Mark Teixeira

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Mark Teixeira

Teixeira (batting) with the Braves in 2008
Atlanta Braves — No. 24
First baseman
Born: April 11, 1980 (1980-04-11) (age 28) Annapolis, Maryland
Bats: Switch	Throws: Right
Major League Baseball debut
April 1, 2003 for the Texas Rangers
Selected MLB statistics (through June 4, 2008)
Batting average	.285
Home runs	179
Runs batted in	597
Teams
Texas Rangers (2003-2007) Atlanta Braves (2007-present)
Highlights and awards
2x Gold Glove Award winner (2005, 2006) 2x Silver Slugger Award winner (2004, 2005) All-Star selection (2005) Led AL in total bases in 2005

Mark Charles Teixeira (pronounced /tʰɛˈʃɛɹə/, born April 11, 1980 in Annapolis, Maryland) is a Major League Baseball player with the Atlanta Braves. He is mainly a first baseman, but has also played at third base and in the outfield.

[edit] Personal

Teixeira, of Portuguese ancestry,^[1] grew up in Severna Park, Maryland and attended Mount Saint Joseph High School in Baltimore, Maryland, where he played for the school's varsity baseball team.

Teixeira was originally chosen in the ninth round of the MLB amateur draft by the Boston Red Sox in 1998, straight out of high school. Teixeira chose not to sign with the Red Sox, however, opting instead to play college baseball for Georgia Tech.

Mark and his wife, the former Georgia Leigh Williams, were married on Dec. 7, 2002.

[edit] College career

Teixeira played college baseball at Georgia Tech. In 2001, his batting average was .427, and his OPS was 1.319. He also won the Dick Howser Trophy as the national Collegiate baseball player of the year.

[edit] Career with Rangers

Mark Teixeira's swing

In 2001, Teixeira re-entered the draft and was selected by the Rangers with the fifth overall pick. It should be noted that the Philadelphia Phillies were considering drafting him with the fourth pick until Teixeira's agent, Scott Boras, advised the Phillies against it. The Phillies looked to avoid another J.D. Drew-type situation (Drew held out and re-entered the draft under Boras' advice) and passed on Teixeira (coincidentally, the Phillies used that pick to draft another product of Mt. St. Joseph High School, pitcher Gavin Floyd, now of the Chicago White Sox). He began playing professional baseball the next season. He started the 2002 season in the Florida State League, where he batted .320 with an OPS of 1.000 in 38 games. He was then moved up to the Class AA Tulsa Drillers, with whom he batted .316 with a .994 OPS and ten home runs in 48 games. It turned out that 2002 would be his only season in the minor leagues; he made the Rangers out of spring training in 2003.

As a rookie in 2003, Teixeira batted .259 with a .811 OPS and 26 home runs. He improved on these numbers in 2004, batting .281 with an OPS of .930, 38 home runs, and 112 runs batted in. For his accomplishments in 2005, he earned the Silver Slugger Award as the best-hitting first baseman in the American League as well as the Gold Glove signifying his place as the best fielding first baseman in the American League. Teixeira was also named to first All-Star Game after winning the fan voting portion of the selection to be named the starting first baseman for his league. During the game, Teixeira hit a home run from the right hand side of the plate - something he had failed to do in the entire first half of the season. In a five game span around the All-Star Game, Teixeira hit five home runs with 13 RBI. He finished July with 13 home runs and 30 RBI and was named the American League Player of the Month. Overall, Teixeria, batted .301, with 43 home runs, and 144 RBIs at the end of the 2005 season.

On Mother's Day, May 14, 2006, Teixeira was one of more than 50 hitters who brandished a pink bat to benefit the Breast Cancer Foundation.

Teixeira's 2006 season began slowly, as he collected only nine home runs before the All-Star Break. After the All-Star Break, however, Teixeira was among the league's leaders, and again finished with over 30 homers and 100 RBIs for the season.

Teixeira will become a free agent after 2008. He agreed to a two-year $15.4 million contract before the 2006 season to avoid his first two years of arbitration.^[2] 2008 is his 3rd and final year of arbitration, making him a free agent after the 2008 season. Because of this and a rumored rift between himself and manager Ron Washington, Teixeira was expected to be traded before this year's trade deadline. Rumors had linked Teixeira to many teams, including the Boston Red Sox, Los Angeles Dodgers, Baltimore Orioles, New York Yankees, Detroit Tigers and Atlanta Braves.

On June 9, 2007, Teixeira's franchise record 507 consecutive-game streak came to an end. Teixeira landed awkwardly at first base after running out a grounder in a game against the Milwaukee Brewers the previous day. The streak was second to Miguel Tejada at the time. The strained quadricep placed Teixeira onto to disabled list for only the second time of his career.

[edit] Atlanta Braves

Teixeira at bat in his debut game with the Braves on August 1, 2007. Teixeira went one-for-four with a three-run home run and four RBIs.

On July 30, 2007, two weeks after turning down an eight-year, $140,000,000 contract extension from the Rangers, Teixeira was traded to the Atlanta Braves (along with left-handed reliever Ron Mahay) for catcher/first baseman Jarrod Saltalamacchia, and four prospects: shortstop Elvis Andrus, and starting pitchers Matt Harrison, Neftali Feliz and Beau Jones. The trade was official on July 31 when medical records were examined.^[3] Teixeira was activated for that night's game against the Houston Astros and arrived in the dugout during the seventh inning. He was promptly shown on Turner Field's high definition video board and received a boisterous applause from the Atlanta crowd.

In his Braves debut on August 1, 2007, Teixeira hit a 3-run homer and drove in four runs in a 12-3 rout of the Houston Astros.^[4] Teixeira went on to homer in each of the following two games, becoming just the second player to homer in his first three games as a Brave - the first being Gary Sheffield in 2002.

Teixeira with the Braves in 2008.

On August 19, 2007, Teixeira had his first multi-HR game against the Arizona Diamondbacks off of Yusmeiro Petit. He would repeat that feat the next day on going deep for two three-run home runs versus the Cincinnati Reds. Teixeira, a switch hitter, drilled both homers on the 19th batting from the left side of the plate, and hit his homers on the 20th from the right side. Teixeira was named co-NL Player of the Week from August 20-26 by slugging .793 with three home runs. As expected, Teixeira was awarded NL Player of the Month for August. On September 22, Teixeira had his first walk-off hit with the Braves when he singled in Willie Harris giving the Braves a 4-3 extra-inning victory.^[5]

In 54 games with Atlanta in 2007, Teixeira batted .317 with 17 home runs and 56 RBI. The Braves avoided arbitration in the 2007 offseason and signed Teixeira to a 1-year, $12.5 million dollar contract for the 2008 season. A song entitled "Mark Teixeira" by TitoandtheGunShow became a smash hit on youtube.

[edit] Making history

In 2005, Teixeira became the third switch-hitter in MLB history, after Eddie Murray and Chipper Jones, to hit at least 20 home runs in each of his first three seasons. He is also one of just seven players in Major League history to hit at least 100 home runs in his first three seasons joining Hall of Famers Joe DiMaggio, Ralph Kiner, and Eddie Matthews as well as other current first base stars, Albert Pujols, Todd Helton, and Ryan Howard. His 2005 total of 144 RBIs is a Major League record for a switch hitter.

[edit] Accomplishments

• Gold Glove (2005, 2006)
• All-Star (2005)
• Silver Slugger Award (2004, 2005)
• Player of the Month (July 2004, August 2007)

He is also one of only three Rangers to hit for the cycle (and the only one of the three to hit for the cycle during a home game).

[edit] Career statistics

■Led AL

[edit] See also

• Top 500 home run hitters of all time
• Hitting for the cycle
• Major League Baseball hitters with three home runs in one game

[edit] References

[edit] External links

• Career statistics and player information from MLB, or ESPN, or Baseball-Reference, or Fangraphs, or The Baseball Cube