Mark Teixeira

My hero is the Yankees first baseman Mark Teixeira. Mark is my hero because when I started playing baseball I had no idea what my position was going to play. When I saw Mark playing as a rookie with the Texas Rangers I knew then that first base was going to be my primary position. After one full season as first base, I knew that I was made to play first base in the game of baseball. After a couple of seasons at first I was able to adapt to third base and short stop because of Mark Teixeira.

Mark Teixeira was born on April 11, 1980 in Annapolis, Maryland. He played college baseball for Georgia Tech. Mark Teixeira was the 5th overall selection in the MLB 1999 draft. On April 1, 2003 Mark played for the Texas Rangers. He played for the Rangers from 2003-2007. In the middle of the 2007 season, Mark was traded from the Rangers to the Atlanta Braves. Mark’s time in Atlanta was very short. He played there from 2007-2008. He was traded to the LA Angels before the end June. When he came to Los Angeles he had high hopes of playing in the playoffs for the first time in his career, he did. In the 2008 playoffs he had a .427 with one RBI and no home runs. But the Angels were eliminated by the Boston Red Sox.

After the 2008 season, Mark Teixeira became a free agent. He wanted to play on a team that would make it to the playoffs and give him a higher salary than the other three teams he played for. After a couple of months on the free agent market, only three teams where still in the market to sign Mark Teixeira. These three teams were the Angels, Red Sox and the Yankees. Then during early December, Mark was very close to signing with the Red Sox, as fast as the big news came, he rejected the Red Sox contract. About two weeks later Mark Teixeira was interested in the New York Yankees offer of 8 year, $180 million contract with no trades. He signed on December 23rd, 2008. When the news came to the public, many Yankee fans had higher hopes for the 2009 season, knowing that they had a young, future star. Although some were not so happy. Jason Giambi, the Yankees first baseman from 2003 to 2008 was very depressed knowing that he just got replaced. At the end of January, Giambi signed with the A’s.

With the Yankees, Mark Teixeira had a .292 batting average, 39 home runs and 122 RBI’s (runs batted in). When the season was over, the Yank’s had won their division. The beat the Twins in the division series and beat the Angels in the Championship series. Now Mark and the rest of the Yankee players are heading to the World Series, where they will face the Phillies trying to win it all. Something they haven’t done since 2000.

So now you know that Mark had played for many teams. Mark has always been my hero, even though he wasn’t on the Yankees till now. This young first baseman has many years to come and will be a great star for a long time to come, and I also wish to follow in his footsteps.

Sources

Mark Teixeira. Wikipedia.org.wikimediafoundationinc 10/2/09 10/2/09 http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mark_Teixeira

http://galenet.galegroup.com/servlet/BioRC?vrsn=149&OP=contains&locID=mlin_w_richard&srchtp=name&c=8&NA=Mark+Teixeira&ste=6&tbst=prp&tab=8&docNum=CJ205209486&bConts=8

Picture

http://sbubasement.files.wordpress.com/2009/09/mark-teixeira.jpg