who has had the longest mlb career

COLLEGEVILLE ― When St. John's senior center Andrew Salvato was named a preseason All-American earlier this year, he was just carrying on a family tradition.

Salvato's older brother Chris played guard for the Johnnies from 1997-2000 and earned All-American honors while anchoring the offensive line on the 2000 team that advanced to the Division III national championship game.

In Andrew's case, the All-American designation was a sign of how far the 6-foot-1, 295-pound Mounds View graduate has come since arriving in Collegeville as a transfer defensive lineman before the 2005 season.

"We've talked about it a little," said Salvato of the status he now shares with his only sibling. "It's a really great feeling to have both been called an All-American. It's something any family would like to see. When we have kids, they can say their Dad was an All-American and so was their uncle.

"That's why I came to St. John's in the first place ― because he had such a great experience here."

Salvato's development has mirrored the maturation of Johnnies quarterback Alex Kofoed. Kofoed was in his second season as a starter when Salvato was moved from the defensive line to center and was inserted into the lineup midway through the 2005 season.

That means the pair have been playing together for two-and-a-half seasons. That kind of longevity is rare between a center and quarterback in college football.

"You never really think about it, but that's a big thing," St. John's offensive coordinator Jim Gagliardi said. "It's kind of like a battery in baseball, except they're both out there every play. You're not rotating the pitcher.

"It's pretty rare to find that. But it's really nice when we go out to practice because those guys both know what's going on. It gives you confidence because you don't have to worry about little things like the exchange. They have that stuff down cold."

Roommates

Salvato and Kofoed have become close friends and are roommates.

"It's been a real treat for me," Salvato said. "Alex is a great guy and he's hands down the most humble quarterback you'll ever see in this game. It's been a great ride. Two years ago, when we went to the playoffs, I wanted to room with Alex so we could build that center/quarterback relationship. We were already friends, but we weren't close like we are now. We're good friends, our parents are good friends. We spent a lot of time together hanging out.

"I know exactly how to get him the ball. It's second nature now. I don't have to think twice when he steps under center."

Kofoed agreed with Salvato's assessment.

"I think we had a bad snap (against Hamline) last week and it was our first one in like two years," Kofoed said. "He's that talented. He's so strong. He handles people easily up front. He's a very dominant offensive lineman."

New shotgun

The communication between the two has been especially important as St. John's has worked in a shotgun formation at times this season.

"The very first time we talked about it was in practice last spring," Salvato said. "Alex did it in high school and he enjoyed it. It's nice to be able to use it on certain plays because it lets him see more of the field and it adds a different dimension to our offense.

"It took me awhile to get the snaps down. It's a challenge to make sure you get the ball back to the quarterback, especially if there is a nose guard right over you. But I worked hard on it over the offseason and we put in a lot of reps in practice. I think it's gone pretty well. Ninety-five percent of the snaps have been OK."

As the starter on the offensive line who has been in the lineup the longest, Salvato has had to assume more of a leadership role this season. It's a challenge he was eager to take on.

"When we have new guys like (guard Dan) Gamache and (tackle Ben) Dimond in there, they're looking to the older guys for direction at times," Salvato said. "I have the most experience, so I feel like it's partly on my shoulders to help take the offensive line to the next level. But all our guys play leadership roles in different ways. They're all really talented."

Still, having Salvato anchoring things in the middle makes a big difference. Especially in a game like last week's where both Gamache and fellow starting guard Jason Primus ended up missing time due to injury.

"He's capable of handling nose tackles all by himself, and if the guards need help in pass protection or something like that, he can get over there and really destroy a guy and take him out of the play, then get back to his spot," Gagliardi said. "It's amazing to watch sometimes. He's that agile.

"He's clearly the best center ― and maybe the best linemen ― we've had since I've been here. And we've had some pretty good guys."

Salvato, a management major, is scheduled to graduate next spring. After that, he'd like to try and continue his playing career in the Arena Football League or overseas. But if that doesn't pan out, he plans on pursuing a possible career in sales.

First, though, he'd like to one-up his older brother.

"Chris has a West Region championship ring (from 2000) that he wears around a lot," Salvato said with a smile. "That gives me an incentive to win a national championship. I think that ring would be bigger. And we've got the team to do it."

Curtis Granderson
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
Jump to: navigation, search
Curtis Granderson
Curtis Granderson on deck against the Toronto Blue Jays on April 4, 2007
Detroit Tigers ― No. 28
Center fielder
Born: March 16, 1981 (1981-03-16) (age 26)
Bats: Left Throws: Right
Major League Baseball debut
September 13, 2004 for the Detroit Tigers
Selected MLB statistics
(through End of the 2007 season)
Batting Average .280
Home Runs 50
Runs Batted In 162
Hits 390
Stolen bases 35
Triples 36
Teams
Detroit Tigers (2004-present)

Curtis Granderson (born March 16, 1981, in Blue Island, Illinois) is a center fielder in Major League Baseball who currently plays for the Detroit Tigers. Granderson grew up in Lynwood, Illinois, a south suburb of Chicago and began his baseball career in the town's Little League.

Contents
1 High School career
2 College career
3 Professional career
3.1 Minor leagues
3.2 Detroit Tigers
3.3 Triples
3.4 Awards and Accolades
4 Broadcasting Career
4.1 Trivia
5 References
6 External links



[edit] High School career
Granderson attended high school at Thornton Fractional South High School in Lansing, Illinois. As a senior in 1999, Granderson hit .427 and was selected SICA Central All-Conference, as well earning All-Area recognition from the Illinois Times and the Daily Southtown.


[edit] College career
As a freshman University of Illinois-Chicago in 2000, Granderson led the team with 7 home runs and 45 walks. He followed that with a strong sophomore season in which he hit .304, leading the team in runs, home runs and walks. Granderson was named Second-Team All-American by Baseball America and USA Today's Baseball Weekly and a Third-Team Louisville Slugger NCAA Division I All-American following his junior season. He graduated with degrees in business administration and advertising.


[edit] Professional career

[edit] Minor leagues
Having been drafted by the Tigers in the third round of the 2002 draft, Granderson started his minor league career with the Oneonta Tigers where he hit an impressive .344 in 52 games. The following season he again posted solid numbers, this time with the Erie Seawolves, hit his best minor league season, hitting .303 with 21 home runs and 93 RBI. In addition, he was named to the Eastern League's post-season all-star squad and made Baseball America's Double A all-star team, earning him a late season call-up to the Tigers where he made his major league debut on September 13 against the Minnesota Twins.

Granderson started the 2005 season with the Toledo Mud Hens where he again posted terrific numbers, hitting .290 with 15 home runs, 65 RBIs and 22 stolen bases. In September he was again called to the majors and had an inside-the-park home run September 15, a five-hit game September 18 and a walkoff homer on September 26 against the Chicago White Sox.


[edit] Detroit Tigers
Granderson became the Tigers' starting center fielder for the 2006 season after beating out then teammate Nook Logan for the position during spring training. From the start of his major league career in 2004, Granderson had the longest errorless streak by a position player to start his career since Dave Roberts went 205 games from 1999-2003. He ended up hitting 2 home runs during the playoffs.

Granderson is considered one of the nicest players in the Major Leagues. On Easter Sunday 2007 Granderson pulled out a bag filled with over 100 autographed Easter eggs filled with candy and passed them out to young fans in Kansas City.

Although Granderson was not listed on the 2007 All-Star Game ballot, due to the Tigers' decision to put Gary Sheffield as an outfielder on the ballot, he still received 376,033 write-in votes, the most write-in votes for any player in the Majors. [1]

Granderson was named the American League Player of the Week on July 16, 2007, the first time he had won the award. During the week ending July 15, 2007, Granderson hit .500 (8-16) with two doubles, a triple, and a home run. Granderson slugged .938, drove in two runs, scored seven runs, and had fifteen total bases during Detroit's four-game series at Seattle. [2]

On August 7, 2007, Granderson became only the second player in franchise history to have at least 30 doubles, 15 triples, 15 home runs, and 10 stolen bases in a single season when he hit a double in a game against the Tampa Bay Devil Rays. The other Tiger to accomplish this feat was Charlie Gehringer in 1930.

Granderson hit his second inside-the-park home run in his first at bat against the Yankees on August 26, 2007.

On September 7th, 2007, Granderson became the 6th member all-time of baseball's exclusive 20-20-20 Club. Granderson joined the 20-20-20 club with Kansas City's George Brett (1979), Willie Mays of the New York Giants (1957), Cleveland's Jeff Heath (1941), St. Louis' Jim Bottomley (1928), and Frank Schulte of the Chicago Cubs (1911).

On September 9th, 2007 Granderson stole his 20th base of the season and joined Willie Mays and Frank "Wildfire" Schulte as the only players in major league history to reach 20 doubles, 20 triples, 20 home runs, and 20 stolen bases in a season, a feat since accomplished by the Philadelphia Phillies' Jimmy Rollins. [3] Schulte was the first to accomplish the feat in 1911 while playing for the Chicago Cubs and Mays did it in 1957 with the New York Giants. [4]

In 2007, he had 23 home runs, and was 26-1 in stolen base attempts. He was one of only 6 batters in the AL to have at least 20 home runs and 20 stolen bases, along with Alex Rodriguez, Gary Sheffield, Ian Kinsler, B.J. Upton, and Grady Sizemore.


[edit] Triples
Curtis Granderson has become one of the premier triples hitters in all of baseball during the 2007 season. Through 154 team games Granderson has 23 triples which leads all of baseball. The American League and Detroit Tigers record is 26 triples, a feat achieved by the all-time triples king, Sam Crawford, in 1914. Granderson is the first player since 1949 to manage at least 23 in a single season. It is also worth noting that only 10 of his triples were at home despite the fact Comerica Park has seen more triples since it opened in 2000 than any other ballpark in baseball. Through September 25, 2007 Granderson's 23 triples is more than some entire teams have managed - the Los Angeles Angels of Anaheim, Chicago White Sox, Seattle Mariners, Toronto Blue Jays, Oakland Athletics, St. Louis Cardinals, and Cincinnati Reds, all have no more than 23 total triples.


[edit] Awards and Accolades
American League Player of the Week (July 9-15, 2007)




[edit] Broadcasting Career
Uncharacteristic in sports broadcasting, TBS employed Curtis Granderson as a color commentator alongside Cal Ripken, Jr. and Frank Thomas for its coverage of the 2007 baseball postseason games as an analyst of some aspects of the game; in his case, largely baserunning and outfield defense. Ordinarily the commentators are retired players or players near the ends of their careers... but Granderson had only two full seasons of major league baseball behind him and three altogether.


[edit] Trivia
Trivia sections are discouraged under Wikipedia guidelines.
The article could be improved by integrating relevant items and removing inappropriate ones.

Granderson said on a local Detroit interview that one of his best MLB moment was a ninth inning home run against Cincinnati Reds pitcher David Weathers. The home run tied the game and the Tigers went on to win on an error by Reds shortstop Felipe Lopez. The game was played at Comerica Park on Saturday, May 20, 2006 to a sell-out attendance.
During an August, 2006 game an ESPN shot revealed that Granderson had written the words "Don't Think, Have Fun" on the underbill of his cap.



After visiting London in the off-season, Granderson is now a British baseball favorite, with Britain's Channel 5 baseball show MLB on Five now including a segment called "Granderson Watch", taking over from Weaver Watch (after Jeff Weaver got a World Series ring). The segment involves Curtis answering weekly emails and occasionally appearing live over the phone.
According to a Detroit Free Press article one of Curtis Granderson's hobbies is spending a lot of his spare time on the internet. Curtis says one of his favorite sites is youtube.com
Curtis Granderson (0-for-13), Iván Rodríguez (0-for-11) and Plácido Polanco (0-for-10) were the first group of three teammates, each with 10-or-more at-bats, to go hitless through the first three games of a World Series.
Granderson often has 1990's West Coast Rap played as entrance music for each at-bat at Comerica Park. This includes "Bad Intentions" & "Nuthin' But A G' Thang" by Dr. Dre or "2 of Amerikaz Most Wanted" by 2 Pac & Snoop Dogg. He has also used tracks from Outkast and N.E.R.D..