Marlon Anderson
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
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|
|---|---|
| New York Mets — No. 9 | |
| Utility player | |
| Born: January 16, 1974 | |
| Bats: Left | Throws: Right |
| Major League Baseball debut | |
| September 8, 1998 for the Philadelphia Phillies | |
| Selected MLB statistics (through May 3, 2008) |
|
| Batting average | .267 |
| Home runs | 63 |
| Runs batted in | 362 |
| Teams | |
Marlon Ordell Anderson (born January 16, 1974, in Montgomery, Alabama) is a Major League Baseball utility player. He currently plays for the New York Mets. He is widely known for his clutch hits, and writers for publications including The New York Times and Newsday have referred to him as one of the best pinch-hitters in the game.[1][2]
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[edit] High school years
Anderson attended Prattville High School from 1988 to 1992. Anderson was a student and a letterman in football and baseball.
[edit] College years
Anderson attended the University of South Alabama. As a senior, he posted a .357 batting average with thirteen home runs, and was the Sun Belt Conference Player of the Year and a Baseball America first team All-American.
[edit] Pro career
Anderson was drafted by the Philadelphia Phillies in the second round of the 1995 amateur draft. In 1998, while playing for the Scranton/Wilkes-Barre Red Barons, he was named the International League Rookie of the Year. On September 8 of the same year, he made his Major League debut as a pinch hitter, hitting a home run off Mel Rojas of the New York Mets.
Anderson was the Phillies starting second baseman in 1999, 2001 and 2002. In 2003, because neither his offense nor his defense were considered exceptional, Plácido Polanco replaced him as the Phillies second baseman (also Chase Utley was then a top prospect of the Phillies' AAA Scranton/Wilkes-Barre Red Barons); Anderson was not offered a contract by the Phillies and signed as a free agent with the Tampa Bay Devil Rays. In 2004, Anderson signed with the St. Louis Cardinals and filled a niche as a utility infielder. He also became known for his skill at pinch hitting, tying for the National League lead in pinch hits with 17 that year.
In 2005, Anderson signed with the New York Mets, where he served as a pinch hitter. Anderson batted over .300 in pinch-hit situations. Anderson’s Met highlight occurred during an interleague game with the Los Angeles Angels of Anaheim on June 11, 2005, when he tied the score in the ninth inning with an inside the park home run off Angels closer Francisco Rodriguez. The ball caromed away from center fielder Steve Finley, who ran it down in right-center field as Anderson circled the bases. Anderson barely beat the play at the plate, colliding face-first into catcher José Molina's mask.
On November 18, 2005, Anderson signed a two-year contract with the Washington Nationals. His contract ensured that the only two big leaguers ever to be named Marlon (the other is Marlon Byrd) would be teammates on the 2006 Nationals.
On August 31, 2006, Anderson was traded by the Nationals to the Los Angeles Dodgers after scoring the winning run in a 6-5 thriller against the Phillies in Washington. At the time, Washington had been struggling for much of the season and was not a playoff factor while the Dodgers appeared to be headed for the playoffs with the NL West division crown. Anderson was brought in in hopes to assist in the Dodgers' playoff push. He was intended to be a pinch hitter, but Anderson won the starting job in left field when rookie Andre Ethier struggled towards the end of the season.
On September 18, 2006 with the Dodgers playing the San Diego Padres for first place in the National League West with only two weeks left in the regular season, Anderson went five for five, including two home runs. His second home run that night was the last of a record tying four consecutive home runs in the bottom of the 9th inning, following home runs hit by Jeff Kent, J.D. Drew, and Russell Martin. Anderson's home run tied the score at 9-9 after the Dodgers trailed 9-5 to begin the inning. The Dodgers would eventually win the game on a walk-off home run by Nomar Garciaparra, and would tie San Diego for the N.L. West title. The tiebreaker however, went to San Diego as they had beaten the Dodgers 13 of 18 games in 2006. The Dodgers would still make the playoffs after being awarded the wild card spot.
The emergence of young Dodgers prospects Matt Kemp and James Loney contributed to Anderson's playing time diminishing during the first half of the 2007 season and he was designated for assignment by the Dodgers on June 29, 2007, ending his tenure with the club. He cleared waivers and became a free agent on July 11. He was promptly signed to a minor league contract by the Mets on July 12.
One week later, on July 19, Anderson was called up to play for the Mets. Ironically, he started his first game back with the Mets against the Dodgers, the team that had just released him. He had a 2 RBI single in that game.
On August 27th, 2007, Anderson was part of a critical play between the Mets and second-place Philadelphia Phillies at a game in Citizen's Bank Park. With the Phillies leading 6-5 with one-out and the bases loaded in the ninth inning, Carlos Delgado hit a high-chop ground ball to short stop. In trying to break up a double-play, Anderson dove into Tadahito Iguchi, the Phillies second baseman, but missing tagging second and stepped clearly out of lines. The second base umpire called him out on interference, resulting in a double-play. Replays of the incident showed that Delgado would have easily beaten out the play, with Phillies announcer Harry Kalas stating, in a depressed voice, "that's not a double-play ball" as the high-chop ball came down in front of Jimmy Rollins. The Mets would go on to lose the final game of the series, resulting in a critical four-game sweep by the Phils, who would eventually take the division on the final day of the season from the Mets.
Anderson signed a two-year contract worth $2.2 million to return to the Mets in 2008.[3] On Friday May 23, 2008 Marlon seriously injured his hamstring agaisnt the Rockies on a groundout.
[edit] Personal life
Anderson is married and has three children. He currently resides in Sugar Land, Texas.
[edit] References
- ^ In Mets' Master Plan, Accent Is on Winning New York Times, June 13, 2006, by Murray Chass
- ^ Mets survive L.A. slugfest Newsday, July 20th, 2007, by David Lennon. Reprinted in Newsday Mets blog.
- ^ USA Today biography
[edit] External links
- Career statistics and player information from MLB, or ESPN, or Baseball-Reference, or Fangraphs, or The Baseball Cube
