Nick Swisher

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**Nick Swisher**

Oakland Athletics — No. 33
First Baseman
Bats: Both	Throws: Left
Major League Baseball debut
September 3, 2004 for the Oakland Athletics
Selected MLB statistics (through October 3, 2006)
Batting average	.254
RBI	95
Home runs	35

Nicholas Thompson Swisher (born November 25, 1980 in Columbus, Ohio) is a first baseman and outfielder for the MLB club Oakland Athletics. The son of former major-leaguer Steve Swisher, he grew up in Parkersburg, West Virginia, and attended Ohio State University. Swisher is a switch hitter who throws left-handed, a rarity in baseball.

He was named Big 10 Freshman of the Year in 2000 after hitting .299 with 10 home runs and 48 RBI. He was an All-Big 10 selection at first base as a sophomore in 2001 after hitting .322 with 56 RBI and a league leading 15 home runs. He earned All-Big 10 honors in the outfield in 2002 after batting .348 with 10 home runs and 52 RBI. Swisher was selected by the A's with the Boston Red Sox first round pick in 2002 as compensation for the loss of free agent Johnny Damon.

Swisher, and the A's 2002 draft, are heavily featured in Michael Lewis' 2003 book Moneyball. In a book whose key theme was the gulf between orthodox baseball thinking and the new sabermetric influenced system being implemented by Billy Beane, Swisher was notable as one of the few examples of a player that traditional scouts and Beane could agree upon.

His father played 509 games in the Major Leagues with the Chicago Cubs (1974-77), St. Louis Cardinals (1978-80) and San Diego Padres (1981-82). He was a .216 lifetime hitter with 20 home runs and 124 RBI. His father was also a first round draft pick as he was selected by the Chicago White Sox with the 21st selection of the 1973 draft.

Although he played in 20 games during the 2004 season, Swisher's rookie year was 2005 where he finished 6th in the American League Rookie of the Year voting. His teammates Huston Street and Joe Blanton finished 1st and 7th, respectively.

Swisher was very close to his late grandmother. As well as having her initials tattooed on his chest, before every pitch he looks up to the sky and says a few words to his grandmother. ^{[citation needed]}

For the 2006 season, he's writing a column for espn.com about his experiences called Sophomore Year.

In the 2006 season he struck out 152 times which was one of the highest strike out rates in the league.