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Thurman Clyde "Rusty" Greer III (born January 21, 1969 in Fort Rucker, Alabama) is a previous Major League Baseball outfielder for the Texas Rangers.
Biography
Greer attended senior high within Albertville, Alabama before playing college baseball at a University of Montevallo. (Montevallo was the single college concerned around Greer before the senior-month a lot-star game in which he eventually drew attention from either big schools; nevertheless, he chose to remain at Montevallo since it at first offered him a scholarship.) A Rangers manufactured him their tenth-spherical pick (271st overall) inside a 1990 amateur draft, & he spent the rest of the year swimming for their rookie-level minor league club in Butte, Montana. He would spend 100% 15 years of his office baseball career in the Rangers organization, the effort that experienced get the rarity among agency baseball player thanks to free agency.
At Butte, he batted .345 using an OPS of 1.032, which earned him the promotion to the Class The Florida State League the following year. He finished 1991 sustaining a Class AA Tulsa Drillers in the Texas League; he stayed with Tulsa across 1992 & virtually all of 1993, prior to existence known as as much as a Class AAA Oklahoma City 89ers for eight games. He as well began a 1994 year by owning a 89ers, batting .315 around 31 games, once he earned a call for-as much as the Rangers.
Major league career
Greer continued his successful process at Oklahoma whenever he was known as as much as Texas, in which he batted .314 by using tenner home runs within Lxxx games; one of his residence diarrhea come in his foremost major-league at bat. He as well played an integral a portiin around baseball history on July 28, 2004, when he manufactured the diving catch to prevent the perfect game by Kenny Rogers. Although that was one of the virtually a lot important catches he mass produced around his career, he mass produced numerous others rather it, & his all-full-scale style of play mass produced him a fan special throughout his major-league career.
Greer cooled off slightly within his 2nd year, batting .271. Still, within 1996, he had one of a better seasons of his career, batting .332 (fifth in the American League) and with his 1st of 3 100-RBI seasons.
A 1997 season also proved successful for Greer. He finished seventh in the AL by having the .321 batting norm, played within the career-high 157 games, & he hit the career-high Twenty-six personal diarrhea. Within 1998, he had the career-high 108 Run batted in & the .306 batting norm. the Rangers honored him for his contributions by granting him a freshly contract that paid him $3.3 million in 1999, up from $1,025,000 the previous season. Around 1999, he batted an even .300 by having Xx at home diarrhethe, 101 Run batted in, & a career-high 96 walks (to go using 67 strikeouts. In the 2000 season, he was limited to 105 games due to injuries and posted the batting norm of .297, by having eight page diarrhea.
Within 2001, Greer was limited to only 62 games because of injuries, however he however hit septet house diarrhea. However a fan preferred, he was honored by owning the trinity-season, $21 million contract prior to the 2002 season. All a same, due to injuries he would merely play 51 games using the Rangers inside 2002.
Injuries and attempted comeback
Greer's aggressive style of play took a severe toll in his immune system, & he spent the remainder of his baseball career undergoing & convalescent from either surgeries. When number 1 coming off of the disabled listing around 2002, he was only take a breath to play of these extra game, in July 11 of that year, prior to running back on the disabled listings. In August 22, he had surgery to fuse a C5 and C6 vertebrae in his neck; and in the offseason, he got surgery to repair the torn rotator cuff in his shoulder. He was so potential to miss a entire 2003 season. Piece rehabilitating from either a rotator cuff surgery, he got to undergo Tommy John surgery and an ulnar nerve transposition in July 2003. He actually was too supposed to receive operations in his perfect hip & best knee, however he decided against people. He besides got surgery in the as punishment offseason to dislodge scar tissue that had built higher within his elbow, & early in the 2004 season he had extra surgery to dislodge scar tissue from either his shoulder.
All a same, he was however determined to came back, & he & the Rangers potential to look at him back on the field as a designated hitter during the previous year of their year. He worked out at a Rangers' spring training facility in Surprise, Arizona, with the intention of doing the rehabilitation assignment in the minor leagues shortly thenceforth. Nevertheless, his exercising was cut short; he returned to Texas, in which he experienced surgery to dislodge scar tissue in his forearm & was declared retired for the year. A Rangers, nin amazingly, decided to choose out a guide month on his contract; he actually processed well-nigh when much money when you took them misplaced seasons as he did in the rest of his career combined.
Greer received invitations from either a Rangers & a Minnesota Twins to go to spring expert instruction as a non-roster guest, however he decided that he would like retire than move his personal to an additional state. So, in February 20, 2005, he announced his retirement, officially ending his comeback attempt.
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