Curtis Granderson: Major League Baseball’s big hitter
Equipped with supreme players both in batting and the pitching, the New York Yankees however gained the perfect and most devastating hitter, Curtis Granderson last year from the Detroit Tigers. Since then the Yankees’ batting line-up comprised of experienced
Derek Jeter and Alex Rodriguez has gained unparallel strength.
The 30-year-old left-hand batter was the resident of Blue Island, Illinois where he studied in Thornton Fractional South High School. During his time at school, he showed his talent to friends, who introduced him to school administration those hired him
for school team. It was real accomplishment for a young kind and later he proved his appointment was correct.
At the age of 18, he hit an extraordinary .427 to register his name in the SICA central All-conference. It completely turned his life from a simple jolly person to a hero, as he was one of the most recognised personalities of the Illinois. Following this,
his admission in University of Illinois in Business Administration course took him in the real lime light, as he was announced to the second-team All-American player. His seven home-runs, 45 walks with .304 averages and his leading attitude in the home-runs,
runs and walks was the genuine domination to make him a real star.
However, he waited for two years to be adopted by any Major League team and finally the American League’s Detroit Tigers give value to his performance in the third round of the 2002 MLB draft. Having an ambition to join the MLB as soon as possible, the lefty
displayed high quality performance in each 2002 and 2003 season. He maintained his averages more than .300 and got his name added in the Double-A All-Star team, Eastern League’s post-season All-Star squad to confirm his calibre.
Looking at his cracking exhibition in the Minor League, the Detroit Tigers called him to the Majors in 2004 season and allowed him a debut on September 13 against the Minnesota Twins. However, he did not get full chance to show his calibre and in 2005, he
had to join Toledo Mud Hens. He posted brilliant numbers with the bat and returned to the Majors on September 15, 2005.
This time he did not let this chance slip out of his hand and blistered an inside park homer on September 15, played a five hit game on September 18 and launched a walk off homer on September 26 to cement his position as centre-fielder. The same year his
services were recognised when the Tigers’ management electing him “Tigers’ Rookie of the Year”.
In 2006, he beat then team-mate Nook Logan to cement his centre-field position and then made the longest ever errorless streak since Dave Roberts recorded 205 games from 1999-2003. Despite achieving all these records, Granderson was himself not satisfied
of his performance but in 2007, he surprised the entire League with his ballistic hits.
This year he gained the Player of the Week Award on July 15, Tigers Heart and Hustle Award, Mlb.com announced him the Player of the Year. He also made 23 home-runs with .552 slugging averages, 112 runs with 26 stolen bases and an average of .302. His journey
to be the trickiest hitter of the MLB continued successfully. Tigers signed him to a five-year deal worth $30.25-million.
He also became the third player in the history of the Majors to score more than 20, second bases, third bases, home-runs and SB in one season. The Philadelphia Phillies’ Jimmy Rollins also gained place in 20-20-20-20 club this year.
He received first ever injury of his MLB career that sent him to Disabled list in the start of the 2008 season. However, he made a stormy return, finalised the season with 22 home-runs, allowed his lowest ever 111 strike-outs and gained a career-high 71
walks. He kept improving his technique and blistered career-high 30 home-runs in the 2009 season, which made him the All-Star player for the first time.
On December 9 of 2009, he was traded to New York Yankees. Since he joined the Yankees, his performance was under constant decline but he made an excellent come-back and managed to get his name in the All-Star starting rotation in 2011.
Until now, he has scored 588 runs on 904 hits including 428 RBIs and 151 home-runs with a batting average of .270. Currently, he is the one of those players who is the backbone of the Yankees and his form expresses his ambition to be the best in the Majors.
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