Mark Alan Dewey (born January 3, 1965) is a former

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), ...

player. He was a 6'0" right-handed relief pitcher who played six seasons in the major leagues with the

San Francisco Giants The San Francisco Giants are an American professional baseball team based in San Francisco, California. The Giants compete in Major League Baseball (MLB) as a member club of the National League (NL) West division. Founded in 1883 as the New Y ...

(1990, 1995–96),

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 ...

(1992), and Pittsburgh Pirates (1993–94).Born in Grand Rapids, Dewey played for the Grand Valley State University Lakers. In 1987, he struck out 87 batters in 97.2 innings. On June 2, 1987, Dewey was drafted by the Giants in the 23rd round of the 1987 amateur draft. He appeared in 205 major league games and had a lifetime record of 12–7 (.632 winning percentage) with 168 strikeouts, 70 games finished and 8 saves. His lifetime

earned run average In baseball statistics, earned run average (ERA) is the average of earned runs allowed by a pitcher per nine innings pitched (i.e. the traditional length of a game). It is determined by dividing the number of earned runs allowed by the number ...

was 3.65 for an

Adjusted ERA+ Adjusted ERA+, often simply abbreviated to ERA+ or ERA plus, is a pitching statistic in baseball. It adjusts a pitcher's earned run average (ERA) according to the pitcher's ballpark (in case the ballpark favors batters or pitchers) and the ERA of ...

of 110. His best season was 1993 when he had 7 saves for the Pirates in 21 games and maintained an impressive 2.36 ERA for an Adjusted ERA+ of 171. In his final season, Dewey appeared in 78 games for the Giants—3rd most in the

National League The National League of Professional Baseball Clubs, known simply as the National League (NL), is the older of two leagues constituting Major League Baseball (MLB) in the United States and Canada, and the world's oldest extant professional team ...

. Dewey earned $225,000 in his final season in the big leagues. In 1995, Dewey was inducted into the Grand Valley State University Athletic Hall of Fame. Dewey was involved in a notable controversy on July 28, 1996, when he refused to participate with his teammates in a pregame ceremony intended to support research of a cure for AIDS. As part of "Until There's A Cure Day", members of the Giants wore AIDS awareness ribbons on their uniforms and stood in a group shaped like that symbol during speeches by Giants owner

Peter Magowan Peter Alden Magowan (April 5, 1942 – January 27, 2019) was an American businessman. He was the managing general partner of the San Francisco Giants of Major League Baseball from 1993 to 2008. He was the chief executive officer of Safeway Inc. ...

and San Francisco Mayor Willie Brown. Dewey refused to take the field for the ceremony, and he wore his ribbon sideways (which would have resembled the Icthys, a popular symbol meant to represent Jesus in Christian culture). He cited religious reasons for his refusal, stating that the ceremony was "against isChristian principles" and voicing the belief that

homosexuality Homosexuality is romantic attraction, sexual attraction, or sexual behavior between members of the same sex or gender. As a sexual orientation, homosexuality is "an enduring pattern of emotional, romantic, and/or sexual attractions" to pe ...

is a

sin In a religious context, sin is a transgression against divine law. Each culture has its own interpretation of what it means to commit a sin. While sins are generally considered actions, any thought, word, or act considered immoral, selfish, s ...

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* {{DEFAULTSORT:Dewey, Mark Major League Baseball pitchers Baseball players from Grand Rapids, Michigan New York Mets players Pittsburgh Pirates players San Francisco Giants players Nashville Sounds players Grand Valley State Lakers baseball players 1964 births Living people Aiken Foxhounds players Everett Giants players Clinton Giants players San Jose Giants players Shreveport Captains players Phoenix Firebirds players Tidewater Tides players Buffalo Bisons (minor league) players American expatriate baseball players in Australia