Todd Van Poppel
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Todd Van Poppel
Todd Matthew Van Poppel (born December 9, 1971) is a former Major League Baseball pitcher who played for the Oakland Athletics (, –), Detroit Tigers (1996), Texas Rangers (, –), Pittsburgh Pirates (1998), Chicago Cubs (–), and Cincinnati Reds (2003–). He retired during spring training with the New York Mets in . Amateur career Van Poppel was 11–3 with a 0.97 earned run average (ERA) and 170 strikeouts as a senior at Martin High School in Arlington, Texas. He was drafted in the first round, 14th overall, by the Athletics directly out of high school in the 1990 Major League Baseball Draft. The Atlanta Braves had seriously considered using the first overall selection on Van Poppel. However, when Van Poppel explicitly told the Braves he would not sign with them, the team opted instead to take future Hall of Fame player Chipper Jones. Professional career Van Poppel was the first of four starting pitchers selected by the A's in the first 36 picks of the 1990 draft, referre ...
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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 ...
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Martin High School (Arlington, Texas)
James Martin High School is a secondary school serving grades 9 through 12 in Arlington, Texas, United States. It is part of the Arlington Independent School District. The school's colors are red, black and silver. History Martin opened in 1982. As a result, the former James Bowie High School closed in 1983. The relative proximity of Bowie to Sam Houston High School was a factor as was the shifting demographics and resulting graduation class sizes that necessitated the new school and the transition of Bowie to Workman Junior High School. Cathy Brown of ''The Dallas Morning News'' said that Sam Houston High School and Lamar High School were "relatively unaffected" by the opening of Martin, located in southwest Arlington.Brown, Cathy (editorial columnist).No blackboard jungles despite changing demographics" ''The Dallas Morning News''. Wednesday, October 14, 1998. Opinions Arlington 7A. Retrieved on October 25, 2011. Brown explained that the attendance zone of Arlington High Sc ...
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Texas Collegiate League
The Texas Collegiate League (TCL) is a collegiate summer baseball league made up of teams from the states of Texas, Louisiana, and Oklahoma. The league's headquarters are in Coppell, Texas. Uri Geva, owner of the Brazos Valley Bombers, is the league's president. History The TCL played its inaugural season in the summer of 2004 with eight teams in the Dallas-Fort Worth area, and was co-founded by Wayne Poage, former athletic director at Dallas Baptist University, and a company controlled by Gerald W. Haddock, a minority owner and General Counsel of the Texas Rangers from 1989 to 1998. The TCL would nearly fold in 2007, when seven of the original nine teams (all except the McKinney Marshals and the Coppell Copperheads) allegedly decided to boycott the TCL by collectively terminating their interests in the TCL. TCL ceased operations after the season, filed suit against the seven teams to terminate their franchises, and entered into a written license agreement authorizing the own ...
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Denton Outlaws
The Denton Outlaws were a collegiate summer baseball team based in Denton, Texas, from 2005 to 2007. They played their home games at Falcon Field in Corinth, Texas. The team was quite competitive during their short time in the Texas Collegiate League. In 2005, they were the TCL Champions. In 2006, they won the Rogers Hornsby Rogers Hornsby Sr. (April 27, 1896 – January 5, 1963), nicknamed "The Rajah", was an American baseball infielder, manager, and coach who played 23 seasons in Major League Baseball (MLB). He played for the St. Louis Cardinals (1915–1926, 193 ... Division. Disbandment The Denton Outlaws were one of seven teams that were disbanded after the league filed a lawsuit because the teams tried to form a new league that were going to copycat that the TCL used. The Outlaws played their last season in 2007. External links TCL Fan Forum References Texas Collegiate League teams Defunct minor league baseball teams Defunct baseball teams in Texas Sports in Dento ...
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Base On Balls
A base on balls (BB), also known as a walk, occurs in baseball when a batter receives four pitches that the umpire calls '' balls'', and is in turn awarded first base without the possibility of being called out. The base on balls is defined in Section 2.00 of baseball's Official Rules, and further detail is given in 6.08(a). It is considered a faux pas for a professional player to literally walk to first base; the batter-runner and any advancing runners normally jog on such a play. The term "base on balls" distinguishes a walk from the other manners in which a batter can be awarded first base without liability to be put out (e.g., hit by pitch (HBP), catcher's interference). Though a base on balls, catcher's interference, or a batter hit by a pitched ball all result in the batter (and possibly runners on base) being awarded a base, the term "walk" usually refers only to a base on balls, and not the other methods of reaching base without the bat touching the ball. An importan ...
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Relief Pitcher
In baseball and softball, a relief pitcher or reliever is a pitcher who enters the game after the starting pitcher is removed because of fatigue (medical), fatigue, ineffectiveness, injury, or ejection (sports), ejection, or for other strategic reasons, such as inclement weather delays or pinch hitter substitutions. Relief pitchers are further divided informally into various roles, such as Closer (baseball), closers, setup men, middle relief pitchers, left-handed specialist, left/right-handed specialists, and long relievers. Whereas starting pitchers usually pitch count, throw so many pitches in a single game that they must rest several days before pitching in another, relief pitchers are expected to be more flexible and typically pitch in more games with a shorter time period between pitching appearances but with fewer innings pitched per appearance. A team's staff of relievers is normally referred to Metonymy, metonymically as a team's bullpen, which refers to the area where th ...
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Fastball
The fastball is the most common type of pitch thrown by pitchers in baseball and softball. "Power pitchers," such as former American major leaguers Nolan Ryan and Roger Clemens, rely on speed to prevent the ball from being hit, and have thrown fastballs at speeds of (officially) and up to (unofficially). Pitchers who throw more slowly can put movement on the ball, or throw it on the outside of home plate where batters can't easily reach it. Fastballs are usually thrown with backspin, so that the Magnus effect creates an upward force on the ball. This causes it to fall less rapidly than expected, and sometimes causes an optical illusion often called a rising fastball. Although it is impossible for a human to throw a baseball fast enough and with enough backspin for the ball to actually rise, to the batter the pitch seems to rise due to the unexpected lack of natural drop on the pitch. A straight pitch is achieved by gripping the ball with the fingers across the wide part o ...
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Tacoma Rainiers
The Tacoma Rainiers are a Minor League Baseball team of the Pacific Coast League (PCL) and the Triple-A affiliate of the Seattle Mariners. They are located in Tacoma, Washington, and play their home games at Cheney Stadium, which opened in 1960. Tacoma has competed in the PCL since 1960, including the 2021 season when it was known as the Triple-A West. The team operated under several monikers before becoming the Rainiers in 1995. Tacoma has won the PCL championship six times (1961, 1969, 1978, 2001, 2010, and 2021). History Beginnings: Tacoma Tigers Tacoma's first team in the PCL was the Tacoma Tigers, who joined the league in 1904, having moved from Sacramento after the 1903 season. The 1904 Tigers won Tacoma's first PCL pennant, finishing first in both halves of the split season schedule, seven games (annualized) over the runner-up Los Angeles Angels. The 1905 Tigers won the first-half championship, then moved back to Sacramento, finishing out the season as the Sacramento ...
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Huntsville Stars
The Huntsville Stars were a Minor League Baseball team that played in Huntsville, Alabama, from 1985 to 2014. They competed in the Southern League as the Double-A affiliate of Major League Baseball's Oakland Athletics from 1985 to 1998 and Milwaukee Brewers from 1999 to 2014. The Stars played their home games at Joe W. Davis Stadium and were named for the space industry with which Huntsville is economically tied (NASA conducts operations at the nearby Marshall Space Flight Center). The team began play in 1985 after a Southern League franchise operating in Nashville, Tennessee, as the Nashville Sounds, was transferred to Huntsville. They remained in the city for 30 years before being relocated to Biloxi, Mississippi, where they became known as the Biloxi Shuckers, after the 2014 season. Over the course of playing in 4,211 regular season games and compiling a win–loss record of 2,112–2,099, Huntsville reached the postseason on 14 occasions, winning 13 half-sea ...
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Kirk Dressendorfer
Kirk Richard Dressendorfer (born April 8, 1969) is an American former professional baseball pitcher who played for the Oakland Athletics of Major League Baseball (MLB) in 1991. Dressendorfer attended and played college baseball at The University of Texas at Austin. Amateur career Dressendorfer graduated from Pearland High School and was selected by the Baltimore Orioles in the 34th round of the 1987 MLB Draft, but opted to attend The University of Texas at Austin. At UT he was a three-time All-American and All-SWC, posting a career record of 45–8, including a single-season record 15 complete games. In 1988, he played collegiate summer baseball with the Hyannis Mets of the Cape Cod Baseball League and was named a league all-star. Dressendorfer was inducted into the National College Baseball Hall of Fame in 2009. Professional career Dressendorfer was then selected by the Oakland Athletics in the first round (36th pick overall) of the 1990 MLB Draft. The Athletics possessed ...
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Starting Pitcher
In baseball (hardball or softball), a starting pitcher or starter is the first pitcher in the game for each team. A pitcher is credited with a game started if they throw the first pitch to the opponent's first batter of a game. Starting pitchers are expected to pitch for a significant portion of the game, although their ability to do this depends on many factors, including effectiveness, stamina, health, and strategy. A starting pitcher in professional baseball usually rests three, four, or five days after pitching a game before pitching in another. Therefore, most professional baseball teams have four, five or six starting pitchers on their rosters. These pitchers, and the sequence in which they pitch, is known as the ''rotation''. A team's best starter is known as the ace, and is almost always the first man to pitch in the rotation. In modern baseball, a five-man rotation is most common. In contrast, a pitcher who enters the game after the first pitch of the game is a re ...
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Chipper Jones
Larry Wayne "Chipper" Jones Jr. (born April 24, 1972) is an American former professional baseball third baseman who played in Major League Baseball (MLB) for the Atlanta Braves from 1993 to 2012. The Braves chose Jones with the first overall pick in the 1990 MLB draft. He was also a member of their 1995 World Series championship team that beat the Cleveland Indians. An eight-time All-Star, Jones won the 1999 National League (NL) Most Valuable Player Award and the 1999 and 2000 NL Silver Slugger Award for third basemen. He was the MLB batting champion in 2008 after hitting .364. Jones ended his career in 2012 with a .303 career batting average, 468 home runs, and 1,623 runs batted in (RBIs). He has the most career RBIs for a third baseman and holds the Braves team record for career on-base percentage (.402); Jones ranks third on the Braves career home run list. Among switch hitters, Jones ranks second behind Eddie Murray for career RBIs, and he is the only switch hitter i ...
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