eventual national champion LSU at a regional in Baton Rouge, La.
Crawford said he "really took it hard" when Sullivan retired from coaching at the end of his sophomore season.
"I really can empathize with student-athletes when you have a coaching change, because usually that's a big reason why you went to that school in the first place. You spend a lot of time with those coaches," he said. But Crawford said he was assured that "they were going to go out and get a guy with Christian values and get this thing turned around."
"And sure enough, 13 years later, Coach Smitty (Steve Smith) has done a great job," said Crawford, who played his final two seasons at Baylor under Smith and assistant coaches Mitch Thompson and Steve "Hoot" Johnigan. "It was such a blessing that I was able to play for both Mickey and Steve. And I even had (former baseball coach) Dutch Schroeder for a class. So I was actually with all three of the renowned coaches in Baylor's history."
And on Nov. 7, he will join the three coaches in the Hall of Fame. An All-Southwest Conference pick in 1996, his name is still written all over the Baylor record book. Crawford is the only player to lead the team in hitting four consecutive years, his .368 average ranks second all-time and he still ranks among the career leaders in hits (No. 4, 318), doubles (No. 4, 63), triples (T-5, 15) RBIs (T-6, 169), runs (No. 6, 172), at-bats (No. 5, 864), extra-base hits (No. 8, 91), total bases (No. 5, 450), sacrifices (No. 4, 25) and games played (T-9, 225).
"It's not so much about Marty Crawford as the people that were there," he said. "I got to get up there and hit the baseball a little bit, but I wouldn't be doing this if it wasn't for a lot of people. I'm happy that I'm sharing this with my parents. And at the same time, Mickey's still around and Coach Smith is still coaching. Coach Thompson and Coach Johnigan, those folks mean so much to me. I aspired to be those people. You just couldn't ask for better me to be around."
2008 Class: Marty Crawford, baseball; Ray Crockett, football; Sally Geis Smart, cross country and women's track and field; Matt Knoll, men's tennis head coach; Roy Lee Smalley, men's track and field; and Tom Stanton, men's basketball and athletic director
Ticket info: $45 per person ($35 for Baylor letter winners). Tickets can be purchased by contacting the "B" Association's Tammy Hardin at 254-710-3045 or tammy_hardin@baylor.edu. Table sponsorships (seating for 10) are available for $450 for individuals or $500 for corporations.
