Strong throwing arms are essential to playing shortstop, and Jesse Crain had all the credentials while playing at Fairview High School in Boulder, San Jacinto (Texas) Junior College and the University of Houston.
In 1999, Crain was the high school player of the year in Colorado. He went on to become an all-conference shortstop at San Jacinto and an All-American at Houston as a shortstop and relief pitcher.
During his short professional career, Crain has taken that strong throwing arm to the mound. His major-league record with Minnesota is 11-0, including 8-0 with a 1.59 ERA this season.
“A lot of it has been coming into the games at the right place and the right time,” Crain said during a telephone interview Friday from Kansas City, where the Twins were playing the Royals.
“We play a lot of close games, and six of my wins this season have been in extra-inning games.”
Crain’s role with the Twins is as a setup man, but regardless of when he has entered the game, he has gotten the job done. Crain has allowed only seven earned runs and three home runs, and has posted a 1.59 ERA with 15 strikeouts in 39 2/3 innings in 40 appearances. Last year, he was 3-0 with the Twins in 22 appearances after starting the season at Triple-A Rochester.
His goal is to become the Twins’ closer.
While his résumé is filled with highlights from his days at shortstop, he was just as impressive as a pitcher.
“He always was such a good shortstop that you had to use him there,” said Rick Harig, his baseball coach at Fairview. “But he was our closer, too. If you could get to the sixth inning and be ahead, you were home free with him. He ate that up and just blew everybody away.
“He just had something different than other kids. When it really got tough, he got better. That was evident at a young age.”
Frank Lee, the basketball coach at Fairview, recalled Crain as a force on the hardwood as well. But that wasn’t his first love.
“His passion always was to play baseball,” Lee said.
But Crain’s jump from high school and college baseball to professional baseball wasn’t a classic. He wasn’t drafted by a major-league team after his senior year at Fairview.
“I don’t know what happened there,” Harig said. “He probably was a little under 6-feet tall and about 170 pounds in high school. But now, he’s 6-feet-1 and 205 pounds.”
Crain went to the University of Texas out of high school, but he transferred to San Jacinto when he found out his place at shortstop was down on the depth chart.
After his second season at San Jacinto, he went to the Rockies’ predraft tryout camp, but didn’t get much of a look. He went to Houston and played for a year, and the Twins drafted him in the second round in the 2002 June draft. At Houston, he threw 30 consecutive scoreless innings as the team’s closer at one point during the season.
Crain moved through five levels in the Twins’ minor-league system in a year and a half. He made his climb primarily on the strength of his strong right arm, which could deliver a fastball in the high 90 mph range. But that strength initially got him in trouble with location when he first came up to the Twins.
“I have to give a lot of credit to our pitching coach, Rick Anderson,” Crain said. “We worked for a couple of weeks on mechanics. It primarily was staying back on my back leg longer, and it helped with my control.”
Crain was born in Canada but grew up in Boulder. He called Austin, Texas, his place of residence for a while, but he and his wife, Becky, his high school sweetheart, have moved back to Colorado and live in Longmont.
Could he have made the major leagues as a shortstop?
“Eventually I think so, but I wouldn’t be where I am today,” Crain said.
Irv Moss can be reached at 303-820-1296 or imoss@denverpost.com.
