Barry Zito
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| San Francisco Giants — No. 75 | |
| Starting pitcher | |
| Bats: Left | Throws: Left |
| Major League Baseball debut | |
|---|---|
| July 22, 2000 for the Oakland Athletics | |
| Selected MLB statistics (through 2006) |
|
| Record | 102-63 |
| ERA | 3.55 |
| WHIP | 1.25 |
| Strikeouts | 1096 |
| Awards | |
| Former teams | |
Barry William Zito (born May 13th, 1978, in Las Vegas, Nevada) is a starting pitcher currently playing for the San Francisco Giants. Zito is a AL Cy Young winner and three-time All-Star, and is considered one of the top pitchers in baseball today.
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[edit] High School
During his freshman and sophomore years, Barry Zito attended Grossmont High School, a public high school in the San Diego suburb of El Cajon, California. Before his junior year, he transferred to University of San Diego High School, a Catholic school in the city of San Diego, where he earned all-league honors in baseball (with an 8-4 record and 105 strikeouts in 85 innings) as a senior.
[edit] College
He attended the University of California Santa Barbara where he earned Freshman All-America Honors with 123 strikeouts in 85.1 innings.
He transferred to Pierce College where he posted a 2.62 ERA and went 9-2 with 135 strikeouts in 103 innings, and was named to the all-state and all-conference teams.
He then went to USC, where he was a 1st-team All-America selection by USA Today Baseball Weekly, Collegiate Baseball, and Baseball America after going 12-3 with a 3.28 ERA and 154 strikeouts in 113.2 innings, and was named PAC-10 Pitcher of the Year.
While in college, Zito played in the Cape Cod League, a summer wooden bat league which showcases the nation's top amateur prospects. He pitched for the Wareham Gatemen, leading them to the league championship in 1997 and a runner-up finish in 1998.[1] [2]
[edit] Professional career
After being drafted by the Seattle Mariners in 1996 and the Texas Rangers in 1998 but not signing[3], he was drafted by the Oakland Athletics in the 1st round (9th overall) of the 1999 amateur entry draft, and signed for a $1.59 million bonus. He made his major league debut on July 22, 2000.
In 2001 he was 3rd in strikeouts/9 IP (8.61), 4th in the league in strikeouts (205), 5th in hit batsmen (13), 6th in wins (17), 8th in ERA (3.49), and 10th in W-L percenatage (.680). Zito became only the sixth lefty aged 23 or younger since 1902 to strike out at least 200 batters in a season.
In 2002, he won the American League Cy Young Award with a 23-5 record, narrowly defeating Pedro Martínez in the voting. He was 1st in the league in wins (23), 2nd in won-lost percentage (.821), and 3rd in ERA (2.75) and strikeouts (182). Martinez, who'd led the AL in ERA, strikeouts, and winning percentage, became the first pitcher since the introduction of the Cy Young Award to lead his league in each of those three statistics, yet not be voted the award.
In 2003 Zito was 7th in the league in ERA (3.30).
In 2004 he was 10th in the league in strikeouts (163).
In 2005 he was 5th in the league in strikeouts (171). He had a streak of 14 consecutive starts (and 20 out of 21) in which he gave up fewer hits than innings pitched.
In 2006 he led the league in batters faced (945) and games started (34), 3rd in the league in innings (221), 8th in wins (16), and 10th in ERA (3.83).
He was named to the American League All-Star Team in 2002, 2003, and 2006.
He is a durable pitcher, throwing 200 or more innings in each of his 6 full major league seasons. He has never missed a scheduled start in his career, and has led the American League in starts 4 times.
Zito replaced his agent Arn Tellem with the more hard-line Scott Boras in July 2006. Zito was the talk of the 2006 trade deadline, rumored to be headed to the Mets in a potential deal for prospect Lastings Milledge, but A's general manager Billy Beane decided to keep him for the rest of the season.
Following his 7th season with the Oakland Athletics, Zito, along side his agent Scott Boras, signed a seven-year deal with the Giants as a free agent on December 28, 2006, worth $126 million and including an option for an eighth season at $18 million. Zito's contract is the most expensive for a pitcher in MLB history.[4]
During Spring training in 2007 he and Barry Bonds made shirts that read "Don't ask me, ask Barry" with an arrow pointing to where the other Barry was. Ever since Zito came to the Giants he and Bonds have been getting along well, Zito has made an effort to say he will stand by Bonds through onslaughts from the media.
[edit] Awards
- 1999 - Pac-10 Pitcher of the Year
- 1999 - 1st team College All-American SP
- 1999 - Pac-10 Conference All-Star P
- 2000 - Triple-A All-Star SP
- 2002 - Baseball America First-Team Major League All-Star SP
- 2002 - AL Cy Young Award
- 2002 - MLB All-Star
- 2003 - MLB All-Star
- 2006 - MLB All-Star
[edit] Pitching style
A left-hander, Zito throws an 86-90 mph four-seam fastball, a changeup, a slider, and a "12-6" curveball (whose nicknames include "Captain Hook", "Rip-Curl", and "Bert") that evokes Hall of Famer Sandy Koufax.[5] It was voted best curveball in the major leagues in a poll of players conducted by ESPN the Magazine. In mid-2004, Zito started throwing a two-seam fastball, and in 2005, he added a strong slider, or "slurve," to his arsenal. Zito's motion is very fluid and consistent, featuring a high leg kick with a straight over-the-top delivery.
[edit] Personal life
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He is known for his idiosyncrasies. His personality has made him a media favorite. He has earned the nicknames "Planet Zito" and "Captain Quirk."[6]
He once made it a practice to buy his own autographed baseball cards on eBay; when asked why he bought them at auction for high prices rather than acquiring unsigned cards and signing them himself, Zito replied, "Because they're authenticated."
Zito carries pink satin pillows on the road, collects stuffed animals (such as a good luck teddy bear, with which he used to travel), and burns incense to relax.[7]
Many Oakland fans first became aware of Zito when, early in his career, he dyed his hair blue.
Plays guitar on the streets of San Francisco.
He enjoys barking with seals.[8]
He is known for his very simple lifestyle, living in a small apartment with no TV or real furniture (he sits on the lawn chairs that were left on the balcony).
His hobbies include surfing.
He created the charity Strikeouts for Troops, to which he donates $200 for every strikeout he throws. The charity benefits hospitals for soldiers wounded in military operations.
He is the nephew of television actor Patrick Duffy.
His grandmother is author Ann Meyer-Makeever.
His favorite movie is Happiness, directed by Todd Solondz.[9]
Dated actress Alyssa Milano in 2004. His dream dates are Katie Holmes and Penelope Cruz.[10]
Barry wears the number 75 for "personal and aesthetic reasons."
[edit] Zen, Yoga, Meditation, and Philosophy
He is heavily into Zen.
His hobbies include yoga.
He is known for having done yoga poses in the outfield, and meditated before games.[11]
He reads books that espouse a universal life force that he credits with his midseason turnaround. [12]
Zito is a fan of Ernest Holmes’ 1919 book, Creative Mind.[13]
His favorite philosopher is Neville Goddard, a a modern-era philosopher who focuses on the mind and what it is capable of, showing pathways to get what you want.[14]
His mother Roberta named him after her brother Barry, a beatnik “freethinker” and acolyte of Zen who mysteriously vanished in 1964 at the age of 22 near Big Sur, California.[15]
He frequently pulls off his cap during games to read the positive messages – reminders to trust himself – that he writes on the bottom of the bill of his cap.[16]
Zito has a 3-step personal philosophical practice as follows: 1) Affirmations. “My big thing is putting up signs in my room reminding me who I am. I use affirmations that I say to myself while I’m driving or that I put on an audiotape”; 2) Centering. “I will get quiet before I go to sleep, or before I get up”; and 3) Expectation. “I take a goal and I say it as if it were the past tense … Wear the mood that you’ve already achieved the thing you’re trying to accomplish.”[17]
Barry is also an avid surfer. He learned when he was in college in Southern California.
[edit] Music
His father composed and arranged music for Nat King Cole in the ealry 1960s (ca.1961-1964), and did a lot of arrangements for the Buffalo Symphony, and his mother is a classically trained musician who also sang with Nat King Cole's band, in a choral group known as The Merry Young Souls.[18][19]
He is a big fan of musician Ben Folds.[20] He wore a Ben Folds t-shirt at his Cy Young press conference and met Ben after a show in Milwaukee; he met Folds at his first full solo show, in New York.[21] He bought "Naked Baby Pictures" in 1998 just because he thought the cover was cool.[22] They share an interest in songwriting and photography.[23]
He listens to punk rock. His favorite music, were he to be hitting in the World Series, would be his favorite punk band, NOFX. [24]
He is known for having occasionally warmed up in the backyard to the strains of Rachmaninoff's piano concerto No. 2.[25]
His hobbies include rock guitar, which he started playing (righty) in spring training in 2000).[26] He has been taking marathon guitar lessons, and seriously considers a post-baseball musical career.[27]
He writes music, and plans on cutting an acoustic, singer-songwriter, jazzy CD. [28]
He jammed at a benefit concert with the 1970s super group Chicago.[29]
For dates, his favorite music is John Coltrane, Stan Getz, and Antonio Carlos Jobim(bossa nova from Brazil).[30]
His favorite website is guitaretab.com, a guitar enthusiast's guide to bands and music.[31]
[edit] Acting
He also hopes to start a career as a dramatic actor, and has taken some workshops and classes.[32]
He once made an appearance in a JAG episode, portraying a Navy baseball pitcher brought up on charges for hitting a player with a pitch during a game.
Zito did uncredited voiceover work for Cartoon Network's show The Venture Bros. [33]
[edit] Quotes
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- "I'm not trying to be cocky, but I set such a high standard for myself. I'm not happy when I pitch 7 innings and give up 2 runs and get a win.” - Barry Zito
- "I refuse to be molded into some stereotypical ballplayer that has no interests, really, no life, no depth, no intelligence." - Barry Zito
- “There's a part of me that wants to go streak and run outside and jump around and go swim in the ocean and do everything. The other part of me wants to bear down and repeat this kind of performance next year and in the years to come." - Barry Zito
- “He's a smart person who wants to get smarter. And really, how many people can you say that about?” - Teammate Erik Hiljus
- “He's your typical lefthander.” - Former teammate Jason Giambi
[edit] External links
- Baseball-Reference.com - career statistics and analysis
- Barry Zito at ESPN.com
- BarryZito.com
- Strikeouts For Troops
- Barry Zito at the Internet Movie Database
| Preceded by Roger Clemens |
American League Cy Young Award 2002 |
Succeeded by Roy Halladay |
Categories: Cleanup from February 2007 | All pages needing cleanup | Articles lacking sources from December 2006 | All articles lacking sources | 1978 births | Living people | All-Star Futures Game players | Irish-American sportspeople | Italian-American sportspeople | People from Las Vegas | Major league pitchers | Major league players from Nevada | Oakland Athletics players | People from San Diego | University of Southern California Trojans baseball players | University of California, Santa Barbara alumni | American League All-Stars
