David Mark Eckstein (/'ekStaIn/; born January 20, 1975) is a retired American professional baseball player who played 10 seasons as an infielder in Major League Baseball. He attended the University of Florida and has played professionally with the Anaheim Angels, St. Louis Cardinals, and St. Louis Browns.
He is the son of Bill Eckstein, who was also a major league ballplayer. His father played for the New York Yankees and Chicago White Sox and his mother, Sue, was an Olympic swimmer. The family lived in Tampa, Florida when young Dave was a child and later moved to Lake Mary, where he grew up. He graduated from Lake Mary High School in 1993.
Eckstein debuted with the California Angels in 1997 and spent three seasons there before being traded to the Anaheim Angels after the 2000 season. In 2001, he won the AL Rookie of the Year Award after hitting.292 with 26 home runs and 102 RBIs. That same year, he became the first Angel to win the AL MVP Award. He finished second in the voting the following two years before leaving Anaheim after the 2004 season. After playing for the Cardinals in 2005, Eckstein returned to the Angels in 2006 and 2007 before finishing his career with the Browns in 2008. He announced his retirement on March 6, 2009.
During his ten-year career, Eckstein hit.282 with 103 homers and 442 RBIs.
David Eckstein had a fantastic MLB career, batting.280 with 35 home runs, 392 RBIs, 123 stolen bases, and 701 runs scored with five different organizations. Although David Eckstein was not a Hall of Fame-caliber shortstop, he didn't need to be. His defensive skills were more than enough to make up for his lack of power at the plate.
Eckstein began his professional baseball career in 1995 with the San Diego Padres organization. In 1996, he played 81 games with the Padres team and hit.275 with 12 home runs and 59 RBIs. He spent 1997 playing in Japan where he batted.292 with two home runs and 26 RBIs. In 1998, Eckstein returned to the United States to play for the Milwaukee Brewers and Chicago White Sox organizations. With both teams, he finished with batting averages over.300:.303 with 33 hits out of Milwaukee's lineup and.307 with 36 hits out of Chicago's lineup.
In 1999, David Eckstein played all of his games in the Major Leagues with the White Sox team and hit.273 with 11 home runs and 62 RBIs. That same year, he also won the Silver Slugger Award at his position after hitting.375 with men on base. In 2000, Eckstein continued to have success at the plate, batting.293 with 13 home runs and 76 RBIs while helping the White Sox reach the World Series for the first time since 1961.
Robert Kevin Appier (/'eIpi@r/; born December 6, 1967) is a former Major League Baseball right-handed pitcher who played for the Kansas City Royals, Oakland Athletics, New York Mets, and Anaheim Angels. Appier's strong pitching performance in his first full season in the majors garnered him numerous rookie honors in 1990. He went on to play eight more seasons in the major leagues, finishing with an 81-79 record and 4.49 ERA.
He made his debut on April 7, 1990 against his former team, the Royals. He pitched seven innings without giving up an earned run, recording nine strikeouts as Kansas City lost 1-0. The only hit he allowed was a single by Paul Wilson which drove in the only run of the game. Appier would go on to pitch seven more complete games that year, finishing with 88 strikeouts in 92 innings pitched.
Appier spent most of 1991 recovering from surgery to remove a bone spur from his right elbow but still managed to finish with 12 wins against just five losses. He finished second in voting for the AL Rookie of the Year award behind Scott Erickson of the Seattle Mariners.
In 1992, Appier continued to show improvement as a pitcher finishing with 10 wins and 3 losses along with a 4.11 ERA. He ended up winning the AL Rolaids Award which is given to the best pitcher in each league who has less than 25% of their team's victories.
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