Coco Crisp’s Last Game
If you love someone, let them go. If you love something, why the heck would you ever let it go?
BY: NOAH FARBERMAN
Photo via Pinterest
On October 2, 2016, at the top of the eighth inning, Covelli Loyce “Coco” Crisp pinch hits for his teammate Chris Gimenez, fouling out to the shortstop. That would be the last at bat Coco Crisp would have had as a major league baseball player. After the 2016 season closed, his current team, the Cleveland Indians (who still have yet to change their team name!) refused his 17 million dollar retainer for the 2017 season, instead buying him out for $750,000. After a season bouncing between Oakland and Cleveland, 37 year old Coco finished his last game confident that he didn’t have to “rule anything out.” Today, Coco is Inactive, a term that has a great many meanings in American Baseball and to my best knowledge, I am not really sure which definition accurately describes Coco’s current position. There is no record of any injury, and paternity leaves don’t tend to last more than a couple months. After not signing with anyone in 2017, or since, I would have assumed him to be on the “Voluntary Retired List.” But Coco Crisp is rarely described as retired, nor do I believe he is. According to my findings, Coco Crisp is still an inactive free agent in the MLB, despite having not played a major league game since October of 2016.
Right away, I think there is a lot to gleam off this type of perseverance. As we’ll discover later on, Coco’s post MLB career is far from over. In fact, Coco’s outlook towards a professional status and the acquisition of a contract is more forward- thinking than it would have been several years ago. In her book Down and Out in the New Economy: How People Find (or Don’t Find) Work Today, Ilana Gershon describes a world in which career paths no longer take a static form, with the idea of a “company man” quickly fading in exchange for a young professional with great experience(s). While it is still rare for a former professional athlete to return to an old position, their talent and their experience can open the door for a world series of new opportunities.
Having been a free agent since November of 2009, Coco has had the option to sign with any team that he chooses, should that team want him as well. However, like with all major league baseball players, his professional career started years earlier, with a draft.
In 1999, Coco Crisp was a seventh round draft pick. Overall pick 222. There were 1474 players drafted that day over the course of 50 rounds, knowing the numbers helps give 222 the impressive stance that it deserves. On June 7, 1999, Coco Crisp signed with the St. Louis Cardinals, officially starting his MLB career. While Coco was technically signed to St. Louis in ‘99, it wasn’t until 2002 that he officially debuted. After being traded from St. Louis to the Cleveland Indians (seriously they need to change that name), Coco takes his first steps onto the field as a fresh and ready outfielder. For most of his career, depending on the year and team, Coco played either the left or center field. While he’s only listed as a righty for throwing, Crisp bats both, which means that he can stand on either side of the mound, a valuable skill for pinch hitters and all players at bat.
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After four years with Cleveland, and a career high RBI (runs batted in) count with 71 in 2004 and a second- best of 69 in 2005, Crisp was traded off to the Boston Red Sox where he would stay until the end of the 2008 season. After 2008, Crisp would spend his final contract year with the Kansas City Royals due to a trade by the Red Sox for Ramon Ramirez. One year later, Coco was granted Free Agency.
A Free Agent is a player who is unlinked to a specific team or contract. Sort of like being between departments, but still employed by the store. In order to get back into the game, an agreement and contract has to be made between Coco and a team. In December of 2009, Coco Crisp found a new longer-term home with the Oakland Athletics.
The Oakland A’s, as they’re sometimes called, are a unique team in terms of their strategy. While many coaches and owners tend to find ways to set up big spouts of points, Oakland will instead chip away at their opponent, getting a point here and there while playing a strong defence and trying to tucker out the other guys. This, of course, is a theory presented to me by my grandfather, but as he was the type of fan who saw the ‘92 Blue Jays World Series live at the stadium, I’m partial to his fan-tastic analysis.
Unlike the bunt-like chip-away approach of his new team, while on the A’s Coco’s career followed more of the arch of a fly-ball. His first few years on the team prove him to be a valuable player, even earning him a contract renewal with the A’s in 2012. A great decision on their part as in 2013 he earned an MVP award for an outstanding season.
What goes up must come down. Two years after his 2013 success, Coco sustained a head and neck injury, taking him off the field for a great part of the 2015 season. His stats show the drastic drop as a result of the missed time.
What bounces goes back up again. A theme throughout Coco’s career is his constant positivity towards baseball, and he demonstrates his passion with a fantastic return for his 2016 season. More than just his numbers rose as Coco was traded from the A’s to the Indians (ONE WORD: RE:BRAND!!!) in the middle of the 2016 season, and still helped lead his inaugural team to a seven-game postseason.
According to a Mercury News article, and a quote from Crisp himself, Coco’s last at bat concluded with a single. That contradicting claim, the fact that ESPN has his October 2 at bat listed as a foul, is frankly irrelevant. It was presented that this was Coco’s last game on a number of informative and statistical sites, and yet I know that to not be true.
From 2017 to 2019, Coco Crisp coached the Shadow Hills High School baseball team, a learning experience for the former-pro player and a rewarding one. In an interview with Desert Sun, Crisp explained that coaching was more than just what happens on the field, Crisp Said: “You're a coach but also a psychologist, psychiatrist, therapist, mechanic, gardener.”
While it’s nice to see Gershon’s thinking about the New Economy proven further with Crisp’s clear understanding about the importance of skill collecting, it is also inspiring to hear how connected and excited Crisp gets about all aspects of baseball. In the same Desert Sun article, Crisp states, despite not having a job lined up after quitting as the Shadow Hills coach: “It's not like I'm going to stop coaching.”
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And if coaching a team can be called playing then color-commentating must be as well. In 2019, Crisp was able to share his professional knowledge on the A’s broadcast team, announcing for 19 games.
Beyond coaching, beyond commentating, Crisp actually did play one more game. In 2019, Coco signed a one-game contract with the Lake Erie Crushers, acting as both a chance to prove to himself and fans that he still had the game in him, and to be a role model for a younger team.
Many of the articles I read this past week have called Crisp out for being a great teammate, or role model, or an important part of any team. They also talk about his wicked at bats. But it’s this positive consistency across the team-frame about his need to be a friend to baseball that really drew me to Coco Crisp. I am sure there are other players out there with a similar level of praise, as there should be, sports at their best is a bond and Coco exhibits the best of sports in everything he does. Especially in his support of the next generation.
After quitting Shadow Hills, it was explicit that Coco didn’t have another coaching job lined up. Explicit like how his last game was October 2, 2016. And just like how Coco’s last game still hasn’t happened, his coaching career hasn’t stopped either.
Coco moves on, leaving the desert, Shadow Hills, and the A’s behind. He’s moving on with his new team, Team Crisp, with promising starters his daughter and three sons.
