Eric Karros

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Eric Peter Karros (born November 4, 1967 in Hackensack, New Jersey) is a former American baseball player who played in Major League Baseball from 1991-2004. Karros attended UCLA, where he received a degree in economics.

[edit] Playing career

Karros played his first MLB game on September 1, 1991. The only field position that he played was first base, playing 1,698 of his 1,711 games at that position. For the other 13 games of his career, Eric acted as the designated hitter for his team. He played the majority of his years (1991-2002) for the Los Angeles Dodgers.

Starting out with the Dodgers, Karros was named the 1992 National League Rookie of the Year. Karros put up consistent years throughout his career with the Dodgers, with a batting average just under .270. In addition, Karros averaged almost 25 home runs a year enjoying his finest year with the Dodgers in 1999 when he finished with a batting average of .304 with 34 home runs and 112 runs batted in.

It seemed for most of his years in Los Angeles, Karros was constantly involved in trade rumors that swirled around the Dodgers. Finally, on December 2, 2002, he was traded along with shortstop Mark Grudzielanek to the Chicago Cubs in exchange for catcher Todd Hundley and outfielder Chad Hermansen. After playing the 2003 season with the Cubs he was granted free agency from the team at the end of the season. He then signed with the Oakland Athletics before the start of the 2004 season. He was released from the team on August 3, 2004. Karros’ final MLB game was on July 21, 2004. He is considered to be one of the best players of his time to never make an all-star team ^[1]

[edit] Highlights

• 1992 National League Rookie of the Year
• 1995 National League Silver Slugger Award at First Base
• Finished 5th in voting for 1995 National League MVP
• Los Angeles Dodgers Career Sacrifice Flies Leader (74)
• Los Angeles Dodgers Career Home Run Leader (270)

[edit] Post-career

Karros now works as a color commentator for baseball on FOX as well as KCAL-TV in Los Angeles, where he does the pre-game show for Dodger games. He had previously worked for Fox Sports in 2004 doing the pregame shows for the Major League Baseball playoffs, and ESPN until 2006, providing commentary for selected games. He and Jeromy Burnitz also host a daily radio show in San Diego called Live at Five

[edit] See also

• Top 500 home run hitters of all time
• List of Major League Baseball players with 1000 RBI

[edit] External links

• Career statistics and player information from Baseball-Reference, or Fangraphs, or The Baseball Cube

[edit] References