FORT MYERS, Fla. – Red Sox minor leaguers have about 142 million new reasons to listen to one of their instructors.
Tom Goodwin, the Red Sox’ roving baserunning and outfield instructor, was nearing the end of his baseball career in 2005. He had spent years as one of the top base thieves in the majors, peaking with 66 steals as a member of the Royals in 1996, one of four seasons in which he recorded 50 or more stolen bases.
At 36, he was trying to hang on. He signed a minor league deal with the Rays that included a spring training invitation to big league camp .
He would spend most of that spring trying to recover from an injury he incurred early in camp. Goodwin made it back for just a couple of games near the end of spring training before Tampa Bay released him.
“Obviously, I was an ex-burner,” Goodwin remembered. “My pilot light was going out.”
So in one sense, Goodwin’s time with the Devil Rays was barely a footnote. Yet in another way, its impact reached far beyond the months he spent in his final major league organization.
That, at least, is how Carl Crawford remembers it. On the day that the newly signed Sox star held court with the media at spring training, he encountered Goodwin for the first time since they were together in Rays camp six years earlier, when Crawford was a 23-year-old sponge of information from his veteran teammate.
Crawford was more than happy to recall the previous time the two spent together. Indeed, he reminded Goodwin of a piece of advice the Sox instructor offered while still a player in the spring of 2005.
“He was like, ‘If you’re a runner, you have to keep running. You’re not just going to have that speed,’” said Crawford. “That’s what I do in the offseason. I run a lot, even though I train a lot, keep my muscles strong. I do every little thing I can to keep my speed because that’s what I’m known for and that’s what I want to keep as long as I can.”
That Crawford recalled that conversation six years after the fact – and after not having been in touch with Goodwin for that time – speaks to his commitment to improve. Certainly, Goodwin was caught off guard on Friday morning to hear that Crawford recalled the piece of wisdom (which Goodwin had received early in his career as a member of the Royals from base-stealing standout Vince Coleman).
“It actually surprised me,” said Goodwin. “I hadn’t talked to Carl since I’d gotten released. I hadn’t seen him or talked to him since then. It was kind of a weird feeling that after all the things that went on over the last five or six years, he remembered that.”
But even in 2005, the veteran could see a rare commitment to improve in the up-and-coming burner. Goodwin spent time that camp with Crawford, B.J. Upton and Joey Gathright – three players with exceptional speed and the potential at that time to make a major impact on the bases.
The impression made by Crawford was especially strong.
“With those guys there, you could just see how much they could run, Carl in particular. His work ethic was phenomenal,” said Goodwin. “Younger guys obviously are hungry, but he was just one of those guys who always wanted to work, always wanted to get better. He asked a lot of questions.
“Just to see how he worked was very refreshing for a guy like myself who wanted the game to continue to go in that way, where guys who steal bases could still impact the game, not just sitting around waiting for the home run, waiting for the three-run home run anymore.”
It was notable to Goodwin that Crawford wanted to work on the nuances of his game. After all, that was still a point in the decade when the baseball market did more to reward power than well-rounded athleticism.
In such an environment, it would have been understandable for Crawford to spend more time thinking about bulking up and taking steps to increase his chances of clearing the fences. But the young Rays prospect resisted that temptation.
“You don’t really want money to be involved with a guy that young, but you could obviously see who was making all the money in the league,” said Goodwin. “Most of the time it was the big basher. He didn’t fall into that trap of trying to come out of his game. He just wanted to try to perfect his game and get it to be the best it could be.
“And Carl became that special type of player by keeping his legs in shape, knowing that was going to be the thing that would let him go as high as he could go.”
And now, Crawford enjoys a perch in rarefied air in the baseball world. He is the embodiment of the type of player who has come to be valued by the industry, someone who does a number of things at a tremendous level.
His value lies in his dynamism in several facets of the game, and in the fact that he can impact the game as a hitter, a base runner and outfielder. For that, to paraphrase former Eagles wide receiver Freddie Mitchell, he can thank his legs for being so great.
It is his legs and speed – combined with his acumen for the game and thirst to improve – that brought Crawford to Boston on a seven-year, $142 million deal that was beyond anything the four-time stolen base champ had ever hoped for.
“I never imagined this, that I’d imagine this kind of contract. I’ve never hit 20 home runs. I’ve always been looked at as a speed guy, and I know speed guys weren’t really looked [as] highly upon as home run hitters,” said Crawford, who is the seventh player in big league history with 400 steals through his age 28 season. “But if I can add speed and do everything else right at a high level, maybe I had a chance to be just as valuable.
“That’s what happens. I knew I wasn’t going to hit a lot of home runs in my career, so I just worked on everything else and tried to be the best at every other little thing that I could be. It worked out for me.”
As for Goodwin, he was released by the Rays. He went home and proved unsuccessful in his attempts to land with another organization, so he ended up playing the year for Atlantic City of the independent Atlantic League. Late in the season, a Sox scout went to look at him as a potential late-season signing, but the team took a pass.
A couple years later, however, Goodwin was hired to be a coach for the Lowell Spinners in 2008. He’s been the Sox’ baserunning instructor for the last two years. In that capacity, he is excited about the prospect that a new Sox superstar can help to make his message a bit more impactful.
“[Hearing of the signing] was awesome for me,” said Goodwin. “Being over here, being in the minor league system and that’s what I’m trying to teach some of the kids, now they’ll be able to see not only [Jacoby Ellsbury] but CC doing the same thing.
“The more that players in the minor leagues can see guys in the big leagues doing it, the more now they can know, ‘This is how I can impact the game. I don’t have to hit .300 or drive in 100-something runs. I can beat out a double play ball, be on first base, have a chance to get to second, possibly have a chance to get to third, see what happens. But there are more ways to impact the game [than just hitting] and I think that’s what we’re going to see with the Red Sox this year.”
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