Mark Eugene Grace (born June 28, 1964) is the first Major League Baseball (MLB) baseman who spent 16 seasons with the Chicago Cubs and Arizona Diamondbacks of National League (NL). He is a member of the 2001 Diamondbacks World Series champion. Grace fights and throws his left hand; he wore jersey numbers 28 and 17 during the 1988 rookie season, and he kept number 17 for the rest of his career. Grace retired with an average of 0.303 batting and a 0.383 career on-base percentage, which (at the end of the 2017 season) tied with Dom DiMaggio as the 147th best in Premier League history.
Video Mark Grace
Baseball Careers
Grace played baseball school and basketball at Tustin High School in Tustin, California.
After playing baseball for San Diego State University, Grace was recruited by the Chicago Cubs in 1985. He spent three years playing on the Cubs farm system before making his major league debut May 2, 1988.
Chicago Cubs
Grace starred in the Cubs team which includes Ryne Sandberg, Andre Dawson and Sammy Sosa and consistent and stable hitters, garnered nearly 2,500 hits and more than 500 doubles over 16 years of his career and for several years struggled to clean up the Cubs.. He has a career on-base percentage of 0.383 and collected four Gold Glove Awards and was a three-time All-Star (1993, 1995, 1997). He held the distinction of having more hits and doubles in the 1990s than anyone else.
Grace helped lead the Cubs to the NL Eastern Division title in 1989 and the NL wild card in 1998. In 1989 NLCS, Grace fought.647 in a five-game contest with a home run and three doubles, while driving in 8 of a total of 16 runs scored by Cubs in series.
Grace led the average team (.325), OBP (.393), hits (193), walked (71), double (39), and RBI (98 - career high) in 1993 and was selected as an alternative to the All -Star NL for the first time in his career. He also hit for the cycle on May 9 of that year, and (at the end of the 2017 season) is the latest Cub has done it. In 1995, Grace hit.326 with OBP.395 and.516 SLG, and hit 51 doubles (who led the NL). He was once again named the NL All-Star team. Grace collected the most hits (1,754) and doubles (364) of each player in the 1990s [1]. Grace and Pete Rose are the only Major League Baseball players who lead a decade in hits and are not in the Baseball Hall of Fame. Grace also had the greatest sacrifice in the 1990s with 73.
The song most often played on Wrigley Field's organs before Grace in bats is "Taking Care of Business," which Grace explained to her small part in the Jim Belushi film of the same name.
Arizona Diamondbacks
Grace signed a contract with Arizona Diamondbacks on December 8, 2000, with $ 6 million, a two-year contract after Cubs refused to offer salary arbitration. The deal included an option worth $ 3 million in 2003. He received $ 5.3 million in his last season with the Cubs but received less money for the chance to live year-round at his home in the suburbs of Scottsdale, Arizona, with his family. "For me to remain a Cub, the Cubs will want me back and the Cubs should win," Grace said at the time. "None of those things happened and I'm a proud Diamondback now."
Grace wore her familiar number in Arizona where she played for three more seasons, including helping the Diamondback win the 2001 World Series. Having never visited Yankee Stadium, she managed to get a home run there in Game 4 of the series. Grace leads at the bottom of the ninth inning with a Yankee pitcher pitcher Mariano Rivera, who outperformed the Arizona Diamondbacks into a victory coming from behind in Game 7. The average of his.515 batting in the League Championship Series is a player record of at least ten games.
During the 19-1 defeat of Los Angeles Dodgers in September 2002, Grace incised a leap of relief. She handed one run to the career of first career home dancer David Ross. Grace also disguised as a team mate of Mike Fetters, who from the stretch would take a deep breath and then quickly turned toward the catcher.
On September 26, 2003, Grace announced her retirement from baseball.
Train
Grace has expressed a desire to manage the major league teams at some point. He was considered for the managerial position of Diamondbacks after the 2004 season, but Diamondbacks hired Bob Melvin instead.
Grace spent the year 2014 as a hit coach for Diamondbacks' Class A Short Season of the Hillsboro Hops of the Northwest League affiliate. In 2015, he was promoted to the Diamondbacks to become their coach. He was fired after the 2016 season.
Maps Mark Grace
Broadcasting career
After retiring as a player, Grace continues her involvement in the game as a color television commentator for Diamondbacks and for Fox Saturday Baseball. Grace uses off-the-wall terms - like "slumpbuster", "never-say-die-mondbacks", and "Gas!" - during the broadcast. She was paired with Thom Brennaman on television from 2004 to 2006, and paired with Daron Sutton from 2007 to 2012.
Grace also agreed to a deal with Fox Sports in 2007. She was initially screened between studio and booth number three. He was then promoted to booth number two with Thom Brennaman for the 2008 and 2009 seasons, and Dick Stockton 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 once worked on team number three with Kenny Albert.
On August 24, 2012, Grace requested unlimited leave from the booth, and by the end of the 2012 season, the team announced that she would not be back for the 2013 season.
In February 2017, Grace was appointed as a baseball analyst for the Diamondbacks game by Fox Sports Arizona.
Personal life
Grace is known for smoking cigarettes before and after the Cub game, and occasionally reported, during a match at the clubhouse.
In a 2003 radio interview with Jim Rome in Rome is Burning, Grace defines what he calls a 'slump buster' to get a team bat or player to be: "The slump is if the team is in a slump, or if you personally are in a slump, You have to find the fattest girl, gnarliest, disgusting and you just have to put the wood for her, and when you do that, you'll only have instant success, and that can also be called jumping on a grenade for the team. " It became one of the most playable in history 'Rome is Burning'.
On August 3, 2006, Grace led the Wrigley Field crowd in singing "Take Me Out to the Ball Game" during the seventh bout of the second game of a doubleheader between the Cubs and the Diamondbacks; His appearance helped improve his relationship with the Cubs, who have been tense since he left the team after the 2000 season.
Grace qualified for the National Baseball Hall of Fame in 2009; 75% of the vote is required for induction, and 5% is required to remain on the ballot of the future. Grace received 4.1% of the votes and was dropped from the ballot.
Grace's ex-wife Michelle is also married to Ray Liotta, who plays Joe Jackson's "Shoeless" baseball player in Field of Dreams. In 2006, he divorced from his second wife, Tanya, who starred in the VH1 Baseball Wives show.
Grace lived in Antioch, Tennessee, during her childhood period. She currently lives in Paradise Valley, Arizona, with her sons Jackson Gene and Preston Torre.
Legal history
Grace was arrested twice for driving under influence; once in May 2011 and once in August 2012.
Source of the article : Wikipedia
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