Chris Young (pitcher)

Chris Young (pitcher)

Christopher Ryan Young (born May 25, 1979) is an American Major League Baseball right-handed pitcher. He made his major league debut on August 24, 2004, for the Texas Rangers. He had previously excelled in basketball and baseball at Highland Park High School in University Park, Texas and Princeton University.

Young helped Highland Park reach the Class 4A Region II basketball final in 1997 and the Class 4A Texas state basketball final in 1998. He tossed a no-hitter in 1997 while compiling a 6–0 record, helping Highland Park reach the Class 4A Texas state baseball final. During his senior year, he was District Most Valuable Player in basketball, and led his baseball team to the state championship, while pitching in two no-hitters. That year, he was a first-team All-State selection in basketball and baseball. After a high school career as an athlete and scholar, Young excelled in both baseball and basketball for Princeton University and became the Ivy League's first male two-sport Rookie of the Year.

Selected by the Pittsburgh Pirates in the third round of the June 2000 Draft, he had brief professional experiences in the Pirates, Montreal Expos, and Texas Rangers minor league systems before debuting with the Rangers in August 2004. Young's professional baseball career took off in the 2006 season, when he was the major league leader in opponent batting average, hits per nine innings and road earned run average (ERA) and was named the National League Pitcher of the Month for June. Additionally, he extended his streak of consecutive undefeated games started as a visiting pitcher to 24, and secured the only Padres win in the team's 3–1 series loss to the St. Louis Cardinals in the 2006 National League Division Series. In 2007, he defended his opponent batting average and hits per nine innings titles, but instead of winning the road ERA title he won the home ERA title.

He is 6 feet 10 inches (2.08 m), which makes him, along with former pitchers Eric Hillman and Randy Johnson and current pitcher Andrew Sisco of the New York Yankees organization, the second tallest player in baseball history, next to relief pitcher Jon Rauch of the New York Mets (who is 6 feet 11 inches (2.11 m) and Young's teammate on the 2012 New York Mets). He was elected to the 2007 MLB All-Star Game as a first-time All-Star via the All-Star Final Vote.

Read more about Chris Young (pitcher):  High School, Collegiate Career, Professional Career, Personal Life

Famous quotes containing the words chris and/or young:

    When I get all these accolades for being true to myself, I say, “Who else can I be? I can’t be Chris Evert.”
    Martina Navratilova (b. 1956)

    When our kids are young, many of us rush out to buy a cute little baby book to record the meaningful events of our young child’s life...But I’ve often thought there should be a second book, one with room to record the moral milestones of our child’s lives. There might be space to record dates she first shared or showed compassion or befriended a new student or thought of sending Grandma a get-well card or told the truth despite its cost.
    Fred G. Gosman (20th century)