15 Things You (Probably) Didn't Know About... Steve Finley

 

1)  He was accepted to chiropractic school (at the Logan College in St. Louis), but opted instead to play baseball.

2)  He was a member of the Team USA baseball team that in 1986 won the bronze medal in the Netherlands.

3)  His first major league homerun came as a member of the Orioles against the Angels on April 25th, 1989.  He hit it off former Angels pitcher Willie Fraser.

4)  He recorded 4 hits in a game against the Angels on Sept. 7th, 1990.

5)  On January 10th, 1991, he was traded to the Houston Astros along with Pete Harnisch and Curt Schilling for Glenn Davis.

6)  He toured Hungary in 1992 and Indonesia in 1995 conducting youth baseball clinics and provided equipment to form leagues.

7)  He was part of an 11 player trade with San Diego on December 28th, 1994 that also sent Ken Caminiti to the Padres for Derek Bell.

8)  In 1997, he became the 6th National League player, and the 11th Major League player, to homer 3 times in a game twice in the same season.

9)  He recorded his 1,500th hit as a Diamondback against the Angels on June 13th, 1999.

10)  On August 30, 2001, in a blowout loss to the Giants, he pitched an inning.  He threw primarily a knuckleball and walked one batter and hit Jeff Kent.  He gave up no runs thanks to an inning ending double play.

11)  During the Diamondback's 2001 World Championship season, he hit safely in 11 of 14 postseason starts in the playoffs, finishing with a .365 average.

12)  In 2003, at age 38, he became the oldest player in Major League history to lead the league in triples (10).

13)  In 2004, his 36 homeruns broke Willie Mays' record for most homeruns in a season by a player older than 38.  Mays' previous record was 28.

14)  On October 2, 2004, he clinched the National League Western Division for the Dodgers with a walk-off grand slam against the Giants.

15)  He is the only active player, and the 17th all-time, to have more than 300 doubles, 100 triples, and 200 homeruns in a career.  15 out of the 16 players to accomplish that feat before him are in the Hall of Fame (Ruth, Gehrig, DiMaggio, Mays, Musial, Foxx, Brett, Hornsby, Yount, Molitor, and Clemente are just a few of those players).