Jeff Johnson (baseball)

William Jeffrey "Jeff" Johnson (born August 4, 1966) is a former Major League Baseball pitcher. He has played with the New York Yankees for his entire Major League career. Born in Durham, North Carolina, Johnson attended the college University of North Carolina at Charlotte where he played college baseball. He was only one of nine people from the University of North Carolina at Charlotte to have played Major League Baseball.cite web|url=http://www.baseball-reference.com/schools/charlotte.shtml|publisher=baseball-reference.com|title=MLB players who attended University of North Carolina at Charlotte|accessdate=2008-09-29] On June 1, 1988, Johnson was drafted by the New York Yankees in the 6th round (157th overall pick) of the 1988 amateur draft.cite web|url=http://www.baseball-reference.com/j/johnsje02.shtml#TRANS|title=Transactions|publisher=baseball-reference.com|accessdate=2008-09-29] cite web|url=http://www.baseball-almanac.com/players/player.php?p=johnsje02|title=Jeff Johnson Stats|publisher=baseball-almanac.com|accessdate=2008-09-29] He was listed at 6' 3" in height, and 200 lb. in weight. During his his three year Major League Baseball career, Johnson batted right-handed and threw left-handed.

Major League Baseball career

Jeff Johnson made his major league debut on June 5, 1991 at age 24 with the New York Yankees. On that day, the Toronto Blue Jays were playing against the New York Yankees at the Yankees' home stadium of Yankee Stadium, with 21,213 people attending the game.citeweb|url=http://www.baseball-reference.com/boxes/NYA/NYA199106050.shtml|title=The Toronto Blue Jays against the New York Yankees on June 5, 1991|publisher=baseball-reference.com|accessdate=2008-08-07] Johnson was the starting pitcher for the game. He pitched until the seventh inning, then he was replaced by Eric Plunk pitching. Plunk finished the game. Unfortunately, at the end of the game, the New York Yankees lost against the Toronto Blue Jays with the score at 4–1.

"The New York Times" published an article on March 20, 1992, mentioning that Johnson had been bothered because of rumors he had heard about the New York Yankees pursuing different pitchers.cite magazine|url=http://query.nytimes.com/gst/fullpage.html?res=9E0CEED8123CF933A15750C0A964958260|publisher="The New York Times"|title=BASEBALL; Jeff Johnson Bothered by Rumor and Bad Impressions|year=1992|month=March|author=Jack Curry|accessdate=2008-09-29] Johnson played his final major league baseball game on June 12, 1993. On September 17, 1993, Johnson was released by the New York Yankees. He then signed as a free agent with the Cleveland Indians on February 14, 1994.At the end of his career, Johnson had pitched a total of 182.1 innings. He also earned a career earned run average (ERA) of 6.47, winning 8 wins and 16 losses, along with 26 strikeouts.

References

External links

* [http://www.baseball-almanac.com/players/player.php?p=johnsje02 Baseball Almanac]
* [http://www.baseball-reference.com/j/johnsje02.shtml Baseball Reference]
* [http://www.fangraphs.com/statss.aspx?playerid=1006465&position=P Fangraphs]
* [http://www.retrosheet.org/boxesetc/J/Pjohnj004.htm Retrosheet]
* [http://www.thebaseballcube.com/players/J/jeff-johnson.shtml The Baseball Cube]
* [http://www.whatifsports.com/mlb-l/profile_player.asp?pid=105311 WhatIfSports]
* [http://www.baseballprospectus.com/dt/johnsje02.php Jeff Johnson] at Baseball Prospectus