reflections
August 25th, 2007 Nick Swisher. The Next Face of the Oakland Athletics

The next face of the Oakland Athletics
 

Nick Swisher
 

By: Silver Man
 

 

 

            “With the 16th pick in the 2002 Major League Draft the Oakland Athletics from the Boston Red Sox select Nick Swisher out of Ohio State University”, is what Bob Selig after the A’s selected Swisher. The A’s received this pick after they had loss Johnny Damon do to free agency. The A’s showed once again that they would use money ball which A’s have been know for.
 

           
Nichols Thompson Swisher came into the world November 25th, in Columbus, Ohio. Though, at a very young age he and his family moved to Parkersburg, West Virginia. Nick wasn’t really able to see his father much though, because Swisher’s dad, Steve Swisher, played in the Major Leagues. I guess it runs in the blood.
 

 

 

Steve Swisher played in the Majors for 12 years where he wasn’t a very strong batter only hitting batting only .219 in 509 games. He played for the Chicago Cubs from1974-1977, then was shifted off to the St. Louis Cardinals for a couple of years and then finished his career with the San Diego Padres for the 81-82 season. 
 

 

While Nick Swisher was at Ohio State he was a .299 hitter, with 10 home runs and 48 RBI’s in just his freshman year. It was to nobody’s doubt that Nick was going to win Big 10 Freshman of the year. That was in 2000. Now we are talking about 2001 which Swisher’s numbers went through the roof, literally. He was a monster player who had an average of .322, 56 RBI’s and club leading 15 home runs. You guys thought that his freshman year was big, but wow his sophomore year were numbers that you don’t see everyday.
 

           
            Spending two years in the A’s farm system, Swisher was developing himself as a player and trying to improve in the outfield instead of playing first base. Down in triple A Sacramento Nick Swisher was playing and received a call saying he was needed for the Oakland A’s. This was in 2004, and he made is Major league Debut September 3rd, 2004. During the 2004 season Swish only played in 20 games so he was not yet considered a rookie.
 

            In 2005, Swish played for the A’s and was a pretty good player for his rookie season. Nick Swisher ended up coming in 6th place in the voting for American Rookie of the Year.
 

Two other A’s players were also mentioned Huston Street who was actually the winner and Joe Blanton who came out being a spot behind Swish.
 

           
            Swish remains to be a force for the A’s and there winning ways as the A’s made it past Johan and the Twins, and made it to the Tigers. A’s didn’t do so good, but this young team kept there heads high above and was ready to come back in the next year and do the same thing just make it one step farther to the World Series and Two Steps farther and winning the World Series.
 

 

            They definitely have the team to do it, but so far this season they have been battling injuries. Great thing is even during the teams struggles with injuries and players like Eric Chavez and Jason Kendall they have other guys who step up such as Nick Swisher, Travis Buck, Mark Ellis, and Jack Cust. Shannon and Piazza when they are healthy do the A’s a great deal. Nick Swisher is in a bit of a slump but will shortly getting back out as the A’s head into the second part of the season.
 

 

           
            Nick Swisher’s Stats
 

            .252 Average
            68 Home Runs
            219 RBI’s

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One Response to “Nick Swisher. The Next Face of the Oakland Athletics”

  1. Silver Man Says:
    August 25th, 2007 at 1:27 pm

    I wrote this article for another site a while ago. So it’s kinda old. Sorry about that. Hope that you do like this article though.

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