Mark Eugene Grace (born June 28, 1964) is a former Major League Baseball (MLB) first baseman who spent 12 seasons with the

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 ...

and three seasons with the Arizona Diamondbacks of the National League (NL). He was a member of the

2001 World Series The 2001 World Series was the championship series of Major League Baseball's (MLB) 2001 season. The 97th edition of the World Series, it was a best-of-seven playoff between the National League (NL) champion Arizona Diamondbacks and the three-t ...

champion Diamondbacks that beat the New York Yankees. Grace batted and threw left-handed; he wore jersey number 28 and 17 during his rookie season of 1988, and he kept number 17 for the remainder of his career.

Career

Amateur career

Grace played high school baseball and basketball at Tustin High School in Tustin, California. After graduating high school in 1982, he first attended Saddleback College before transferring to San Diego State University to play for the San Diego State Aztecs. At the age of 19, he was drafted in the 15th round by the Minnesota Twins but he did not sign.

Chicago Cubs

The

selected Grace in the

1985 Major League Baseball draft First round draft picks The following are the first round picks in the 1985 Major League Baseball draft. Supplemental First Round Selections Background Six of the first eight draft picks from the June regular phase had at least one full ...

. He spent three years playing in the Cubs

farm system In sports, a farm team, farm system, feeder team, feeder club, or nursery club is generally a team or club whose role is to provide experience and training for young players, with an agreement that any successful players can move on to a higher ...

before making his major league debut May 2, 1988. Grace starred on Cubs teams that included Ryne Sandberg, Andre Dawson, Shawon Dunston and

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 ...

and was a consistent, steady hitter, compiling 2,445 hits and more than 500 doubles during his 16-year career and for a few years batted clean-up for the Cubs. He had a career

on-base percentage In baseball statistics, on-base percentage (OBP) measures how frequently a batter reaches base. An official Major League Baseball (MLB) statistic since 1984, it is sometimes referred to as on-base average (OBA), as it is rarely presented as a ...

of .383 and collected four

Gold Glove Award The Rawlings Gold Glove Award, usually referred to as simply the Gold Glove, is the award given annually to the Major League Baseball (MLB) players judged to have exhibited superior individual fielding performances at each fielding position in bo ...

s and was a three-time All-Star (1993, 1995, 1997). He holds the distinction of having the most hits and doubles of any player in the 1990s. Grace helped lead the Cubs to the NL East division title in 1989 and the NL wild card in 1998. In the

1989 NLCS The 1989 National League Championship Series was played between the National League West champion San Francisco Giants and the National League East champion Chicago Cubs. The Giants won the series four games to one, en route to losing to the ...

, Grace batted .647 in the five-game contest with a home run and three doubles, while driving in 8 of the total 16 runs scored by the Cubs in the series. Grace led the team in average (.325), OBP (.393), hits (193), walks (71), doubles (39), and RBI (98 – a career high) in 1993 and was selected as an alternate to the NL All-Star team for the first time in his career. He also hit for the cycle on May 9 that year, and (as of the end of the 2018 season) is the most recent Cub to have done so. In 1995, Grace hit .326 with a .395 OBP and a .516 SLG, and hit 51 doubles (which led the NL). He was once again named to the NL All-Star team. Grace collected the most hits (1,754) and doubles (364) of any player in the 1990

Grace and Pete Rose are the only Major League Baseball players to lead a decade in hits and not be in the

Baseball Hall of Fame The National Baseball Hall of Fame and Museum is a history museum and hall of fame in Cooperstown, New York, operated by private interests. It serves as the central point of the history of baseball in the United States and displays baseball-r ...

. Grace also had the most sacrifice flies in the 1990s with 73. The song that played most frequently on the Wrigley Field

organ Organ may refer to: Biology * Organ (biology), a part of an organism Musical instruments * Organ (music), a family of keyboard musical instruments characterized by sustained tone ** Electronic organ, an electronic keyboard instrument ** Hammond ...

prior to a Grace at bat was " Taking Care of Business", which Grace explained was due to his

bit part In acting, a bit part is a role in which there is direct interaction with the principal actors and no more than five lines of dialogue, often referred to as a five-or-less or under-five in the United States, or under sixes in British television, ...

in a Jim Belushi film of the same name.

Arizona Diamondbacks

Grace signed with the Arizona Diamondbacks on December 8, 2000, with a $6 million, two-year contract after the Cubs declined to offer salary

arbitration Arbitration is a form of alternative dispute resolution (ADR) that resolves disputes outside the judiciary courts. The dispute will be decided by one or more persons (the 'arbitrators', 'arbiters' or 'arbitral tribunal'), which renders the ' ...

. The deal included a mutual $3 million option year in 2003. He received $5.3 million in his last season with the Cubs but accepted less money for the opportunity to live year-round at his home in suburban Scottsdale, Arizona with his family. "For me to remain a Cub, the Cubs would have wanted to want me back and the Cubs would have had to win," Grace said at the time. "Neither of those happened and I'm one proud Diamondback now." Grace wore his familiar number 17 in Arizona where he played for three more seasons, including helping the Diamondbacks win the

. Having never even visited Yankee Stadium, he belted a home run there in Game 4 of the series. In Game 7, Grace led off the bottom of the 9th inning with a single — his third of the game — off Yankee pitcher Mariano Rivera, which rallied the Arizona Diamondbacks to a come-from-behind victory for the franchise's first championship. His .515 career batting average in League Championship Series play is a record for players in at least ten games. During a 19–1 defeat by the Los Angeles Dodgers in September 2002, Grace pitched one inning of relief. He surrendered one run on catcher David Ross's first career home run. Grace also impersonated teammate Mike Fetters, who from the stretch would take a deep breath and then quickly turned his head towards the catcher. On September 26, 2003, Grace announced his retirement from baseball.

Coaching

Grace has stated a desire to

manage Management (or managing) is the administration of an organization, whether it is a business, a nonprofit organization, or a government body. It is the art and science of managing resources of the business. Management includes the activities ...

a major league team at some point. He was considered for the Diamondbacks' managerial position following the 2004 season, but the Diamondbacks hired Bob Melvin instead. Grace spent 2014 as

hitting coach In baseball, a number of coaches assist in the smooth functioning of a team. They are assistants to the manager, who determines the starting lineup and batting order, decides how to substitute players during the game, and makes strategy decisio ...

for the Diamondbacks' Class A Short Season affiliate Hillsboro Hops of the Northwest League. In 2015, he was promoted to the Diamondbacks to be their hitting coach. He was fired after the 2016 season.

Broadcasting career

After his retirement as a player, Grace continued his involvement in the game as a television color commentator for the Diamondbacks and for

Fox Saturday Baseball ''Fox Saturday Baseball'' is an American television presentation of Major League Baseball (MLB) games produced by Fox Sports for the Fox network on Saturday afternoons. Fox's coverage includes 4 weeks worth of coverage as of 2023. Coverage us ...

. Grace used off-the-wall terms—such as "slumpbuster", "never-say-die-mondbacks", and "Gas!"—during broadcasts. He was paired with Thom Brennaman on television from 2004 to 2006, and was paired with Daron Sutton from 2007 to 2012. Grace also agreed to a deal with Fox Sports in 2007. He originally rotated between the studio and the number three booth. He was then promoted to the number two booth with Thom Brennaman for the 2008 and 2009 season, and

Dick Stockton Richard Edward Stokvis (born November 22, 1942), known professionally as Dick Stockton, is an American retired sportscaster. Stockton began his career in Philadelphia, then moved to Pittsburgh, where he worked as the sports director for KDKA-TV ...

for the 2010 season. He reunited with Brennaman in 2011 before leaving the network at the end of the regular season. He was replaced by Eric Karros who had worked on the number three team with Kenny Albert. On August 24, 2012, Grace requested an indefinite leave of absence from the booth, and at the end of the 2012 season, the team announced that he would not be returning for the 2013 season. In February 2017, Grace was named as a baseball analyst for Diamondbacks games by Fox Sports Arizona. In February 2020, Grace was hired as an analyst for select Chicago Cubs games on Marquee Sports Network. Grace will continue his role with the Diamondbacks as the lead color commentator on Fox Sports Arizona.

Personal life

Grace was known to smoke cigarettes before and after Cub games, and reportedly at times, during games in the clubhouse. On August 3, 2006, Grace led the Wrigley Field crowd in singing " Take Me Out to the Ball Game" during the seventh-inning stretch of the second game of a doubleheader between the Cubs and Diamondbacks; his appearance helped to improve his relationship with the Cubs, which had been strained since he left the team after the 2000 season. Grace became eligible for the

National Baseball Hall of Fame The National Baseball Hall of Fame and Museum is a history museum and hall of fame in Cooperstown, New York, operated by private interests. It serves as the central point of the history of baseball in the United States and displays baseball-r ...

in 2009; 75% of the vote was necessary for induction, and 5% was necessary to stay on future ballots. Grace received 4.1% of the vote and was dropped from further ballots. Grace's ex-wife, Michelle, married Ray Liotta in 1997; they had met at a Cubs game. As of 2006, Grace is divorced from his second wife, Tanya, who starred on the

VH1 VH1 (originally an initialism of Video Hits One) is an American basic cable television network based in New York City and owned by Paramount Global. It was created by Warner-Amex Satellite Entertainment, at the time a division of Warner Commun ...

show ''

Baseball Wives ''Baseball Wives'' is an American reality television series based around the wives and girlfriends of baseball players from various different teams. The series aired on VH1 and is set in Scottsdale, Arizona, which is primarily home to baseball's s ...

.'' Grace lived in Antioch, Tennessee, during a period of his childhood years. He currently resides in Paradise Valley, Arizona, with his sons Jackson Gene and Preston Torre.

Legal history

Grace has been arrested twice for

driving under the influence Driving under the influence (DUI)—also called driving while impaired, impaired driving, driving while intoxicated (DWI), drunk driving, operating while intoxicated (OWI), operating under the influence (OUI), operating vehicle under the infl ...

; once in May 2011 and once in August 2012. On October 3, 2012, a grand jury in Arizona indicted Grace on four felony counts stemming from his August 23, 2012, arrest in Scottsdale on suspicion of driving under the influence, driving with a suspended license and without an interlock device. The Diamondbacks announced the following day that Grace would not return to his television broadcasting duties with the club. He subsequently pleaded guilty and was sentenced to four months in jail on January 31, 2013. The sentence included work-release jail time as well as two years of supervised probation. An interlock device was required to be installed in his vehicle for six months.

References

External links

* : {{DEFAULTSORT:Grace, Mark 1964 births Living people American sportspeople convicted of crimes Arizona Diamondbacks announcers Arizona Diamondbacks coaches Arizona Diamondbacks players Baseball players from Scottsdale, Arizona Baseball players from California Chicago Cubs announcers Chicago Cubs players Gold Glove Award winners Iowa Cubs players Major League Baseball broadcasters Major League Baseball first basemen National League All-Stars People from Tustin, California Sportspeople from Orange County, California Baseball players from Winston-Salem, North Carolina Peoria Chiefs players Pittsfield Cubs players Saddleback Gauchos baseball players San Diego State Aztecs baseball players Hillsboro Hops People from Antioch, Tennessee