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Mark Ellis (baseball)
Mark William Ellis (born June 6, 1977) is an American former professional baseball second baseman. He played the majority of his Major League Baseball (MLB) career for the Oakland Athletics, and also appeared for the Colorado Rockies, Los Angeles Dodgers and St. Louis Cardinals. Ellis posted a career .991 fielding percentage, the fifth-best all-time for a second baseman in MLB history at the time of his retirement. Early career Ellis was born in Rapid City, South Dakota. Ellis graduated from Stevens High School in Rapid City in 1995. Also in Ellis' graduating class was WNBA star Becky Hammon. They were voted by their peers as male and female "Class Athletes" of the '95 graduating class. Ellis is one of three players to have made it to the Major Leagues who played for the Rapid City Post 22 American Legion baseball program; the others are Kelvin Torve and Dave Collins. As a 16-year-old, Ellis was the starting shortstop for the 1993 Rapid City Post 22 varsity "Hardhat" basebal ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
South Dakota
South Dakota (; Sioux language, Sioux: , ) is a U.S. state in the West North Central states, North Central region of the United States. It is also part of the Great Plains. South Dakota is named after the Lakota people, Lakota and Dakota people, Dakota Sioux Native Americans in the United States, Native American tribes, who comprise a large portion of the population with nine Indian reservation, reservations currently in the state and have historically dominated the territory. South Dakota is the List of U.S. states and territories by area, seventeenth largest by area, but the List of U.S. states and territories by population, 5th least populous, and the List of U.S. states and territories by population density, 5th least densely populated of the List of U.S. states, 50 United States. As the southern part of the former Dakota Territory, South Dakota became a state on November 2, 1889, simultaneously with North Dakota. They are the 39th and 40th states admitted to the union; Pr ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Ben Grieve
Ben Grieve (born May 4, 1976) is an American former professional baseball outfielder. He batted left and threw right. In his nine-season career, he played with the Oakland Athletics (–), Tampa Bay Devil Rays (–), Milwaukee Brewers (), and Chicago Cubs (2004–). Grieve was a prospect who won the American League Rookie of the Year award while playing for the Oakland Athletics. His father, Tom, was also a Major League Baseball player. High school Grieve attended Martin High School in Arlington, Texas, where he was teammates with Matt Blank and won a Texas baseball championship in 1993. As a senior in 1994, he hit .486. He benefited from receiving hitting instruction from Tom's former teammate and then- Texas Rangers hitting coach, Tom Robson. He also played basketball at Martin. He initially committed to play college baseball at TCU. Professional career Oakland Athletics Grieve was selected by the Oakland Athletics with the second pick of the 1994 Major League Baseball dr ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Tampa Bay Devil Rays
The Tampa Bay Rays are an American professional baseball team based in St. Petersburg, Florida. The Rays compete in Major League Baseball (MLB) as a member club of the American League (AL) East division. Since its inception, the team's home venue has been Tropicana Field. Following nearly three decades of unsuccessfully trying to gain an expansion franchise or enticing existing teams to relocate to the Tampa Bay area, an ownership group led by Vince Naimoli was approved on March 9, 1995. The team began play as the Tampa Bay Devil Rays in the 1998 Major League Baseball season. The team's first decade of play was marked by futility; they finished in last place in the AL East in all but the 2004 season, when they finished second to last. Following the 2007 season, Stuart Sternberg, who had purchased controlling interest in the team from Vince Naimoli two years earlier, changed the team's name from "Devil Rays" to "Rays", now meaning both a manta ray and a ray of sunshine; a mant ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Cory Lidle
Cory Fulton Lidle (March 22, 1972 – October 11, 2006) was an American professional baseball player. A right-handed pitcher, Lidle played in Major League Baseball with the New York Mets, Tampa Bay Devil Rays, Oakland Athletics, Toronto Blue Jays, Cincinnati Reds, Philadelphia Phillies and the New York Yankees from 1997 to 2006. Lidle was killed when the small aircraft he owned crashed into a residential building in New York City. Baseball career Lidle graduated from South Hills High School in West Covina, California in 1990. He was a high school teammate of future major leaguers Jason Giambi and Aaron Small. Minor leagues Lidle was not drafted by any baseball teams, but he was signed by the Minnesota Twins as an amateur free agent. He was released in 1993 and spent a season playing for the unaffiliated Pocatello Posse in Idaho while bartending. After one season in Pocatello, he was signed by the Milwaukee Brewers. Due to his participation as a replacement player during t ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Pitcher
In baseball, the pitcher is the player who throws ("pitches") the baseball from the pitcher's mound toward the catcher to begin each play, with the goal of retiring a batter, who attempts to either make contact with the pitched ball or draw a walk. In the numbering system used to record defensive plays, the pitcher is assigned the number 1. The pitcher is often considered the most important player on the defensive side of the game, and as such is situated at the right end of the defensive spectrum. There are many different types of pitchers, such as the starting pitcher, relief pitcher, middle reliever, lefty specialist, setup man, and the closer. Traditionally, the pitcher also bats. Starting in 1973 with the American League(and later the National League) and spreading to further leagues throughout the 1980s and 1990s, the hitting duties of the pitcher have generally been given over to the position of designated hitter, a cause of some controversy. The Japanese Central Le ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Johnny Damon
Johnny David Damon (born November 5, 1973) is an American former professional baseball outfielder who played in Major League Baseball (MLB) from 1995 to 2012. During his MLB career, Damon played for the Kansas City Royals (1995–2000), Oakland Athletics (2001), Boston Red Sox (2002–2005), New York Yankees (2006–2009), Detroit Tigers (2010), Tampa Bay Rays (2011) and Cleveland Indians (2012). Damon also played for the Thailand national baseball team and was a member of the squad for the 2013 World Baseball Classic qualifiers. Early years Damon was born on Fort Riley, an U.S. Army post in Kansas. His mother Yome is a Thai immigrant to the United States and his father Jimmy is an American of Croatian and Irish descent. They met while his father, a staff sergeant in the United States Army, was stationed in Thailand. Damon spent much of his infancy as an "Army brat," moving to several posts including Okinawa, Japan and West Germany before his father was discharged from the Arm ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Outfielder
An outfielder is a person playing in one of the three defensive positions in baseball or softball, farthest from the batter. These defenders are the left fielder, the center fielder, and the right fielder. As an outfielder, their duty is to catch fly balls and ground balls then to return them to the infield for the out or before the runner advances, if there are any runners on the bases. As an outfielder, they normally play behind the six players located in the field. By convention, each of the nine defensive positions in baseball is numbered. The outfield positions are 7 (left field), 8 (center field) and 9 (right field). These numbers are shorthand designations useful in baseball scorekeeping and are not necessarily the same as the squad numbers worn on player uniforms. Outfielders named to the MLB All-Century Team are Hank Aaron, Ty Cobb, Joe DiMaggio, Mickey Mantle, Willie Mays, Stan Musial, Pete Rose, Babe Ruth, Ted Williams and Ken Griffey Jr. Strategy Players can ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Carolina League
The Carolina League is a Minor League Baseball league which has operated along the Atlantic Coast of the United States since 1945. Having been classified at various levels throughout its existence, it operated at Class A-Advanced from 1990 until its demotion to Single-A following Major League Baseball's 2021 reorganization of the minor leagues. The league temporarily operated for the 2021 season as the Low-A East before reassuming its original moniker in 2022. The organization that later became the Carolina League formed in 1945, just as World War II was ending, and consisted of eight teams, six from North Carolina and two from southern Virginia. This later grew to as many as 12 teams, at times. History The Carolina League was announced on October 29, 1944, after an organizational meeting at Durham, North Carolina. It was a successor to the Class D Bi-State League that existed before World War II. The league began play in 1945 with eight teams based in Burlington, Durham, Gre ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
1999 Major League Baseball Draft
The 1999 First-Year Player Draft, Major League Baseball's annual amateur draft of high school and college baseball players, was held on June 2 and 3, 1999. A total of 1474 players were drafted over the course of 50 rounds. First round selections Supplemental first round selections Compensation picks Other notable players *Carl Crawford, 2nd round, 52nd overall by the Tampa Bay Devil Rays (All-Star) *Brandon Phillips, 2nd round, 57th overall by the Montreal Expos (All-Star) *Ryan Doumit, 2nd round, 59th overall by the Pittsburgh Pirates *Ryan Ludwick, 2nd round, 60th overall by the Oakland Athletics (All-Star) *John Lackey, 2nd round, 68th overall by the Anaheim Angels (All-Star) *Jack Taschner, 2nd round, 75th overall by the San Francisco Giants *Justin Morneau, 3rd round, 89th overall by the Minnesota Twins (All-Star) *Willie Bloomquist, 3rd round, 95th overall by the Seattle Mariners *Jon Rauch, 3rd round, 99th overall by the Chicago White Sox *Josh Bard, 3rd round, 1 ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Kansas City Royals
The Kansas City Royals are an American professional baseball team based in Kansas City, Missouri. The Royals compete in Major League Baseball (MLB) as a member club of the American League (AL) Central division. The team was founded as an expansion franchise in 1969, and has played in four World Series, winning in 1985 and 2015, and losing in 1980 and 2014. Outside of a dominant 10 year stretch between 1976 to 1985, and a brief, albeit dominant resurgence from 2014 to 2015, the Royals have been one of the worst franchises in baseball, missing the playoffs 34 of the previous 36 years. The name "Royals" pays homage to the American Royal, a livestock show, horse show, rodeo, and championship barbecue competition held annually in Kansas City since 1899, as well as the identical names of two former Negro league baseball teams that played in the first half of the 20th century. (One a semi-pro team based in Kansas City in the 1910s and 1920s that toured the Midwest and a California ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
