Jeffery Adam Granger (born December 16, 1971) is an American former professional baseball

pitcher In baseball, the pitcher is the player who throws ("Pitch (baseball), pitches") the Baseball (ball), baseball from the pitcher's mound toward the catcher to begin each play, with the goal of out (baseball), retiring a batter (baseball), batter, ...

who played for the

Kansas City Royals The Kansas City Royals are an American professional baseball team based in Kansas City, Missouri. The Royals compete in Major League Baseball (MLB) as a member club of the American League (AL) American League Central, Central Division. The team ...

and the

Pittsburgh Pirates The Pittsburgh Pirates are an American professional baseball team based in Pittsburgh. The Pirates compete in Major League Baseball (MLB) as a member club of the National League (baseball), National League (NL) National League Central, Central ...

Major League Baseball Major League Baseball (MLB) is a professional baseball league composed of 30 teams, divided equally between the National League (baseball), National League (NL) and the American League (AL), with 29 in the United States and 1 in Canada. MLB i ...

(MLB).

High school

Granger was a star quarterback and pitcher for Orangefield High School in Orangefield, Texas. In 1990, his senior year, he led the Orangefield Bobcats to the state semifinals with a 23–6 record. Also an outstanding hitter, he still holds the Texas state record for longest hitting streak (42 games). In football, he was named the #6 Texas high school prospect in the class of 1990 by the

Austin American-Statesman The ''Austin American-Statesman'' is the major daily newspaper for Austin, the capital city of the U.S. state of Texas. It is owned by Hearst Communications. The distribution of the following ''The New York Times'', ''The Washington Post'', '' ...

, and the #2 quarterback overall. Still owns the Orangefield 400m school record with a sub 50 second performance.

College

In two seasons for

Texas A&M Texas A&M University (Texas A&M, A&M, TA&M, or TAMU) is a public university, public, Land-grant university, land-grant, research university in College Station, Texas, United States. It was founded in 1876 and became the flagship institution of ...

Granger had a record of 16–6 with 251 strikeouts in 220 innings during his first two seasons. In 1993, he broke the Aggie record with 150 strikeouts and broke Roger Clemens'

Southwest Conference The Southwest Conference (SWC) was an NCAA Division I college athletic conference in the United States that existed from 1914 to 1996. Composed primarily of schools from Texas, at various times the conference also included schools from Oklaho ...

career strikeout record. He was the College Station Regional MVP in the

College World Series The College World Series (CWS), officially the NCAA Men's College World Series (MCWS), is a baseball tournament held each June in Omaha, Nebraska. It is the culmination of the NCAA Division I baseball tournament—featuring 64 teams in the ...

, and was all-SWC as well as being named a first team All-American. Granger was a finalist for the Golden Spikes award and also pitched for Team USA in international play. He also played quarterback for the

Texas A&M Aggies football The Texas A&M Aggies football program represents Texas A&M University in the sport of American football. The Texas A&M Aggies, Aggies compete in the Football Bowl Subdivision (FBS) of the National Collegiate Athletic Association (NCAA) and the ...

team, and was briefly the starter. Highlights included a 4 TD performance against

Tulsa Tulsa ( ) is the second-most-populous city in the state of Oklahoma, after Oklahoma City, and the 48th-most-populous city in the United States. The population was 413,066 as of the 2020 census. It is the principal municipality of the Tul ...

playing in place of an injured Bucky Richardson in 1991. Granger engineered two memorable last-minute drives in 1992. After being pulled from the season opening Disneyland Pigskin Classic game against

Stanford Leland Stanford Junior University, commonly referred to as Stanford University, is a private research university in Stanford, California, United States. It was founded in 1885 by railroad magnate Leland Stanford (the eighth governor of and th ...

for a weak passing performance, he returned to throw a game-tying pass to tight end Greg Schorp. On a subsequent drive, he scrambled 33 yards to the Cardinal 29 yard line to set up a game-winning field goal by Terry Venetoulias as the Aggies prevailed 10–7. Granger led the Aggies to a 4–0 start that season, and top 5 early season ranking. Later against Texas Tech, Granger escaped a sack on a third-and-eight at the Raiders' 42-yard line and hit Schorp with a first-down pass that set up another Venetoulias game-winning field goal as time expired.

Professional career

Granger was drafted in the 1st Round (5th overall pick) of the 1993 MLB Draft by the

. He was only 21 when he broke into the majors with the Royals in September of that same year after only 7 impressive starts at single-A Eugene in which he struck out 56 batters in only 36 innings. He began the 1994 Season at AA Memphis and was called up to the big leagues for two respectable (but not overpowering) starts in May. Although he had dominated at the minor league level, it was clear that he needed some finesse to complement his impressive velocity, and the Royals kept him at AA Wichita in 1995. Granger was moved to the bullpen the following season and made a smooth transition, compiling an impressive 2.34 ERA for the AAA

Omaha Royals Omaha ( ) is the most populous city in the U.S. state of Nebraska. It is located in the Midwestern United States along the Missouri River, about north of the mouth of the Platte River. The nation's 41st-most-populous city, Omaha had a popu ...

. He was once again hit hard in 15 relief appearances for the major league club. In December 1996, Granger was traded with Jeff Wallace, Joe Randa, and Jeff Martin to the

for Jeff King and Jay Bell. Granger began the 1997 season with the Pirates, but was shelled in 9 relief appearances and sent down to AAA

Calgary Calgary () is a major city in the Canadian province of Alberta. As of 2021, the city proper had a population of 1,306,784 and a metropolitan population of 1,481,806 making it the third-largest city and fifth-largest metropolitan area in C ...

, where he struggled for the rest of the season. It was his last major league action. Granger spent the next three seasons struggling in the minor leagues for five different clubs in four different organizations. He even attempted to resurrect his career with the Long Island Ducks, but ultimately retired from baseball. Although he was a phenomenal two-sport college athlete and was able to play four seasons in the major leagues, he did not end up being the major-league All-star that some envisioned him becoming, instead a cautionary tale against rushing players to the major leagues.

Notes

External links

New York Times ArticleHitting streak in coach's bio

USA Today College Football encyclopedia - 1992 Pigskin classic section
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