Troy Franklin O'Leary (born August 4, 1969) is an American former professional

baseball Baseball is a bat-and-ball sport played between two teams of nine players each, taking turns batting and fielding. The game occurs over the course of several plays, with each play generally beginning when a player on the fielding t ...

outfielder An outfielder is a person playing in one of the three defensive positions in baseball or softball, farthest from the batter. These defenders are the left fielder, the center fielder, and the right fielder. As an outfielder, their duty is to c ...

who played with the Milwaukee Brewers (-),

Boston Red Sox The Boston Red Sox are an American professional baseball team based in Boston. The Red Sox compete in Major League Baseball (MLB) as a member club of the American League (AL) East division. Founded in as one of the American League's eigh ...

(-),

Montreal Expos The Montreal Expos (french: link=no, Les Expos de Montréal) were a Canadian professional baseball team based in Montreal, Quebec. The Expos were the first Major League Baseball (MLB) franchise located outside the United States. They played in t ...

() and Chicago Cubs (). He batted and threw

left-handed In human biology, handedness is an individual's preferential use of one hand, known as the dominant hand, due to it being stronger, faster or more dextrous. The other hand, comparatively often the weaker, less dextrous or simply less subject ...

. In an 11-season career, O'Leary posted a .274

batting average Batting average is a statistic in cricket, baseball, and softball that measures the performance of batters. The development of the baseball statistic was influenced by the cricket statistic. Cricket In cricket, a player's batting average is ...

with 127

home run In baseball, a home run (abbreviated HR) is scored when the ball is hit in such a way that the batter is able to circle the bases and reach home plate safely in one play without any errors being committed by the defensive team. A home run i ...

s and 591

runs batted in A run batted in (RBI; plural RBIs ) is a statistic in baseball and softball that credits a batter for making a play that allows a run to be scored (except in certain situations such as when an error is made on the play). For example, if the ba ...

in 1198 games.

Career

O'Leary attended

Cypress High School Cypress High School is a public high school in the city of Cypress, California. It was founded in 1973 and serves grades 9 through 12. Cypress is one of eight high schools in the Anaheim Union High School District (AUHSD). History Cypress was firs ...

in Cypress, California. He initially committed to play college football at

Oregon State Oregon State University (OSU) is a public land-grant, research university in Corvallis, Oregon. OSU offers more than 200 undergraduate-degree programs along with a variety of graduate and doctoral degrees. It has the 10th largest engineering col ...

as a wide receiver. A 13th-round pick in , O'Leary enjoyed a great season at Double-A

El Paso El Paso (; "the pass") is a city in and the seat of El Paso County in the western corner of the U.S. state of Texas. The 2020 population of the city from the U.S. Census Bureau was 678,815, making it the 23rd-largest city in the U.S., the s ...

, winning the

Texas League The Texas League is a Minor League Baseball league which has operated in the South Central United States since 1902. It is classified as a Double-A league. Despite the league's name, only its five South Division teams are actually based in the ...

batting title with a .334 average and stealing 28 bases. O'Leary had batted over .330 twice before. He was promoted to Milwaukee a year later, and after two seasons, he was selected off waivers by the Red Sox. O'Leary hit his first career home run September 1, 1994 off

San Diego Padres The San Diego Padres are an American professional baseball team based in San Diego. The Padres compete in Major League Baseball (MLB) as a member club of the National League (NL) West division. Founded in 1969, the club has won two NL penn ...

reliever In baseball and softball, a relief pitcher or reliever is a pitcher who enters the game after the starting pitcher is removed because of fatigue, ineffectiveness, injury, or ejection, or for other strategic reasons, such as inclement weather ...

Adam Clark. O'Leary hit .308 in his first season with the

and was named the 1995 Red Sox Rookie of the Year. O'Leary collected at least 70 RBI from - and reached double digit home run totals in all 7 seasons with the Red Sox. Troy enjoyed the best year of his career statistically in 1999. He led the Red Sox with 28 home runs in the regular season, was second on the team to

Nomar Garciaparra Anthony Nomar Garciaparra (; born July 23, 1973) is an American retired Major League Baseball player and current SportsNet LA analyst. After playing parts of nine seasons as an All-Star shortstop for the Boston Red Sox, he played shortstop, third ...

in RBI (103), and finished with a .280 batting average. He played in 157 of the 162 regular season games and finished with 596 at bats, leading the team in both categories. Troy also posted 84 runs (3rd on team), 167 hits (3rd on team), 36 doubles (4th on team), and a .495 slugging percentage (3rd on team). One of the greatest performances of O'Leary's career and in

postseason history took place on October 11, 1999 in the decisive game 5 of the

1999 American League Division Series The 1999 American League Division Series (ALDS), the opening round of the 1999 American League playoffs, began on Tuesday, October 5, and ended on Monday, October 11, with the champions of the three AL divisions—along with a " wild card" team� ...

versus the

Cleveland Indians The Cleveland Guardians are an American professional baseball team based in Cleveland. The Guardians compete in Major League Baseball (MLB) as a member club of the American League (AL) Central division. Since , they have played at Progressive Fi ...

. Boston entered the top half of the third inning trailing 5-2. With runners on second and third and first base open, Indians manager

Mike Hargrove Dudley Michael Hargrove (born October 26, 1949) is a former Major League Baseball first baseman and manager. He is currently employed as an advisor with the Cleveland Guardians. Hargrove batted and threw left-handed. He played for the Texas Rang ...

chose to intentionally walk

, who had homered in the first inning, to load the bases for O'Leary. O'Leary responded by sending a

Charles Nagy Charles Harrison Nagy (born May 5, 1967) is an American former Major League Baseball All-Star right-handed pitcher who played for 14 seasons in the major leagues from to . He played for the Cleveland Indians and San Diego Padres. He served as th ...

breaking ball 417 feet over the right field fence for the first grand slam in Red Sox post-season history, giving Boston a 7-5 lead. When the seventh inning began, the game was tied 8-8. Again, Hargrove chose to intentionally walk Garciaparra to get to O'Leary, this time with Paul Shuey on the mound. O'Leary responded by again jumping on the first pitch he saw, crushing a line drive over the right field fence for a 3 run home-run. O'Leary's 7 RBI, along with 6 no-hit relief innings from

Pedro Martinez Pedro is a masculine given name. Pedro is the Spanish, Portuguese, and Galician name for '' Peter''. Its French equivalent is Pierre while its English and Germanic form is Peter. The counterpart patronymic surname of the name Pedro, meaning ...

, helped seal the victory and advanced the

Red Sox The Boston Red Sox are an American professional baseball team based in Boston. The Red Sox compete in Major League Baseball (MLB) as a member club of the American League (AL) East division. Founded in as one of the American League's eight ...

to the

1999 American League Championship Series The 1999 American League Championship Series (ALCS) was a matchup between the East Division Champion New York Yankees (98–64) and the Wild Card Boston Red Sox (94–68). The Yankees had advanced to the Series after sweeping the West Division C ...

against the

New York Yankees The New York Yankees are an American professional baseball team based in the New York City borough of the Bronx. The Yankees compete in Major League Baseball (MLB) as a member club of the American League (AL) East division. They are one of ...

. O'Leary would spend 2 more seasons with the

until the signing of slugger

Manny Ramirez Manuel Arístides Ramírez Onelcida (born May 30, 1972) is a Dominican-American former professional baseball outfielder. He played in Major League Baseball (MLB) for parts of 19 seasons. He played with the Cleveland Indians, Boston Red Sox, L ...

made O'Leary expendable. Troy went on to play 97 games for the

in 2002 and 93 games for the Chicago Cubs in 2003. In what turned out to be the final at-bat of his major league career during game 7 of the

2003 National League Championship Series The 2003 National League Championship Series (NLCS) was a Major League Baseball playoff series played from October 7 to 15 to determine the champion of the National League, between the Central Division champion Chicago Cubs and the wild-card qua ...

, O'Leary hit a pinch hit home run in the bottom of the 7th inning off of

Josh Beckett Joshua Patrick Beckett (born May 15, 1980) is an American former professional baseball pitcher in Major League Baseball (MLB). A three-time MLB All-Star, he played for the Florida Marlins, the Boston Red Sox, and the Los Angeles Dodgers. After ...

. O'Leary spent 2004 with the Samsung Lions of the Korea Baseball Organization. In 1198 games over 11 major league seasons, O'Leary posted a .274

(1100-for-4010) with 547 runs, 234 doubles, 40 triples, 127 home runs, 591 RBI, 334 bases on balls, .332 on-base percentage and .448 slugging percentage. He finished his career with a .985 fielding percentage playing at all three outfield positions. In 18 postseason games, he batted .217 (13-for-60) with 7 runs, 3 doubles, 3 home runs, 9 RBI and 5 walks.

References

Dose of reality from O'Leary

External links

, o
Retrosheet
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Pelota Binaria (Venezuelan Winter League)
{{DEFAULTSORT:Oleary, Troy 1969 births Living people African-American baseball players American expatriate baseball players in Canada American expatriate baseball players in Mexico American expatriate baseball players in South Korea Baseball players from California Beloit Brewers players Boston Red Sox players Cardenales de Lara players American expatriate baseball players in Venezuela Chicago Cubs players El Paso Diablos players Gulf Coast Red Sox players Helena Brewers players KBO League outfielders Langosteros de Cancún players Major League Baseball left fielders Major League Baseball right fielders Milwaukee Brewers players Montreal Expos players New Orleans Zephyrs players Ottawa Lynx players Samsung Lions players Sportspeople from Compton, California Stockton Ports players American expatriate baseball players in Australia 21st-century African-American people 20th-century African-American sportspeople