KISSIMMEE, Fla. (AP) — Michael Bourn laughs at the suggestion that he is the reason Carl Crawford, his former Little League teammate, plays left field instead of center.
Bourn did win the first of his two Gold Gloves for the Houston Astros in 2009, one year before Crawford earned his first.
In fact, Bourn said if he had any influence on Crawford, his friend might have become a basketball player.
Tampa Bay selected Hamilton with the first overall pick in the 1999 amateur draft, then picked Crawford in the second round. Crawford, a three-sport star from Jefferson Davis High School, dropped down because many major league organizations thought he was leaning toward a football scholarship offered by Nebraska.
