Chas Kane McCormick (born April 19, 1995) is an American

professional baseball Professional baseball is organized baseball in which players are selected for their talents and are paid to play for a specific team or club system. It is played in leagues and associated farm teams throughout the world. Modern professiona ...

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 ...

for the

Houston Astros The Houston Astros are an American professional baseball team based in Houston, Texas. The Astros compete in Major League Baseball (MLB) as a member club of the American League (AL) West division, having moved to the division in 2013 after ...

Major League Baseball Major League Baseball (MLB) is a professional baseball organization and the oldest major professional sports league in the world. MLB is composed of 30 total teams, divided equally between the National League (NL) and the American League (AL) ...

(MLB). McCormick attended

Millersville University of Pennsylvania Millersville University of Pennsylvania (commonly known as Millersville University, The Ville, or MU) is a public university in Millersville, Pennsylvania. It is one of the fourteen schools that comprise the Pennsylvania State System of Higher E ...

and played

college baseball College baseball is baseball that is played on the intercollegiate level at institutions of higher education. In comparison to football and basketball, college competition in the United States plays a smaller role in developing professional pl ...

for the

Marauders Marauder, marauders, The Marauder, or The Marauders may refer to: * A person engaged in banditry or related activity ** Piracy ** Looting ** Outlaw ** Partisan (military) ** Robbery ** Theft Entertainment * ''Marauder'', the second novel in t ...

. Drafted by the Astros in the 21st round of the 2017 MLB draft, he made his MLB debut in 2021.

Early life

McCormick was born in

West Chester, Pennsylvania West Chester is a borough (Pennsylvania), borough and the county seat of Chester County, Pennsylvania, Chester County, Pennsylvania. Located within the Delaware Valley, Philadelphia metropolitan area, the borough had a population of 18,461 at the ...

, to Robert and Nancy Jo McCormick. At Henderson High School (West Chester High School), he was four-time All-

Ches-Mont League The Ches-Mont League is a high school sports league primarily located in Chester County, Pennsylvania in the suburbs of Philadelphia. Currently, the league consists of thirteen high schools, divided into two divisions. Twelve of the schools are ...

, and became the first player in school history to score 1,000 career points in basketball and record 100 career hits in baseball.

College

He attended

, an

NCAA Division II NCAA Division II (D-II) is an intermediate-level division of competition in the National Collegiate Athletic Association (NCAA). It offers an alternative to both the larger and better-funded Division I and to the scholarship-free environmen ...

school, and played baseball for the Millersville Marauders. McCormick set Millersville career records in hits, runs, RBIs, and triples, became the

Pennsylvania State Athletic Conference The Pennsylvania State Athletic Conference (PSAC) is a college athletic conference affiliated with the National Collegiate Athletic Association (NCAA) at the Division II level. The conference was originally formed in 1951 as the State Teachers ...

's all-time hits leader, was named an All-PSAC East player four times, was named the PSAC East Athlete of the Year, and was named an All-American.

Professional career

2017-21

The

selected McCormick in the 21st round of the draft in 2017. He signed with a bonus of $1,000. In 2019, he was named an MiLB.com Houston Organization All Star. Through 2019, his minor league performance in 1,126 plate appearances had him batting .276/.360/.400 with 20 home runs and 41 steals (in 53 attempts). McCormick made the Astros' wild card

playoff The playoffs, play-offs, postseason or finals of a sports league are a competition played after the regular season by the top competitors to determine the league champion or a similar accolade. Depending on the league, the playoffs may be eithe ...

roster in

2020 2020 was heavily defined by the COVID-19 pandemic, which led to global social and economic disruption, mass cancellations and postponements of events, worldwide lockdowns and the largest economic recession since the Great Depression in ...

. However, he did not make an appearance in the playoffs and was left off the playoff roster after a sweep of the

Minnesota Twins The Minnesota Twins are an American professional baseball team based in Minneapolis. The Twins compete in Major League Baseball (MLB) as a member club of the American League (AL) Central Division. The team is named after the Twin Cities area ...

. On April 1,

2021 File:2021 collage V2.png, From top left, clockwise: the James Webb Space Telescope was launched in 2021; Protesters in Yangon, Myanmar following the coup d'état; A civil demonstration against the October 2021 coup in Sudan; Crowd shortly after t ...

, McCormick made his MLB debut against the

Oakland Athletics The Oakland Athletics (often referred to as the A's) are an American professional baseball team based in Oakland, California. The Athletics compete in Major League Baseball (MLB) as a member club of the American League (AL) West division. The t ...

as a defensive replacement for Michael Brantley. He hit his first home run on April 4 against Yusmeiro Petit. In 2021, he batted .257/.319/.447 with 14 home runs and 50 RBIs in 284 at bats.

2022

McCormick made the Astros'

2022 File:2022 collage V1.png, Clockwise, from top left: Road junction at Yamato-Saidaiji Station several hours after the assassination of Shinzo Abe; Anti-government protest in Sri Lanka in front of the Presidential Secretariat; The global monkeyp ...

Opening Day Opening Day is the day on which professional baseball leagues begin their regular season. For Major League Baseball (MLB) and most of the American minor leagues, this day typically falls during the first week of April, although in recent years ...

roster. On May 6, he hit a two-run home run in the second inning versus the

Detroit Tigers The Detroit Tigers are an American professional baseball team based in Detroit. The Tigers compete in Major League Baseball (MLB) as a member of the American League (AL) Central division. One of the AL's eight charter franchises, the club was f ...

, the go-ahead run in a 3–2 Astros win. His double leading off the seventh inning on May 29 ended a perfect game bid by Texas Rangers' starter Martín Pérez. McCormick then scored the Astros' first run on a Yordan Álvarez single as the Astros won, 3–2. McCormick collected three hits versus the

A's The Oakland Athletics (often referred to as the A's) are an American professional baseball team based in Oakland, California. The Athletics compete in Major League Baseball (MLB) as a member club of the American League (AL) West division. The te ...

on May 31 to end a 2-for-23 slump, capped by a tie-breaking home run in the eighth inning versus Frankie Montas that resulted in a 3–1 Astros win. McCormick also hit an RBI single in the fifth inning. On June 26, McCormick was optioned to the AAA

Sugar Land Space Cowboys The Sugar Land Space Cowboys are a Minor League Baseball team of the Pacific Coast League (PCL) and the Triple-A affiliate of the Houston Astros Major League Baseball club. They are located in Sugar Land, Texas, part of the Greater Houston metr ...

, but was recalled two days later to replace an injured Michael Brantley. McCormick drove in five runs versus the

Chicago White Sox The Chicago White Sox are an American professional baseball team based in Chicago. The White Sox compete in Major League Baseball (MLB) as a member club of the American League (AL) Central division. The team is owned by Jerry Reinsdorf, and ...

on August 18, hitting a home run in a 21–5 win, tied for second-highest scoring output in team history. On September 9, he hit a home run and drove in three runs versus the

Los Angeles Angels The Los Angeles Angels are an American professional baseball team based in the Los Angeles metropolitan area. The Angels compete in Major League Baseball (MLB) as a member club of the American League (AL) West division. Since 1966, the team ha ...

to lead the Astros to a 4–3 win. In the 2022 regular season, he batted .245/.332/.407 in 359 at bats, with 14 home runs and 44 RBIs. He played 64 games in left field, 60 in center field, and 17 in right field. In Game 1 of the

2022 American League Championship Series The 2022 American League Championship Series was the best-of-seven playoff between the two American League Division Series winners, the Houston Astros and the New York Yankees, for the American League (AL) pennant and the right to play in the 202 ...

(ALCS) versus 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 o ...

, McCormick hit a home run off Clarke Schmidt for the first of his career in the

postseason The playoffs, play-offs, postseason or finals of a sports league are a competition played after the regular season by the top competitors to determine the league champion or a similar accolade. Depending on the league, the playoffs may be eithe ...

. McCormick would also hit a go-ahead 2-run home run off of

Gerrit Cole Gerrit Alan Cole (born September 8, 1990) is an American professional baseball pitcher for the New York Yankees of Major League Baseball (MLB). He previously played for the Pittsburgh Pirates and Houston Astros. Cole played for the baseball team ...

in Game 3 of the ALCS en route to an Astros sweep. In the ninth inning of Game 5 of the

World Series The World Series is the annual championship series of Major League Baseball (MLB) in the United States and Canada, contested since 1903 World Series, 1903 between the champion teams of the American League (AL) and the National League (NL). The ...

, McCormick's catch of a J. T. Realmuto fly ball at the wall at

Citizens Bank Park Citizens Bank Park is a baseball stadium located in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, in the city's South Philadelphia Sports Complex. It is the home playing field of the Philadelphia Phillies, the city's Major League Baseball (MLB) franchise. The st ...

Philadelphia Philadelphia, often called Philly, is the largest city in the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania, the sixth-largest city in the U.S., the second-largest city in both the Northeast megalopolis and Mid-Atlantic regions after New York City. Sinc ...

helped preserve a 3–2 lead for an eventual Astros win. After colliding with the fence, his landing left a starfish-shaped imprint on the warning track dirt on which the outline of his jersey number 20 was visible. The Astros defeated the Phillies the following game for their fourth win in the best-of-seven to give McCormick his first career World Series title.

References

External links

{{DEFAULTSORT:McCormick, Chas Living people 1995 births People from West Chester, Pennsylvania Baseball players from Pennsylvania Major League Baseball outfielders Houston Astros players Millersville Marauders baseball players Buies Creek Astros players Quad Cities River Bandits players Greeneville Astros players Corpus Christi Hooks players Round Rock Express players Leones del Escogido players American expatriate baseball players in the Dominican Republic