Carl Crawford

Major League Baseball left fielder Carl Crawford began his professional baseball career by playing nine-consecutive season for the Tampa Bay Devil Rays.http://www.baseball-reference.com/players/c/crawfca02.shtml

Following the 2010 season, Crawford became a free agent and was sought after by several teams. According to ESPN Boston, Crawford agreed to a seven-year contract with the Boston Red Sox worth $142 million. The deal was set to be finalized after Crawford passed a physical examination on December 10, 2010.http://espn.go.com/blog/boston/red-sox/post/_/id/7415/theo-tight-lipped-on-crawford-but-satisfied By joining the Red Sox on a contract worth $142 million over seven years, Crawford was the first player in franchise history to ink a deal with an average annual value over $20 million and the first player since 2002 when John W. Henry and Tom Werner purchased the team to sign for a length of seven years.http://sports.espn.go.com/boston/mlb/news/story?id=5901372

During his early years, Crawford played baseball, basketball and football at Jefferson Davis High School in Houston, Texas. In baseball, he recorded 29 stolen bases and batted .563 during his senior year as well as appeared as the quarterback of the school's football team plus averaged 25 points per game in basketball. His play led to scholarship offers from the Nebraska Cornhuskers football team and the UCLA Bruins men's basketball team, both of which Crawford declined.http://mlb.mlb.com/team/player.jsp?player_id=408307

Chosen by Tampa Bay in the 1999 MLB Draft, Crawford made his major league debut in 2002 at the age of 20. Since then, Crawford went on to lead the American League in stolen bases in four out of his first five full seasons and lead the American League in triples three times.http://www.baseball-reference.com/players/c/crawfca02.shtml

In his final season with the Rays in 2010, Crawford tallied 110 runs, 184 hits, 13 triples (a league high) and 19 home runs in 600 times at bat. For his season, Crawford was given a Golden Glove Award and a Silver Slugger Award.http://www.baseball-reference.com/players/c/crawfca02.shtml

He was also selected as the most-outstanding rookie on the Rays in 2002 and the most-valuable player on the Rays in 2004. Through 2010, Crawford had been selected to the MLB All-Star Game four times and earned the All-Star MVP honors in 2009.http://www.baseball-reference.com/players/c/crawfca02.shtml