Coming straight out of high school in Alabama, Terrence Long was selected 20th overall by the New York Mets in the 1994 Draft. It took Terrence a while to get out of the Minors but in 1999 he finally made his debut for the New York Mets at age 23.
The next season he was traded to the Moneyball Oakland A’s in a deal involving Kenny Rogers. He was a Rookie of the Year candidate, hitting 18 homeuns, driving in 80 runs, and a batting average of .288. The next two seasons he played in all 162 games. With all four seasons he played for the A’s he helped them make it to the playoffs by hitting at least 12 homeruns each season. However, the lefty’s batting average slowly deflated with each season on the A’s, which is probably why he was traded to the San Diego Padres. In his one season with the Padres he hit a career high .295 but only hit 3 homeruns. The next season he was traded to the Kansas City Royals. He still hit consistently, but was no longer a power hitter and only hit 6 jacks. It’s actually kind of sketchy once he left the A’s he lost all of his power (steroids?).
Long singed a minor league deal with the New York Yankees in 2006. Due to a Hedeki Matsui injury, Terrence got the call-up to the pinstripes, but he only played in 12 games. Sadly Terrence was released and never played in the bigs again.
Don’t feel to bad for him though, Terrence made $11,00,000 over his career, which really isn’t to bad for a “random athlete”…
-Schotz
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