A look back at OF Dylan Crews highlights from his time with the Rochester Red Wings

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With his MLB career about to begin, here are some memories from Dylan Crews' time here in Rochester:

After seeing him play in person for the first time, my first impression of him was that he's always giving 100%. He seemed to run full speed to first, even if it seemed a guaranteed out. In a previous post, I compared him to Pete Rose, whose go-for-it attitude earned him the name "Charlie Hustle." That opinion still stands—he's a man seemingly always going at full speed.
Another parallel between him and Pete Rose? He's short. Well, sort of. He's officially 5'11" or 6'0", but when I've met him in post-game interviews he's about my height, and I'm 5'9" or 5'10". This, by the way, still makes him at or just above the average height of an American man, but it's startling to think how small he's going to look in the Nationals outfield standing next to James Wood, who is 6'7" but somehow looks even taller than that.
Rochester is Buffalo Bills country. They hold their training camp here every summer, and Bills players past and present appear in local commercials. For the last several years, the most popular political sign was for the "Allen/Diggs" ticket (the second part of the ticket has now changed).

So when Hall of Fame running back Thurman Thomas showed up to throw a first pitch before a Wings game, it was a big deal. But it turned out that Thomas and Crews have known each other for years! After retirement, Thomas moved to Florida for several years, close to Crews' family. The families were neighbors as Dylan grew up, and Crews played in youth sports leagues with and became good friends with Thomas' son, Thurman Thomas III. So, by coincidence, one of the best prospects in baseball ends up catching the first pitch of a Hall of Fame -back in Rochester one summer night, whom he has known for years. What a small world.
It is a rite of passage that every major prospect to come through Rochester, should they be willing, must try the garbage plate. The plate is the signature food of Rochester, a conglomeration of meat, sauce, mac salad, home fries, and whatever else you want to throw in it. It's a symbol of the region, to the point where the Red Wings play as the "Rochester Plates" during Thursday home games. Crews was going to be introduced to the Garbage Plate. It was also something that later came up during an MLB Network appearance.
Crews' greatest moment as a Red Wing was perhaps the strangest: a walk-off single on July 23. It was ruled a single but a run score only because the Lehigh Valley second baseman missed the throw for a forceout at second. Regardless, the Wings win and move into a tie for first place at the time. Crews got a celebratory dumping of Powerade, and much joy was had.

OTHER NOTES:

The first series of the two-week road trip started extremely well for the Red Wings, as they won three straight and moved ever closer to the top of the International League standings. However, they've since lost three straight and are now 3.5 games back of first with a series against Scranton coming up.
Darren Baker has a 15-game hit streak, and his 37 steals are second in the IL. He still has yet to hit a home run, but he's still been one of the most steady bats for the Red Wings this season, and hopefully, he'll get a shot in the majors by the end of the year.
Rico Garcia continues to lead the IL in saves, with 18.

Dan Glickman writes for Pickin' Splinters and the Baseball Continuum blog. He often live-tweets Red Wings games he is covering at @DanJGlickman.