Athletes - Kent Mercker

Home > Listing Index > Athletes > Kent Mercker

	Athletes - Kent Mercker

Kent Franklin Mercker (born February 1, 1968) is a Major League Baseball left-handed pitcher who has played for nine teams over his seventeen-year career. He currently pitches for the Cincinnati Reds of the National League.

Mercker, a native of Dublin, Ohio, was taken in the first round (5th pick overall) of the 1986 amateur draft by the Atlanta Braves. He made his Major League debut with the Braves on September 22, 1989 and appeared in two games that season.

During his years with the Braves Mercker split time between the bullpen and the starting rotation. After serving as a reliever for the vast part of his first five seasons, he joined the Braves' rotation full time for the 1994 and 1995 seasons.

After the 1995 season the Braves traded Mercker to the Baltimore Orioles. Mercker has been a journeyman ever since, spending time with Baltimore (1996), Cleveland (1996), Cincinnati (1997), St. Louis (1997-1999), Boston (1999), Anaheim (2000), Colorado (2002), Cincinnati a second time (2003), Atlanta a second time (2003), and the Chicago Cubs (2004). Mercker signed with Cincinnati for the third time in his career on December 20, 2004.

Mercker has taken part in two no-hit games during his career, both with the Braves. The first, on September 11, 1991 against the San Diego Padres, was a combined effort between Mercker, the starter, who pitched six innings; Mark Wohlers, who pitched the seventh and eighth innings; and Alejandro Pena, who pitched the ninth. The Braves won that game by a score of 1-0. The second no-hitter was a solo effort by Mercker, as he no-hit the Los Angeles Dodgers on April 8, 1994 at Dodger Stadium in a 6-0 victory. To date, this no-hitter is the last to be pitched by a Braves pitcher—this despite 1) Mercker having pitched in the same rotation with Greg Maddux, Tom Glavine and John Smoltz, and 2) the Braves having since moved to a more pitcher-friendly stadium, Turner Field.

[ Visit the complete Wikipedia entry for Kent Mercker ]

This page is based on the copyrighted Wikipedia article Kent Mercker; it is used under the GNU Free Documentation License. You may redistribute it, verbatim or modified, providing that you comply with the terms of the GFDL.

Searches on eBay