Curtis’ Josiah O’Bannon wants to thrive as a baseball player. He’s had an ideal mentor – Mariners shortstop J.P. Crawford
Before the minor league baseball season opened back in 2019, Josiah O’Bannon was given a tip about a possible summer job.
The Tacoma Rainiers were looking for batboys.
It didn’t take long for O’Bannon, who is now a starting pitcher and outfielder at Curtis High School, to decide to sign on to spending his summer afternoons and evenings at Cheney Stadium, listening and learning from up-and-coming professional players.
One of them was current Mariners shortstop J.P. Crawford.
O’Bannon would arrive a few hours ahead of game time, rub up about 200 baseballs with mud — which gives them a rougher surface and makes it easier for pitchers to grip — and get a chance to spend some time hanging out and eating dinner with the Rainiers players in the clubhouse before taking his place in the dugout for nine innings.
“It was so cool,” O’Bannon said. “That was probably one of the coolest things I’ve done throughout high school is being able to hang out with people who are already at the level that I want to get to.
“Especially J.P. I clicked with him from the jump.”
O’Bannon wasn’t familiar with Crawford’s career before the shortstop was traded to Seattle’s organization from Philadelphia in 2018, but once the two met, he said it felt like they knew each other already.
O’Bannon, who like Crawford is biracial, connected with Crawford immediately.
“There’s not too many mixed guys around in baseball,” Crawford said this week from Baltimore, where the Mariners just wrapped up a road trip. “I instantly reached out and I’m like, ‘Hey, what’s up bro?’ Just started messing with him, and pretty soon just tried to be that big brother figure for him.”
The two could talk about anything, O’Bannon said, like baseball, or video games, or just life in general.
“Our bond just got closer over the time that we were there,” Crawford said. “He kind of just grew into that little brother that I never had.”
Crawford spent the first month of the season in Tacoma, reached base safely in all 31 games he played, and slashed at .319/.420/.457 with 15 RBI, seven doubles, three home runs and three stolen bases.
Then, one night in early May, he was scratched from the lineup about an hour before game time.
He departed the ballpark not long after, and caught a flight to join the big league club on the road in Boston. He made his Mariners debut the following night.
O’Bannon was in the clubhouse that night in Tacoma, and helped Crawford clean out his locker and load up his gear.
“That was definitely an eye-opening experience — to watch somebody get called up,” O’Bannon said. “He was like, ‘I’m off to Boston.’ I took his bags to his car and said goodbye.”
But, it wasn’t goodbye for too long. Crawford has remained with the big league club since — and was a Gold Glove winner in 2020 — but he and O’Bannon have kept in touch.
When the Mariners played their final game of the 2019 season that September, Crawford made sure O’Bannon was in the stands.
“I was just trying to give him a perspective that he can make it, too,” Crawford said. “We’re kind of the same guy. It just takes a little bit more effort and attitude to get to where we’re at up here. … This is the dream, so come chase it.”
After the Mariners wrapped up a season-ending win over the A’s, O’Bannon got a chance to catch up with Crawford on the field by Seattle’s dugout, and Crawford gave him some gear — bats, gloves, batting gloves and cleats.
“J.P. is a class act,” O’Bannon’s father, Kelvin, said.
“I’m trying to give back as much as I can,” Crawford said. “Just give people a chance to do something with their baseball careers, and hopefully give them a piece of advice that helps them get to the next level.”
O’Bannon found value not only what he has learned from Crawford, but in getting the opportunity to spend time around all of the players in the Rainiers clubhouse.
“He got to be around people who play for a living,” Kelvin O’Bannon said. “This was their job. He was there probably 50 nights in the dugout, watching them hit, watching them throw, seeing what it takes to get to that level. He would see people come back down (from the majors), and he would see them put in extra work.
“It was just another other level for him, and it changed everything he focused on. That’s when he started getting in the gym, and started doing CrossFit (workouts). He was like, ‘I need to be bigger, faster and stronger if I’m ever going to get to this level.’ It changed his mindset.”
O’Bannon was a junior varsity player for Curtis his sophomore season, but was expected to be in the starting rotation for the Vikings as a junior before the 2020 season was wiped out by the COVID-19 pandemic.
He didn’t let the missed season deter his development. During the past two years, O’Bannon, also a former state qualifier in wrestling, has continued to focus on building muscle. The commitment has paid off.
“It’s showing when he pitches, and it’s showing when the ball is jumping off his bat like it never has before,” Curtis coach Bryan Robinson said.
Now the Vikings’ ace, O’Bannon has posted a 2.30 ERA with 17 strikeouts across 12 innings this season. His fastball can reach the mid-to-upper 80s and pairs well with his curveball.
“Those two pitches are just a reflection of his work ethic,” Robinson said. “You don’t get an aggressive breaking ball without working your tail off in the weight room. You don’t get an inside power fastball without working your tail off in the weight room.”
O’Bannon is also developing his changeup, giving him a third pitch as he looks ahead to playing in college.
He’s also hitting .333 for the Vikings this spring with two doubles, a home run and seven RBI. He slugged the homer in a win over South Kitsap, one of the Class 4A South Puget Sound League favorites, earlier this week.
Robinson said this is the player the Vikings knew O’Bannon could develop into. The senior has become a leader for Curtis both through his play and his dedication to putting in additional work outside of practices and games. Perhaps some of that drive comes from the advice Crawford has given him.
“He told me to just stay focused,” O’Bannon said. “Stay focused and stay on the grind. It’s going to be hard, but if you put your mind to anything, you’ll be able to do it.”
This story was originally published April 16, 2021 at 5:00 AM.
