Clint Barmes

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Clint Barmes bigraphy, stories - American baseball player

Clint Barmes : biography

March 6, 1979 –

Clint Harold Barmes [BAR-miss] (born March 6, 1979) is an American professional baseball shortstop and second baseman with the Pittsburgh Pirates of Major League Baseball (MLB). He played for the Colorado Rockies from 2003–2010 and Houston Astros in 2011. He bats and throws right-handed.

Collegiate career

Barmes attended Olney Central College and Indiana State University. While at Indiana State, Barmes was voted All-Region by the ABCA and All-Conference. Barmes teamed with Mitch Stetter to lead the Sycamores to the Semi-finals of the Missouri Valley Conference Tournament.

Personal

He was married in December 2006 to Summer Dennison. The couple have a boy named Wyatt James, who was born in September, 2007.http://www.rockymountainnews.com/news/2008/may/04/for-barmes-timings-everything/

Professional career

Colorado Rockies

Minors

Drafted by the Rockies in 2000 out of Indiana State University, Barmes played three seasons of minor league baseball before reaching the majors with Colorado. He spent time in subsequent seasons (2004–2005, 2007–2008) for rehabilitation and demotions. In 2002, he was a post-season All-Star for the Carolina Mudcats of the Southern League; in 2004, he was a post-season All-Star for the Colorado Springs Sky Sox of the Pacific Coast League and 2007, he was a mid-season All-Star for the Colorado Springs Sky Sox of the Pacific Coast League.

2003-05 seasons

From 2003-04, Barmes posted a .292 batting average with two home runs and 12 RBIs in 32 games played. In 2005 in 81 games Clint hit .289, 10 home runs, and 46 RBIs.

2005 season

On Opening Day at Coors Field, Barmes hit a game-winning, walk-off home run off Trevor Hoffman of the San Diego Padres, becoming the first Rockies rookie to hit such a home run.http://colorado.rockies.mlb.com/news/article.jsp?ymd=20050404&content_id=999157&vkey=recap&fext=.jsp&c_id=col At the end of the month, MLB selected Barmes as the National League Rookie of the Month for April.http://mlb.mlb.com/news/article.jsp?ymd=20050502&content_id=1036172&vkey=news_col&fext=.jsp&c_id=col Barmes, who hit .410 with four home runs and 14 RBIs, also became the third player in MLB history to hit .400 or better in March/April, joining the New York Mets’ Willie Randolph in 1980 and Montreal Expos’ Andrés Galarraga in 1986.http://mlb.mlb.com/news/article.jsp?ymd=20050502&content_id=1036172&vkey=news_col&fext=.jsp&c_id=col

In June, Barmes suffered an injury that sidelined him until September after breaking his left collarbone in a fall while carrying a package of deer meat given to him as a gift by Todd Helton up the stairs in his apartment building on June 5.http://sports.espn.go.com/mlb/news/story?id=2077547 (Barmes initially told the team and the press that he got hurt carrying groceries, but later admitted that this was not the truth. He claimed that he was trying to prevent Helton from being embarrassed.)http://sports.espn.go.com/mlb/news/story?id=2081549 Barmes, who was leading National League rookies in most offensive categories, underwent surgery on June 7. He was hitting around .400 and led the major leagues in batting average for the first six weeks of the season. After a mild slump, he was still leading NL rookies in hitting (.329), runs (40), hits (74), doubles (16), home runs (8) and RBIs (34) up until the time of his injury. His Rookie of the Year candidacy, however, was ruined by his freak injury, which he called "the craziest thing that’s happened to me, by far." However, Barmes still finished eighth in the National League Rookie of the Year voting for the season.

2006 season

Barmes entered the 2006 season with high expectations. Many predicted a repeat of the beginning of the ’05 season for Barmes in ’06. Although Barmes set career highs in a number of offensive categories, his ’06 season was widely considered a disappointment. He managed a subpar .220 batting average (the lowest of any starter in baseball) with only 7 home runs and a .264 on base percentage.