Brendan Kingman

Olympic medal record
Men's Baseball
	Athens 2004	Team Competition

Brendan Kingman (born 22 May 1973) is an Australian baseball player.

Brendan Kingman was one of the most respected and prolific power hitters in Australia in the 90's and 2000's. He still holds the record as the longest serving Australian Baseball representative.

His career in Baseball started at age 6 when asked to participate in a Tee-Ball game, and he hit a HR in his first at Bat.

Brendan was a part of every representative team in Australia throughout the rest of his playing career.

1998 Australia's only Triple Crown winner 1998 Sydney Storm of the Australian Baseball League. 2004 Olympics- Hitting in the only run against Daisuke Matsuzaka to win the semi-final against Japan. As at 2012 Kingman is 2 HR's off breaking the Australian Home Run record.

Kingman's professional career in Australia began in 1991. A year later, he joined the Florida Marlins system and hit .281/~.450/.294 as a third baseman and DH for the GCL Marlins. With the same club in 1993, Kingman batted .261/~.383/.421 as a corner infielder. He hit .319/574/.670 in the 1993–1994 Australian Baseball League with a league-leading 17 home runs for the Sydney Blues. He made the All-Star team at third base; fellow All-Star infielders Homer Bush and Greg Jelks would play or had played in the major leagues.

Moving into full-season ball, Brendan batted .263/.342/.372 for the Kane County Cougars. With Kevin Millar at first base, Kingman played primarily DH. Kingman moved up to the Brevard County Manatees in 1995 and hit .289~.368/.421. Now a full-time DH, his 9 home runs were second on the club to Millar.

The Marlins let Kingman go after the 1995 season. In 1995–1996, Brendan hit .292/?/.528 to help Sydney to an ABL title. In the 1996–1997 season, Kingman hit .325/?/.716 for the Blues and was selected as an All-Star outfielder. He led the league in slugging percentage and home runs (21). His 62 RBI were one behind league leader Ronny Johnson. He was 7 for 26 with a homer as the primary Australian RF in the 1997 Intercontinental Cup when the country won its first Medal (a Bronze) in a worldwide event.

Kingman's career really took off in 1997–1998 when he broke every ABL record in the Triple Crown categories with a .487 average, 28 home runs and 66 RBI (tied for the lead). He led in slugging with a record 1.083 mark, 174 total bases in 156 AB. The closest player in the batting title race was Adam Burton, 99 points behind, with Jelks 108 points back. Kingman shattered John Jaha's batting average record in the ABL by 43 points. He was both the All-Star DH and MVP that year. It earned him a return ticket to Organized Baseball as the Seattle Mariners signed him.

Kingman's return to the USA was an impressive one. He batted .340/~.393/.524 for the Lancaster Jethawks. He won the California League batting title, beating out Jarrod Patterson, for his second batting crown in the span of a year. He scored 91 runs, hit 30 doubles and 16 home runs. He also hit into the most double plays (20). Kingman was named the All-Star DH in the California League that year.

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