Carl Everett
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
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| None — No. 8 | |
| Designated Hitter | |
| Bats: Switch | Throws: Right |
| Major League Baseball debut | |
| July 1, 1993 for the Florida Marlins | |
| Selected MLB statistics (through August 2, 2006) |
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| Batting average | .271 |
| Home runs | 202 |
| RBI's | 792 |
| Teams | |
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Carl Edward Everett (born June 3, 1971 in Tampa, Florida) was an outfielder in Major League Baseball. A switch hitter, he played with the Chicago White Sox on their 2005 World Series winning team. He was a member of the Seattle Mariners until the Mariners designated him for assignment on July 26, 2006. He threw right-handed and played all outfield positions, and was often the designated hitter.
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[edit] High School Years
Everett attended Hillsborough High School in Tampa Bay, Florida and was a letterman in football, baseball, and track. In football, he garnered 948 rushing yards as a senior. Carl Everett graduated from Hillsborough High School in 1990.
[edit] Playing career
He was the 10th overall pick in the 1990 amateur draft, selected by the New York Yankees, but he would make his major league debut with the Florida Marlins on July 1, 1993.
After being traded to the Mets, he had his first full season in 1997 with 443 at bats. He hit .248 that season, with a .420 slugging percentage.
He had his best seasons with the Houston Astros, hitting .325 with 27 stolen bases in 1999. That year, his .571 slugging percentage was in the top 10 in the league.
After being traded in December 1999 to the Boston Red Sox, he had a career high 34 home runs in 2000. The Boston fans welcomed him at first, but their enthusiasm cooled somewhat after he was suspended for 10 days for bumping into umpire Ron Kulpa. The following year Everett was fined for grabbing his crotch while yelling at Seattle Mariners pitcher Jamie Moyer after hitting a home run. He began to slump and everything went downhill. Players began to dislike Everett, and he was traded to the Texas Rangers for Darren Oliver the following offseason.
On September 2, 2001, Everett was the pinch hitter who ruined a near perfect game by Mike Mussina of the New York Yankees. Mussina had retired the first 26 Boston Red Sox and gotten two strikes on Everett before he hit a soft single to left center.
In three separate years, Everett has made his league's top 10 in the hit by pitch category.
On December 14, 2005, Everett was signed by the Mariners off of the free agent market to a one year contract for the 2006 season, with a vesting option for 2007. On Mother's Day, May 14, 2006, Everett was one of more than 50 hitters who brandished a pink bat to benefit the Breast Cancer Foundation.
The majority of the time, he was a designated hitter and very rarely played the field, backing up the corner outfield positions. He played in 92 games, compiling the worst offensive statistics of any DH in the league, before the Mariners designated Everett for assignment on July 26, 2006, effectively ending his tenure with the Mariners organization. At the time of his release, Larry Stone pointed out in the Seattle Times [[1]], he was 85th out of 86 AL players with qualifying at bats in batting average, at .227.
Currently Everett is looking for work as a designated hitter. The New York Yankees, Chicago White Sox, and Anaheim Angels have expressed interest in the veteran slugger, but he remains unsigned.
[edit] Controversies
Everett is an outspoken man, and his remarks have proven controversial on several occasions.
Perhaps the best-known of these was his denial of the existence of dinosaurs. He was quoted as saying, "God created the sun, the stars, the heavens and the earth, and then made Adam and Eve. The Bible never says anything about dinosaurs. You can't say there were dinosaurs when you never saw them. Someone actually saw Adam and Eve. No one ever saw a Tyrannosaurus rex." He also derided fossils of dinosaur bones as man-made fakes. [2] In reference to these comments, Boston Globe columnist Dan Shaughnessy dubbed Everett "Jurassic Carl." Everett, in turn, referred to Shaughnessy as the "curly-haired boyfriend" of Globe beat writer Gordon Edes, a nickname which stuck after ESPN columnist Bill Simmons started incorporating it into his work. In Seattle, he was known as C-Rex, a name given him by writers for the Mariners blog U.S.S. Mariner [3].
Everett, again in an interview with Shaughnessy, questioned the validitity of the Apollo Moon Landing.[4]
In 1997, Everett and his wife Linda were charged with abusing their two children, Shawna and Carl IV. The criminal charges, which stemmed from allegations that Linda had applied "excessive corporal punishment" and that Carl had chosen not to intervene, were ultimately dropped. A judge in New York Family Court, however, placed Shawna in the care of her maternal grandmother, where she currently remains. [5]
Everett once called his own shot. Jamie Moyer beaned Everett, then a member of the Boston Red Sox, and Everett didn't take kindly to it and motioned that he would take him deep next at bat. He hit a homer over the Green Monster his next at bat and after crossing home plate, motioned towards the pitcher, grabbed his genitals and spat towards the mound.
Each season, Everett tends to get into altercations with umpires. Some of these tirades have resulted in suspensions, the longest of which, 10 games, came during the 2000 season after an incident in which he bumped noses with umpire Ron Kulpa during the process of taking exception to Kulpa's ruling that Everett's batting stance was illegal. In numerous interviews, such as the one in which he denies the existence of dinosaurs[6], Everett has stated that he thrives on being hated, and that it keeps him on top of his game. Opposing players, umpires, and even his own teammates are not immune, as evidenced by his postgame shouting match with Seattle manager Mike Hargrove[7] after a 14-6 loss to the Los Angeles Angels on July 5, 2006.
Everett has also made controversial remarks about homosexuality. He once said that if he had an openly gay teammate that he would consider retiring, or, at the very least, "set him straight." In the 2005 season, he told Maxim that he has had gay teammates and accepted them, but, "Gays being gay is wrong. Two women can't produce a baby, two men can't produce a baby, so it's not how it's supposed to be. … I don't believe in gay marriages. I don't believe in being gay." [8]. Other contemporary players, such as Shea Hillenbrand, John Smoltz and Todd Jones, have made similar remarks expressing reluctance to play on the same team as homosexuals.
[edit] External link
- Baseball-Reference.com - career statistics and analysis
Categories: 1971 births | 2000 American League All-Stars | 2003 American League All-Stars | 2005 Chicago White Sox World Series Championship Team | African American baseball players | Boston Red Sox players | Chicago White Sox players | Florida Marlins players | Houston Astros players | Living people | Major league designated hitters | Major league players from Florida | Major league outfielders | New York Mets players | People from Florida | Seattle Mariners players | Texas Rangers players | Montreal Expos players
