Jeromy Neal Burnitz (born April 15, 1969) is an American former professional baseball player. Burnitz was a
right fielder
A right fielder, abbreviated RF, is the outfielder in baseball or softball who plays defense in right field. Right field is the area of the outfield to the right of a person standing at home plate and facing towards the pitcher's mound. In the ...
in
Major League Baseball
Major League Baseball (MLB) is a professional baseball organization and the oldest major professional sports league in the world. MLB is composed of 30 total teams, divided equally between the National League (NL) and the American League (AL), ...
who played with the
New York Mets
The New York Mets are an American professional baseball team based in the New York City borough of Queens. The Mets compete in Major League Baseball (MLB) as a member of the National League (NL) East division. They are one of two major league ...
(1993–94, 2002–03),
Cleveland Indians
The Cleveland Guardians are an American professional baseball team based in Cleveland. The Guardians compete in Major League Baseball (MLB) as a member club of the American League (AL) Central division. Since , they have played at Progressive F ...
(1995–96),
Milwaukee Brewers
The Milwaukee Brewers are an American professional baseball team based in Milwaukee. They compete in Major League Baseball (MLB) as a member club of the National League (NL) National League Central, Central division. The Brewers are named for t ...
(1996–2001),
Los Angeles Dodgers
The Los Angeles Dodgers are an American professional baseball team based in Los Angeles. The Dodgers compete in Major League Baseball (MLB) as a member club of the National League (NL) West division. Established in 1883 in the city of Brooklyn ...
(2003),
Colorado Rockies
The Colorado Rockies are an American professional baseball team based in Denver. The Rockies compete in Major League Baseball (MLB) as a member club of the National League (NL) West division. The team plays its home baseball games at Coors Fie ...
(2004),
Chicago Cubs
The Chicago Cubs are an American professional baseball team based in Chicago. The Cubs compete in Major League Baseball (MLB) as part of the National League (NL) Central division. The club plays its home games at Wrigley Field, which is located ...
(2005), and
Pittsburgh Pirates
The Pittsburgh Pirates are an American professional baseball team based in Pittsburgh. The Pirates compete in Major League Baseball (MLB) as a member club of the National League (NL) Central division. Founded as part of the American Associati ...
(2006).
Early days
Burnitz played his collegiate ball at
Oklahoma State University
Oklahoma (; Choctaw: ; chr, ᎣᎧᎳᎰᎹ, ''Okalahoma'' ) is a state in the South Central region of the United States, bordered by Texas on the south and west, Kansas on the north, Missouri on the northeast, Arkansas on the east, New ...
, and in 1988, played
collegiate summer baseball
Collegiate summer baseball leagues are amateur baseball leagues in the United States and Canada featuring players who have attended at least one year of college and have at least one year of athletic eligibility remaining. Generally, they operat ...
in the
Cape Cod Baseball League
The Cape Cod Baseball League (CCBL or Cape League) is a collegiate summer baseball wooden bat league located on Cape Cod in the U.S. state of Massachusetts. One of the nation's premier collegiate summer leagues, the league boasts over one thousan ...
for the
Hyannis Mets
The Hyannis Harbor Hawks, formerly the Hyannis Mets, are a collegiate summer baseball team based in Hyannis, Massachusetts. The team is a member of the Cape Cod Baseball League (CCBL) and plays in the league's West Division. The Harbor Hawks play ...
. He played minor league ball with the Welsh Waves, the Pittsfield Mets and the
Buffalo Bisons
The Buffalo Bisons (known colloquially as the Herd) are a Minor League Baseball team of the International League and the Triple-A affiliate of the Toronto Blue Jays. Located in Buffalo, New York, the team plays their home games at Sahlen Fiel ...
.
Career
Burnitz was drafted in the first round of the
1990 draft by the New York Mets with the 17th overall selection. He made his major league debut in 1993. He exhibited both power and speed, but was traded by them to the Cleveland Indians. Burnitz never cracked the Cleveland lineup and it was only after his trade to Milwaukee in 1996 that he emerged as an everyday player.
Burnitz was a constant crowd favorite in Milwaukee, providing many of the only thrills during an otherwise low point in Brewers' history in their first years in the National League. He flaunted a career-high 38 home runs and 125 RBIs in , and he played in the
Major League Baseball All-Star Game
The Major League Baseball All-Star Game, also known as the "Midsummer Classic", is an annual professional baseball game sanctioned by Major League Baseball (MLB) and contested between the all-stars from the American League (AL) and National ...
in . In 1999 he started the game, replacing the injured
Tony Gwynn
Anthony Keith Gwynn Sr. (May 9, 1960 – June 16, 2014), nicknamed "Mr. Padre", was an American professional baseball right fielder, who played 20 seasons (1982–2001) in Major League Baseball (MLB) for the San Diego Padres. The left-handed hit ...
and became the first Brewer since
Paul Molitor
Paul Leo Molitor (born August 22, 1956), nicknamed "Molly" and "the Ignitor", is an American former Major League Baseball (MLB) player and former manager of the Minnesota Twins, who is in the Baseball Hall of Fame. During his 21-year baseball car ...
to start in the All-Star Game. After signing a contract extension with the Brewers in 2000, he was briefly the franchise's highest paid player of all time. On September 25, 2001, Burnitz and teammate
Richie Sexson
Richmond Lockwood Sexson (born December 29, 1974), nicknamed "Big Sexy", is an American former Major League Baseball first baseman who played for five teams from 1997 to 2008. He is also the field manager for the Windy City ThunderBolts in the ...
each hit three home runs in a 9–4 win against the
Arizona Diamondbacks
The Arizona Diamondbacks (colloquially known as the D-backs) are an American professional baseball team based in Phoenix. The Diamondbacks compete in Major League Baseball (MLB) as a member club of the National League (NL) West division. The f ...
. It was the first and, as of the 2021 season, only time that two players hit three home runs in the same game, let alone two teammates. In 2002, he returned to the Mets, but did not perform as well with his original team as both he and Mets fans hoped: his .215 batting average was the lowest among qualified batters. He was traded to Los Angeles in the Mets' 2003 purge of high-salaried players, and signed the following year with the Colorado Rockies.
In
2004
2004 was designated as an International Year of Rice by the United Nations, and the International Year to Commemorate the Struggle Against Slavery and its Abolition (by UNESCO).
Events January
* January 3 – Flash Airlines Flight 6 ...
, Burnitz signed with the Colorado Rockies, and became part of some rare home run displays. On April 27, he, rookie
Matt Holliday
Matthew Thomas Holliday (born January 15, 1980) is an American professional baseball coach and former left fielder who is the bench coach for the St. Louis Cardinals of Major League Baseball (MLB). He played in MLB from 2004 to 2018 for the ...
, and
Charles Johnson combined to slug back-to-back-to-back home runs against the
Florida Marlins
The Miami Marlins are an American professional baseball team based in Miami. The Marlins compete in Major League Baseball (MLB) as a member club of the National League (NL) East division. The club's home ballpark is LoanDepot Park.
The franc ...
, the sixth such occasion in franchise history. In a May 18 game against the
Cincinnati
Cincinnati ( ) is a city in the U.S. state of Ohio and the county seat of Hamilton County. Settled in 1788, the city is located at the northern side of the confluence of the Licking and Ohio rivers, the latter of which marks the state line wit ...
in which he hit two home runs, both were part of back-to-back home run sets with Holliday, making them the first teammates in franchise history to hit back-to-back home runs twice in the same game, and the first teammate duo to do so since
Mike Cameron
Michael Terrance Cameron (born January 8, 1973) is an American former professional Major League Baseball outfielder. He played for the Chicago White Sox, Cincinnati Reds, Seattle Mariners, New York Mets, San Diego Padres, Milwaukee Brewers, B ...
and
Bret Boone
Bret Robert Boone (born April 6, 1969) is a former Major League Baseball second baseman. During his career Boone was a three-time All-Star, four-time Gold Glove winner, and two-time Silver Slugger Award winner. He is a third generation professio ...
of
Seattle Mariners
The Seattle Mariners are an American professional baseball team based in Seattle. They compete in Major League Baseball (MLB) as a member club of the American League (AL) American League West, West division. The team joined the American League ...
in
2002
File:2002 Events Collage.png, From left, clockwise: The 2002 Winter Olympics are held in Salt Lake City; Queen Elizabeth The Queen Mother and her daughter Princess Margaret, Countess of Snowdon die; East Timor gains East Timor independence, indepe ...
. In 150 games, he led the Rockies with 37 home runs, hit a career high .283, and was second on the team with 110 RBI. On February 2, 2005, the Cubs signed Burnitz to a one-year contract, the same day
Sammy Sosa
Samuel Peralta Sosa (born November 12, 1968) is a Dominican-American former professional baseball right fielder. He played in Major League Baseball (MLB) for 19 seasons, primarily with the Chicago Cubs. After playing for the Texas Rangers and C ...
's trade to the
Baltimore Orioles
The Baltimore Orioles are an American professional baseball team based in Baltimore. The Orioles compete in Major League Baseball (MLB) as a member club of the American League (AL) American League East, East division. As one of the American L ...
was finalized. He continued to hit well at
Wrigley Field
Wrigley Field is a Major League Baseball (MLB) stadium on the North Side of Chicago, Illinois. It is the home of the Chicago Cubs, one of the city's two MLB franchises. It first opened in 1914 as Weeghman Park for Charles Weeghman's Chicago Wh ...
with a .258
average
In ordinary language, an average is a single number taken as representative of a list of numbers, usually the sum of the numbers divided by how many numbers are in the list (the arithmetic mean). For example, the average of the numbers 2, 3, 4, 7, ...
, 24 homers and 87 RBI in 160 games with the Cubs.
Burnitz was known as a good clubhouse man and a friendly, laid-back guy. During a slump in May 2006, he held an interview in order to apologize for failing to run out a grounder, then joked about the challenges that his team would face during the rest of the season, saying, "I'm your Highest-Paid Free Agent. That, in and of itself, should tell you the big picture that the team's in."
Personal life
Burnitz is married to Krissy Burnitz. They have three children together.
See also
*
List of Major League Baseball career home run leaders
This is a list of the 300 Major League Baseball players who have hit the most home runs.
In the sport of baseball, a home run is a hit in which the batter scores by circling all the bases and reaching home plate in one play, without the benefit ...
References
Sources
*''The ESPN Baseball Encyclopedia'' – Gary Gillette, Peter Gammons, Pete Palmer. Publisher: Sterling Publishing, 2005. Format: Paperback, 1824pp. Language: English.
External links
{{DEFAULTSORT:Burnitz, Jeromy
1969 births
Living people
Baseball players from California
Major League Baseball right fielders
New York Mets players
Cleveland Indians players
Milwaukee Brewers players
Los Angeles Dodgers players
Colorado Rockies players
Chicago Cubs players
Pittsburgh Pirates players
National League All-Stars
Oklahoma State Cowboys baseball players
Hyannis Harbor Hawks players
St. Lucie Mets players
Pittsfield Mets players
Williamsport Bills players
Tidewater Tides players
Norfolk Tides players
Buffalo Bisons (minor league) players
Binghamton Mets players
People from Westminster, California
Conroe High School alumni