Carl Crawford

Carl Demonte Crawford (born August 5, 1981 in Houston, Texas) is currently the left fielder for the Tampa Bay Devil Rays Major League Baseball team. Crawford entered the major leagues at the young age of 20 and played in 62 games with the Devil Rays in his rookie 2002 season. In 2003, however, he played nearly every day and was a huge success, batting .281 with 54 runs batted in and more notably 55 stolen bases, which led the league. In the 2004 season, the speedy Crawford is on pace to steal many more bases than he did in 2003.

As a young man in high school, Crawford was offered scholarships from two universities to play sports on their teams. UCLA offered him a basketball scholarship, and the University of Nebraska offered him a scholarship to play football. Crawford turned down both scholarships and decided that his heart was set on baseball.