Eric Anthony
| Eric Anthony | |||
|---|---|---|---|
| Outfielder | |||
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Born: November 8, 1967 San Diego, California |
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| MLB debut | |||
| July 28, 1989, for the Houston Astros | |||
| Last MLB appearance | |||
| September 27, 1997, for the Los Angeles Dodgers | |||
| MLB statistics | |||
| Batting average | .231 | ||
| Home runs | 78 | ||
| Runs batted in | 269 | ||
| Teams | |||
Eric Todd Anthony (born November 8, 1967 in San Diego, California) is a former Major League Baseball outfielder.
Drafted by the Houston Astros in the 34th round of the 1986 MLB amateur draft, Anthony would make his Major League Baseball debut with the Houston Astros on July 28, 1989, and appear in his final game on September 27, 1997.
In 1986, Anthony was an 18-year-old Sharpstown High School dropout working on an assembly line at a Houston plastics company. He talked his way into an Astros tryout in 1986 and impressed scouts with his power, stunning them during batting practice by hitting a series of home runs that landed well beyond 400 feet from home plate. Subsequently, he was drafted by the Astros in the 34th round of the 1986 MLB amateur draft.
In the minor leagues, he tore through Single-A and Double-A pitching, building his reputation for prodigious home runs. His feast or famine plate approach had him averaging 30 home runs per season (along with an alarming 120 strikeouts per year). In 1989, Anthony led all minor-leaguers with 31 home runs and was the Southern League Most Valuable Player for the Columbus Mudcats. In desperate need of power-hitters, with only first baseman Glenn Davis hitting more than 13 home runs for the team that season, the Astros took a gamble and called Anthony up to the majors from Double-A in late July 1989.
Anthony's first major league hit came in his second game as an Astro. The home run, a 414-foot shot off the San Francisco Giants' Rick Reuschel, easily cleared the Astrodome fences. Later that game, he just missed another home run on an opposite-field shot that caromed off the top of the wall for a double.
The following season, Anthony electrified fans in the Astrodome in a game against the Chicago Cubs by launching a home run into the right field upper deck—the first Astro ever to put a home run there and the first player to do so since 1970. The pitch traveled an estimated 440 feet and the seat where the ball landed was commemorated with a star. For his first three seasons in the big leagues, Anthony shuttled between Triple-A Tucson and Houston, dominating minor-league pitching but never managing to hit over .200 at the MLB level.
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