Athlete Appreciation: Grady Sizemore
The first installment of the Athlete Appreciation series focuses on one of the greatest "what-ifs" in MLB history.
No matter how much you love sports today, it can’t match the feeling of watching your favorite players and teams as a kid. Athletes were superheroes. There was something special about having a collection of cards, jerseys, shoes, or memorabilia associated with the athletes or teams you idolized.
Video games, card collecting, and watching SportsCenter on repeat helped me learn the names, jersey numbers, stats, and teams of pretty much every prominent athlete in my favorite sports. MLB, NFL, NBA, and NASCAR pretty much consumed my childhood. My closet was filled with jerseys — Carmelo Anthony (Nuggets) and LaDainian Tomlinson (Chargers) were my favorites — and binders filled with cards.
I had every MLB, Madden, NBA 2K, and NASCAR video game. I tracked stats over the course of a full season and acted like a general manager with the team I drafted. When I was really young, I’d take my enormous collection of NASCAR diecasts and race them against each other. I’d keep records of each race. Jeff Gordon always won… I wonder why!
The point is we all had those athletes that resonated with us during that golden era of being a sports fan. Maybe they were the star player on your favorite team. Maybe they dominated SportsCenter’s Top 10 Plays. Maybe you pretended to be them while playing in your backyard. Maybe their impact transcended the sport they played. Maybe they left you wishing what it would have been like had they unlocked their full potential. Maybe they were just plain cool.
I wanted to spotlight the athletes — past and present — who have had this effect on myself and others. Thus, the Athlete Appreciation series was born.
I plan to profile and reminisce about a beloved athlete in each installment. Not sure how often yet, but it’ll be fun. I’ll also be taking requests for athletes I should highlight once the series really gets going.
Without further ado, the Athlete Appreciation series kicks off with one of my favorite baseball players of all time: former Cleveland Indians outfielder Grady Sizemore.
The Beginning
Sizemore was a star three-sport athlete at Cascade High School in Everett, Washington. He excelled at baseball (obviously), football, and basketball. One could argue football was his No. 1 as he set Cascade's all-time rushing yards record with 3,081.
He signed a letter of intent to play baseball and football for the University of Washington and entered the 2000 Major League Baseball draft upon graduating from high school. The Montreal Expos selected Sizemore in the third round and offered him a $2 million signing bonus. That was enough to persuade him to forgo college and officially become a professional baseball player.
Sizemore spent two-and-a-half years in the Expos' minor league system before being traded to the Cleveland Indians in a blockbuster deal. Montreal sent Sizemore, Cliff Lee, Brandon Phillips, and Lee Stevens to Cleveland for Bartolo Colon and Tim Drew. What an awful deal that turned out to be for the Expos.
A Young Star
It didn’t take long for Sizemore to emerge as one of baseball’s brightest young superstars. He made his big-league debut with the Indians on July 21, 2004, and flashed his potential in limited playing time. His career took off the following season.
In 2005, Sizemore put himself on the map as one of the best all-around center fielders in the game. An elite five-tool player.
At 22 years old, he hit .289 with 22 home runs, 81 RBI, and a .832 OPS in 158 games. He joined Indians great Roberto Alomar as the only players in franchise history to record 20 doubles, 10 triples, 20 homers and 20 stolen bases in a single season.
Cleveland had its new face of the franchise, or so it thought. Sizemore signed a six-year contract with the Indians for $23.45 million ahead of the 2006 campaign.
Prime Years
Sizemore was outstanding in his first full season, but his true breakout came in 2006. This is when he went from a promising up-and-comer to an icon for any diehard baseball fan.
He played in all 162 games for Cleveland, posting a 6.7 WAR that was the fourth-best in the entire league. His final numbers: .290 batting average, .375 on-base percentage, .533 slugging percentage, 28 homers, 76 RBI, 22 stolen bases, 53 doubles, and 11 triples. He led the majors in doubles, extra-base hits ( 92), and runs scored (134). Sizemore followed former Philadelphia Phillies outfielder Chuck Klein (1932) as the second player in MLB history to have at least 50 doubles, 10 triples, 25 homers, and 20 stolen bases in a season.
Similar stories in 2007 and 2008. At this point, Sizemore was a certified superstar and on a Hall-of-Fame trajectory.
He played in all 162 games AGAIN in ‘07. This time, he hit .277 with 24 homers, 78 RBI, 34 doubles, five triples, 33 steals, and a .852 OPS. In ‘08, he slashed .268/.374/.502 career-highs in homers (33), RBI (90), and stolen bases (38) in 157 games. He also notched 39 doubles and five triples while earning his third consecutive All-Star selection, second straight Gold Glove award, and first Silver Slugger award.
In his first and only postseason, Sizemore showed his greatness on a national stage. He led off the 2007 ALDS with a homer against the New York Yankees and was the unofficial MVP of the series, finishing with a .375/.524/.688 slash line.
The Downfall
Injuries began to plague Sizemore in 2009. He suffered a groin injury in spring training that forced him to pull out of the World Baseball Classic. He took the field for the Indians on Opening Day, but it was clear he wasn’t 100%. He struggled mightily at the plate before being placed on the injured list in May.
Sizemore returned and looked more like himself. In September, however, the team shut him down for the rest of the season and revealed he needed not one, but two surgeries: one on his left elbow and one on his lower abdomen, which was related to that groin injury from the spring.
At the time, it seemed like a minor setback for a player who otherwise had been nothing but durable. Remember, this is a guy who missed only nine games in a four-season span.
But the nagging injuries only got worse from there.
Sizemore played only 33 games in 2010 before undergoing microfracture surgery on his left knee. Only 71 games in 2011 due to more knee issues and another sports hernia surgery. That was his final season in Cleveland as he re-signed in the offseason but missed all of 2012 due to back surgery and several setbacks in his recovery from back and knee surgeries. He underwent another microfracture surgery on his right knee in September after the previous procedure was unsuccessful.
The Comeback Attempt
It wasn’t until 2014 that Sizemore was given another opportunity. He joined the Boston Red Sox on a one-year, $750,000 contract in an attempt to revive his once-stellar career. The deal included incentives that would increase that figure to around $6 million.
The experiment started off promising. Sizemore won the starting center fielder job over Jackie Bradley Jr. and homered in his Red Sox debut.
That was one of the two homers he’d hit in 52 games with Boston. He was released in June after hitting .216 with a .612 OPS.
Sizemore joined the Philadelphia Phillies on a minor league deal the following week and was promoted in July. His tenure in Philly started off strong enough to earn him a contract for 2015. But in May of that season, he was designated for assignment and later released.
The Tampa Bay Rays signed Sizemore that June, and that’s where he’d play the final 58 games of his MLB career.
What Could Have Been?
Sizemore has gone down as one of the biggest “what-ifs” in not just baseball history, but in all of sports. He was simply sensational in every facet of the game. It isn’t hyperbole to say he could have been one of the all-time greats. He was on track to be a shoo-in for the Hall of Fame and perhaps the greatest all-around Cleveland Indians player ever.
Injuries stole that potential from him and years of entertainment from us. It’s a shame. But at the same time, it’s what makes Grady Sizemore such a fascinating topic. He played only four full seasons and that was enough to make us forever wonder what could have been had he stayed healthy. He was special.
Hope you enjoyed the first installment of the Athlete Appreciation series! Let me know what you think and if there’s another player in any sport that makes you wonder what could have been.
Carmelo’s Knick Jersey
LT’s Jet Jersey
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