Carl Crawford Gives Davis High Academic Cred At Harvard

Carl Crawford, not discussing the history he learned at Davis

​Carl Crawford, the Davis High School grad who is the Boston Red Sox' latest big-money acquisition, is giving his alma mater some serious academic credibility among his learned new neighbors.

Or at least he was, for a while.

A baseball blogger in Kansas City noted Crawford's move to Boston and, as our sister blog at the Riverfront Times reports, he mentioned how Crawford would be opening an antiquarian bookstore in New England, a move spawned by the love of Puritan history he learned at Davis:

Crawford's passion for New England history began at Jefferson Davis High School in Houston when he read William Bradford's Of Plymouth Plantation in the 9th grade. "At Jeff Davis at that time, it was very much the old Bercovitch reading of history that dominated. To prepare, I'd read The Puritan Origins of the American Self in eighth grade. Eventually however, I wanted to return to the primary materials."

The item noted that Crawford kept a passage from Of Plymouth Plantation taped under the lid of his baseball cap.

"Ah yes, I still remember it. 'Some times by bloody death and cruell torments; other whiles imprisonments, banishments, & other hard usages; as being loath his kingdom should goe downe, the trueth prevaile, and ye churches of God revert to their anciente puritie, and recover their primative order, libertie, & bewtie.'"

People unfamiliar with Crawford (not to mention Davis High?) took it seriously. The Harvard Bookstore tweeted "file this under 'amazing'.

Turning to primary sources, researchers might have discovered an interview with ESPN in which Crawford was asked for the last good he read.

"I haven't read a book in forever," he said.

Ah well, Davis High. You had the respect of the Harvard Bookstore for one brief, shining moment.