Career
Lansing was quickly placed in the lineup early on in 1993 as a second baseman. In one of his first-ever games, Lansing had five hits in a win over the Rockies. Lansing would have never been inserted into the lineup if Delino DeShields had not contracted chicken pox.
Lansing had his best season in 1996, finishing with a .285 batting average and 183 hits in 159 games. Lansing also had 40 doubles that season, placing 6th.
In 1997 Lansing had another strong season, with career bests in home runs, 20, and RBIs, 70. On May 7, 1997, in a game against the San Francisco Giants, Lansing became the first National League second baseman since Bobby Lowe in 1894 to homer twice in the same inning. Lansing also became the third Expo to do so. After the '97 season, Lansing was traded to the Colorado Rockies for a couple of minor leaguers.
Lansing had a couple of disappointing seasons with the Rockies as injuries took their toll. Then, on June 18, 2000, in a game against the Arizona Diamondbacks, Lansing hit for the cycle faster than any player in MLB history, completing it by the fourth inning in a 19–2 win. A little more than a month later, Lansing, along with a couple of pitchers, were traded by the Rockies to the Boston Red Sox. He played a couple of mediocre seasons with the Red Sox before being released into free agency after the 2001 season. Lansing was signed as a free agent by the Cleveland Indians, but played in the minors and suffered a back injury before retiring after the 2002 season.
Mike Lansing Field, the stadium that is the home field of the Casper Ghosts Pioneer League baseball team in Casper, Wyoming, is named for Lansing.
His at-bat entry song while playing with the Montreal Expos at Olympic Stadium was Crazy Train from Ozzy Osbourne.
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Famous quotes containing the word career:
“I restore myself when I’m alone. A career is born in public—talent in privacy.”
—Marilyn Monroe (1926–1962)
“He was at a starting point which makes many a man’s career a fine subject for betting, if there were any gentlemen given to that amusement who could appreciate the complicated probabilities of an arduous purpose, with all the possible thwartings and furtherings of circumstance, all the niceties of inward balance, by which a man swings and makes his point or else is carried headlong.”
—George Eliot [Mary Ann (or Marian)
“In time your relatives will come to accept the idea that a career is as important to you as your family. Of course, in time the polar ice cap will melt.”
—Barbara Dale (b. 1940)