Clayton Crum nominated for 2013 "Erik Walker Award"

Pitcher Clayton Crum represented the 2013 Princeton Rays as rhe team's nominee for the seventh annual Tampa Bay Rays' "Erik Walker Community Champion Award."

The award recognizes a player in the Tampa Bay minor league farm system who exemplifies teamwork, sportsmanship and community involvement. The overall winner is presented a commemorative plaque from the Tampa Bay Rays, who also in turn donate $2500.00 in the player's name to the charity of his choice. The winner is chosen from among seven nominees, one each from Tampa Bay's seven domestic minor league affiliate teams.

The award is named in memory of Erik Walker, a first-year pitcher in the Tampa Bay farm system, who died tragically in a boating accident in October, 2006. This year's overall winner is catcher Geoff Rowan from the Bowling Green Hot Rods but the Rays also also make $500.00 donations to charities in the names of the remaining six finalists, so every nominee is recognized.

The announcement of Crum as the team's nominee was revealed during a pre-game clubhouse meeting on August 30 in Bristol, VA just prior to the P-Rays final game of the 2013 Appalachian League season.

"We had such a great group of players that participated with so many public service events in the community this summer but when I announced Clayton as the nominee, I looked around and not one player did a double-take. I feel like they do recognize there are some unique qualities in this young man," recalled P-Rays' General Manager Jim Holland.

During Crum's time in Princeton, he served as one of the hosts for the large contingent of "Make-A-Wish Kids" that visited Hunnicutt Field for a pre-game party and a ballgame on June 29. He also was one of the leaders on July 11-12, when the Princeton Rays players in uniform tops conducted a two-day grocery bagging event for customers at four local Grant's Supermarket locations. The event was done in conjunction with the players encouraging store patrons to buy some additional non-perishable canned food good items for the local Tender Mercies Food Pantry.

Beyond these activities, which were just a fraction of the many smaller stories people could relate about his giving and empathetic personality, Crum was a person that had a positive influence on anyone he came in contact with during his stay here. He always went out of his way to give a friendly "hello" to someone and at the ballpark, put others in front of himself to see they have a good experience at a P-Rays' game. 

These character traits of Crum are definitely year-round in nature as he now is preparing to be part of an upcoming mission trip to the Dominican Republic from November 10-15. The trip, which is coordinated by Score International, will see him assisting in providing support to orphans, participate in conducting youth baseball clinics, help with the feeding of outlying villages, and the building of churches.

Previous nominees from Princeton for the Erik Walker Community Champion Award were Justin Reynolds (2007), Joey Dettrich (2008), Ryan Wiegand (2009-and was also overall winner of the award), Victor Mateo (2010), Drew Vettleson (2011), and John Alexander (2012).