Early life and amateur career Allen Craig was born in
Mission Viejo, California, to Ron and Kim Craig and raised in
Temecula, California. He has one younger sister named Kendal. His parents had moved to the
Temecula Valley in the 1970s so that Mr. Craig could secure employment with the
Rancho California Water District. In addition to relocating from Mission Viejo in
Orange County to Temecula in
Riverside County after Craig's birth, the family shifted residences multiple times before finally settling in Temecula. Craig's father was an early volunteer to help build the baseball fields that became the
Ronald Reagan Sports Complex near Temecula Valley High School in
Temecula, California. As soon as he was able to swing a
baseball bat, his parents entered him into the national
Tee Ball division of
Little League Baseball where his father coached and his mother served on the
board of directors. During his off-season playing time at UC Berkeley, Craig played two campaigns for the
Alexandria Beetles (
Minnesota) of the
Northwoods League (NWL), a
collegiate summer baseball league. Craig spent most games at shortstop but also contributed in the outfield, at third base, and first base. His first season was in 2003, after his freshman season at UC. He batted just .229 in 15 games in which his playing time was cut short by injury. He returned in 2005 after his junior season and put together a landmark NWL season that included a 21-game
hitting streak. In 49 games, Craig hit .362 with 12 home runs, 17 doubles and 40 RBI. Craig was named first-team shortstop for
Baseball America's 2005 College Summer All-America team. However, he played just three games at shortstop with the
State College Spikes in 2006 before spending the most games playing
third base. As a hitter, Craig showed power at all levels of the Cardinal
farm system, hitting 76 home runs in a three and one-half season span between 2006 and 2010 that comprised the bulk of his minor league playing time. In the
Florida State League in 2006, he posted an
adjusted on-base plus slugging at 26% above league average. His 21 home runs in an environment of primarily humid air and large ballparks brought notice as one of the top minor league hitters.
Baseball America ranked him as the Cardinals' number-15 prospect following the season. Each season from 2007 through 2009, Craig progressed from the high-A level to
AAA and participated between 119 and 129 games while hitting at least .304 with 22 home runs and 80 RBI. He started in right field and went 0–4 at the plate against the
Cincinnati Reds. His second home run came on August 22 in the Cardinals' 9–0 drubbing of the
San Francisco Giants'
Barry Zito. One month later, he hit his third home run in a 7–1 defeat of the
Chicago Cubs on September 24 in support of
Adam Wainwright's bid for his first 20-win season. In 44 total games in 2010, Craig saw 124
plate appearances (PA), batted .246, hit seven doubles and four home runs with 18 RBI. To get his bat in the lineup more,
manager Tony La Russa began playing him at second base near the end of May. In June, after batting .336 with 23 RBI in 107 at-bats, he suffered a small
knee cap fracture against the
Houston Astros by running into the wall tracking a fly ball in right field. The team placed him on the
disabled list (DL) with an expected intermission of about six weeks. The healing of the fracture stagnated throughout the season, however, and swelling persisted around the knee, slowing Craig's rehabilitation. Nevertheless, he regularly strengthened the
muscles around his patella and was cleared to play after passing a battery of medical tests. He also spent extra time warming up his knee before each game. After his return, Craig hit .290 in 35 games. In the World Series, Craig debuted in Game 1 by hitting a two-out, go-ahead pinch-hit single off
Texas Rangers' pitcher
Alexi Ogando's
fastball. The next night, La Russa again summoned Craig to pinch hit against Ogando. This time, he lined a fastball to right field to break a scoreless tie. On that single, he joined
Dusty Rhodes,
Del Unser and
Hal McRae as the only players to collect pinch-hit RBI in three consecutive
postseason at bats. He also joined
Duke Snider and
Amos Otis as the only hitters with the go-ahead hit in the sixth inning or later in consecutive World Series games. Further, Craig became the first player with two go-ahead RBIs as a pinch-hitter in World Series play. However, with his knee cap still not fully healed, Craig elected to have surgery to repair the fracture the following November. Further, Craig spent all of April on the
disabled list (DL) recovering from knee surgery. However, when he returned to play May 1, the Cardinals
designated outfielder Erik Komatsu for assignment to make room, and Craig found a windfall of playing time with Berkman now on the DL. After hitting five home runs in a seven-game stretch, injury quickly struck again when he pulled a hamstring in a game against the
San Francisco Giants on May 18 and landed back on the 15-day DL. To that point, Craig made a convincing argument for forcing his way into the starting lineup with a combination of top prospect
Matt Adams' slumping and hitting .373 with a .424
on-base percentage and .765
slugging percentage in thirteen games. Craig was back in action on June 1, and three days later, his tiebreaking two-run home run against the Mets allowed the Cardinals to end a five-game losing streak with a 5–4 win. In a stretch from June 9–21, he encountered a rare slump as he batted just .175 with one home run in 11 games. However, Craig discovered that pitchers were throwing him more
sliders. Over the next nine games through July 3, he solved his opponents' strategy, batting .364 with five home runs and 15 RBI. His season total to that date included appearing in just 40 of the Cardinals' 80 first games, taking 152 at-bats. Nonetheless, he tied Holliday (296 at-bats), catcher
Yadier Molina (265), and third baseman David Freese (276) with 13 home runs. He also carried a .322 batting average with 43 RBI. The RBI total ranked third in the NL since May 1, even with the second DL stay. Through September 16, he showed that he was adept at hitting with
runners in scoring position with a .355 batting average in his 197 career at-bats. The $31 million deal bought out his three future arbitration-eligible years and first year of free agency. Craig would earn $13 million in the 2018 season if the Cardinals exercised their option. In July, National League
manager Bruce Bochy selected Craig to his first
All-Star Game at
Citi Field in
Queens, New York City, as a reserve first baseman. His first-half performance included batting .333 with 10 home runs and 74 RBI. Both his RBI and hit totals (116) placed second in the NL. He became the fifth
alumnus of the
California Golden Bears to be named to an
MLB All-Star team. With his team facing a 5–4 deficit, Craig belted the game-winning
grand slam against the
division rival
Reds on August 26. The final outcome was 8–6. It was his first career grand slam, boosting his totals to seven hits in ten bases-loaded at-bats to go with 20 RBI to that point in the season (14 for 31, .452 batting average for his career). He was also batting .452 with runners in scoring position – again leading the Major Leagues – and it was the third-highest of all time for a single season, after
George Brett (.469,
1980) and
Tony Gwynn (.459,
1997). A
Lisfranc injury on September 4 on an
infield hit against the Reds prevented him from appearing in a game for the rest of the regular season. At the time, he was third in the NL in RBI with 97. He eventually finished eighth. Despite being shut down early, he led Cardinals in this category.
St. Louis Post-Dispatch sportswriter
Bernie Miklasz dubbed Craig "The Clutchmaster", "The RBI Machine" and "an RBI Monster". He also finished eighth in batting average (.315). That figure surpassed
Brian Jordan's average of .422 in
1996 (62 of 147) as the team record. Craig's chances of returning to play before the end of the season depended on how far the Cardinals could extend their season in the playoffs. They qualified for the postseason by finishing with the best
regular season record (97–65) in the National League. They kept winning through the playoffs, defeating the
Pittsburgh Pirates in the
NLDS and the
Los Angeles Dodgers in the
NLCS. Ready as a hitter in time for the
World Series against the
Boston Red Sox, Matheny at first excluded him from defense as the injury was not fully healed. Therefore, he served as the
designated hitter (DH) at
Fenway Park in
Boston and a
pinch hitter at
Busch Stadium in
St. Louis, a National League
park where the DH is not normally played. In Game 3, Craig was part of an unusual, game-ending, play. With the scored tied 4–4 in the bottom of the ninth, Cardinals center fielder
Jon Jay hit a ground ball off pitcher
Koji Uehara toward second baseman
Dustin Pedroia, who threw the ball
home to catcher
Jarrod Saltalamacchia to easily tag Yadier Molina out attempting to score. Saltalamacchia then threw the ball to
Will Middlebrooks as Craig rounded third, but it sailed wide into left field for an error, and, at the same time, Middlebrooks tripped Craig while reaching for the ball.
Daniel Nava recovered the ball and threw it back to home plate long before Craig would have successfully scored. Due to being tripped,
umpire Jim Joyce awarded Craig home plate when he called an obstruction on Middlebrooks, giving the Cardinals a 5–4 walk-off victory. This is the first known such walk-off victory in World Series history. However, the Cardinals lost the series to the Red Sox in six games. Craig batted 16 times and collected six hits for a .375 batting average.
2014 With another free agent departure in Beltrán, Craig again shifted positions in
2014, replacing him in right field. It also cleared the way for Matt Adams to assume first base. Craig started the season slowly, batting just .220 with a .644 OPS in April. He batted .291 and raised his OPS to .781 in May.
Boston Red Sox On July 31, 2014, Craig was traded along with
Joe Kelly to the Red Sox in exchange for
John Lackey and prospect
Corey Littrell. Upon being inserted into the Red Sox lineup, Craig struggled mightily towards the last two months of the season, hitting only .128 while striking out 36 times. The following season, Craig began the season as Boston's starting first baseman. On May 9, 2015, the Red Sox optioned Craig to the
Pawtucket Red Sox of the Triple–A
International League; since Craig had yet to accrue five years of service time, the Red Sox could option him to the minor leagues without his consent. On May 18, they outrighted him to the minors, removing him from the 40 man roster. He was re-added to the major league roster on September 1. Over 93 games with Pawtucket, he batted .274 with four home runs and thirty RBIs, and over 36 games with Boston, he batted .152. Craig returned to Pawtucket in 2016, but missed a majority of the season due to injury. He also returned to Pawtucket in 2017, but on June 30, was released.
San Diego Padres On January 22, 2018, Craig signed a minor league contract with the
San Diego Padres. Over 92 games with the Triple–A
El Paso Chihuahuas, he slashed .293/.375/.479 with 13 home runs and 59 RBI. Craig elected free agency following the season on November 2. Craig re-signed with the Padres on a minor league contract on December 19, 2018. He was released by the Padres organization on March 19, 2019. ==Post-playing career==