Athletes - David Wells

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	Athletes - David Wells

David Lee Wells (born May 20, 1963 in Torrance, California) is a Major League Baseball player who has been one of the game's top left-handed pitchers for the past several years. He currently pitches for the Boston Red Sox, and has also pitched for the Toronto Blue Jays, Detroit Tigers, Cincinnati Reds, Baltimore Orioles, New York Yankees, Chicago White Sox, and San Diego Padres.

Nicknamed "Boomer" for his physique (6-3, listed at 250 pounds (109 kg) but thought to be much more) and off-field interests such as Harley-Davidson motorcycles, Wells was a journeyman starter for the first eight seasons of his career. He debuted for the Toronto Blue Jays in 1987 as a reliever and did not secure a job as a full-time starter until he was 30 years old, despite pitching well most of the time.

He emerged as a top-flight pitcher in 1995, when he was 32. After starting the year at 10-3 for the last-place Detroit Tigers and making his first All-Star Game appearance, he was traded to the Cincinnati Reds for C.J. Nitkowski, Mark Lewis, and prospect Dave Tuttle. He finished that season with a 16-8 record and a 3.04 ERA. At the end of the season he was traded to the Baltimore Orioles for Curtis Goodwin and prospect Trovin Valdez. In 1996 he pitched then-career high 224 innings but finished with an 11-14 record.

In 1997, he signed as a free agent with the New York Yankees, his favorite team because of a lifelong interest in baseball legend Babe Ruth. He asked for uniform number 3, and was of course denied, as the Babe's number had been long retired. He ended up taking 33 for the Yankees. (He wore 3 for the Red Sox in 2005, before deciding to switch numbers with teammate Edgar Renteria who wore # 16 and gave Renteria his number 3 a number of which he wore when he was with the Cardinals, Wells did it to try to end a slump.) After posting a 16-10 mark in 1997, Wells pitched brilliantly in the Yankees' record-setting 1998 season. He rung up an 18-4 record, finished fifth in the league in ERA (3.49) and was third in voting for the Cy Young Award.

On May 17, 1998, Wells became the 15th pitcher in major league history to pitch a perfect game when he blanked the Minnesota Twins, 4-0. In an interesting historic note, Wells attended the same San Diego high school as Don Larsen, whose perfect game for the Yankees in the 1956 World Series remains the only no-hitter ever thrown in postseason play and was until then the only perfect game thrown by a Yankee. David Cone would add a third Yankee perfect game in 1999.

After the season, Wells returned to the Blue Jays as part of a trade for Roger Clemens, along with Homer Bush and Graeme Lloyd. He continued to win north of the border, with records of 17-10 and 20-8 over the next two years. He and pitcher Matt DeWitt were then traded to the Chicago White Sox, in a deal that was quickly mired in controversy. The primary player being traded by the White Sox, starting pitcher Mike Sirotka, was injured at the time of the deal, and he never pitched in the major leagues again. Toronto's general manager, Gord Ash, had not made the deal contingent on the results of a medical examination, however, and MLB ruled in favor of the White Sox. The Blue Jays thus received only Kevin Beirne, Brian Simmons, and minor leaguer Mike Williams, and the mistake ultimately cost Ash his job.

The deal did not turn out particularly well for the White Sox, either, as Wells struggled with back problems in 2001 and pitched only 100 2/3 innings. After the season's end, he returned to the Yankees, a deal that was again immersed in controversy as he had already reached an oral agreement to join the Arizona Diamondbacks. Despite having lost some velocity from his fastball, he retained his excellent curveball and his control, and posted an outstanding 19-7 record in 2002.

Wells was the subject of some controversy prior to the 2003 season, when his autobiography Perfect I'm Not: Boomer on Beer, Brawls, Backaches and Baseball, was published. The book upset the Yankees' management, and Wells was fined $100,000 by the team for disparaging comments which appeared in it. Amusingly, Wells claimed to have been misquoted in the book, which was presumably penned by a ghost writer. The problems didn't carry over to the field, however. Wells posted a 15-7 record and helped the Yankees win another pennant.

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