Jim Leyritz
Encyclopedia
James Joseph Leyritz is a former catcher
Catcher
Catcher is a position for a baseball or softball player. When a batter takes his turn to hit, the catcher crouches behind home plate, in front of the umpire, and receives the ball from the pitcher. This is a catcher's primary duty, but he is also called upon to master many other skills in order to...

 and infielder
Infielder
An infielder is a baseball player stationed at one of four defensive "infield" positions on the baseball field.-Standard arrangement of positions:In a game of baseball, two teams of nine players take turns playing offensive and defensive roles...

 in Major League Baseball
Major League Baseball
Major League Baseball is the highest level of professional baseball in the United States and Canada, consisting of teams that play in the National League and the American League...

.

Early years

Leyritz attended Turpin High School
Turpin High School (Hamilton County, Ohio)
Turpin High School is a public high school in Cincinnati, Ohio, United States that serves grades nine through twelve. The school is part of the Forest Hills Local School District and serves the affluent suburb of Anderson Township; admission is based primarily on the location of a student's home...

 in Cincinnati, Ohio
Cincinnati, Ohio
Cincinnati is a city in the U.S. state of Ohio. Cincinnati is the county seat of Hamilton County. Settled in 1788, the city is located to north of the Ohio River at the Ohio-Kentucky border, near Indiana. The population within city limits is 296,943 according to the 2010 census, making it Ohio's...

, Middle Georgia Jr. College
Middle Georgia College
Middle Georgia College is a publicly supported, residential,charter unit of the University System of Georgia, in the city Cochran in the U.S. state of Georgia. Founded in 1884, the school is the oldest two-year college in the United States. It is currently being transformed into a 4 year college...

 (Cochran, GA
Cochran, Georgia
Cochran is a city in Bleckley County, Georgia, United States. As of the 2010 census, the city had a population of 5,150. The city is the county seat of Bleckley County.- History :...

) and the University of Kentucky
University of Kentucky
The University of Kentucky, also known as UK, is a public co-educational university and is one of the state's two land-grant universities, located in Lexington, Kentucky...

.

Baseball career

After playing the 1985 season for the Kentucky Wildcats
Kentucky Wildcats baseball
The Kentucky Wildcats baseball team represents the University of Kentucky in NCAA Division I college baseball and competes in the Eastern division of the Southeastern Conference...

, Leyritz went undrafted by Major League Baseball
Major League Baseball
Major League Baseball is the highest level of professional baseball in the United States and Canada, consisting of teams that play in the National League and the American League...

, but was signed as a free agent by the New York Yankees
New York Yankees
The New York Yankees are a professional baseball team based in the The Bronx, New York. They compete in Major League Baseball in the American League's East Division...

. Leyritz played for the Yankees (1990–1996, 1999–2000), with whom he debuted on June 8, . He played for the Anaheim Angels
Los Angeles Angels of Anaheim
The Los Angeles Angels of Anaheim are a professional baseball team based in Anaheim, California, United States. The Angels are a member of the Western Division of Major League Baseball's American League. The "Angels" name originates from the city in which the team started, Los Angeles...

 (1997), Texas Rangers
Texas Rangers (baseball)
The Texas Rangers are a professional baseball team in the Dallas-Fort Worth Metroplex, based in Arlington, Texas. The Rangers are a member of the Western Division of Major League Baseball's American League, and are the reigning A.L. Western Division and A.L. Champions. Since , the Rangers have...

 (1997), Boston Red Sox
Boston Red Sox
The Boston Red Sox are a professional baseball team based in Boston, Massachusetts, and a member of Major League Baseball’s American League Eastern Division. Founded in as one of the American League's eight charter franchises, the Red Sox's home ballpark has been Fenway Park since . The "Red Sox"...

 (1998), San Diego Padres
San Diego Padres
The San Diego Padres are a Major League Baseball team based in San Diego, California. They play in the National League Western Division. Founded in 1969, the Padres have won the National League Pennant twice, in 1984 and 1998, losing in the World Series both times...

 (1998) and Los Angeles Dodgers
Los Angeles Dodgers
The Los Angeles Dodgers are a professional baseball team based in Los Angeles, California. The Dodgers are members of Major League Baseball's National League West Division. Established in 1883, the team originated in Brooklyn, New York, where it was known by a number of nicknames before becoming...

 (2000), pinch-hitting more extensively toward the end of his career. He batted and threw right-handed exclusively in the majors, but was known to switch-hit in the minor leagues
Minor league baseball
Minor league baseball is a hierarchy of professional baseball leagues in the Americas that compete at levels below Major League Baseball and provide opportunities for player development. All of the minor leagues are operated as independent businesses...

. He is best known for his 3-run home run
Home run
In baseball, a home run is scored when the ball is hit in such a way that the batter is able to reach home safely in one play without any errors being committed by the defensive team in the process...

 off Atlanta Braves
Atlanta Braves
The Atlanta Braves are a professional baseball club based in Atlanta, Georgia. The Braves are a member of the Eastern Division of Major League Baseball's National League. The Braves have played in Turner Field since 1997....

 closer Mark Wohlers
Mark Wohlers
Mark Edward Wohlers is a former right-handed relief pitcher in Major League Baseball best known for his years with the Atlanta Braves from to...

 in Game 4 of the 1996 World Series
1996 World Series
-Game 1:Sunday, October 20, 1996 at Yankee Stadium in Bronx, New YorkGame 1 and Game 2 were originally scheduled for Saturday, October 19 and Sunday, October 20, respectively. Rain on October 19, however, washed out Game 1. The schedule was moved up one day, with Game 1 and Game 2 rescheduled for...

. That home run was significant, as the momentum from then on shifted towards the Yankees. "The King" is known for hitting the last home run of the 1990s in Game 4 of the 1999 World Series
1999 World Series
The 1999 World Series, the 95th edition of Major League Baseball's championship series, featured a rematch between the defending champions New York Yankees against the Atlanta Braves during the month of October, with the Yankees sweeping the Series in four games for their second title in a row,...

.

Idiosyncrasies at the plate

Leyritz was known for using an unusual stance which involved keeping his front leg (left leg) straight and stiff while his back leg (right leg) behind him considerably bent at the knee. He did this while circling his bat around behind his head, waiting for the pitch. After each pitch that Leyritz did not put into play or strike out on, he would grab the bat by its center and twirl it at his hip like a baton.

Leyritz was also Andy Pettitte
Andy Pettitte
Andrew Eugene Pettitte is a retired American left-handed Major League Baseball starting pitcher.In his major league career, he played for the New York Yankees from 1995–2003. He then signed with the Houston Astros, and played for them from 2004 through 2006. In 2007, Pettitte rejoined the Yankees...

's personal catcher in 1995-96 and again in 1999-2000.

Playoff reputation and exploits

Leyritz is best known for hitting numerous postseason home runs that either won, tied, or changed the momentum of several series.

In Game 2 of the 1995 American League Division Series
1995 American League Division Series
-Seattle Mariners vs. New York Yankees:-Game 1, Tuesday, October 3:Jacobs Field in Cleveland, OhioAfter a 39-minute rain delay, Game 1 got underway with two veterans, Roger Clemens and Dennis Martínez, starting the opener. The Red Sox jumped in front first in the third on John Valentin's two run...

 against the Seattle Mariners
Seattle Mariners
The Seattle Mariners are a professional baseball team based in Seattle, Washington. Enfranchised in , the Mariners are a member of the Western Division of Major League Baseball's American League. Safeco Field has been the Mariners' home ballpark since July...

 at Yankee Stadium, Leyritz hit an opposite field two-run home run to right-center into the rain in the 15th inning to win that game 7–5 for the Yankees and provided them with an ample 2–0 series lead in the best-of-five series. The home run came off Mariners pitcher Tim Belcher
Tim Belcher
Timothy Wayne Belcher is a retired Major League Baseball pitcher. He won the Sporting News Rookie Pitcher of the Year Award in for the National League...

, who was famously involved in a profanity
Profanity
Profanity is a show of disrespect, or a desecration or debasement of someone or something. Profanity can take the form of words, expressions, gestures, or other social behaviors that are socially constructed or interpreted as insulting, rude, vulgar, obscene, desecrating, or other forms.The...

-laced and threatening incident with a cameraman covering him walking through the Yankee Stadium tunnel after giving up the home run. The Yankees would eventually squander the series lead by losing the following three games in Seattle's Kingdome
Kingdome
The Kingdome was a multi-purpose stadium located in Seattle's SoDo neighborhood. Owned and operated by King County, the Kingdome opened in 1976 and was best known as the home stadium of the Seattle Seahawks of the National Football League , the Seattle Mariners of Major League Baseball , and the...

, the final two of which were decided in highly dramatic fashion. (The Mariners won Game 5 by a score of 6–5 with two runs in the bottom of the 11th inning.) As a result, this home run is not as well known because it ultimately did not change the series outcome.

The best known of Leyritz's playoff heroics occurred in Game 4 of the 1996 World Series
1996 World Series
-Game 1:Sunday, October 20, 1996 at Yankee Stadium in Bronx, New YorkGame 1 and Game 2 were originally scheduled for Saturday, October 19 and Sunday, October 20, respectively. Rain on October 19, however, washed out Game 1. The schedule was moved up one day, with Game 1 and Game 2 rescheduled for...

 against the Atlanta Braves at Atlanta-Fulton County Stadium
Atlanta-Fulton County Stadium
Atlanta-Fulton County Stadium, often shortened to "Fulton County Stadium," was a multi-purpose stadium that formerly stood in Atlanta, Georgia, United States.-History:...

. The Yankees had lost the first two games of the series at home, and narrowly won Game 3 in Atlanta. Game 4 appeared to be going to the Braves, who led 6-0 after 5 innings. The Yankees rallied for 3 runs in the 6th, setting the stage for Leyritz in the 8th inning. Leyritz stepped up with one out and two men on base and hit a three-run home run to left field to tie the game and cap the improbable Yankee comeback. The home run was hit against Atlanta closer Mark Wohlers
Mark Wohlers
Mark Edward Wohlers is a former right-handed relief pitcher in Major League Baseball best known for his years with the Atlanta Braves from to...

 and the Yankees eventually won the game 8–6 in 10 innings. Leyritz's Game 4 home run remains the most recognizable moment of that series and of his career.

In , Leyritz was on the San Diego Padres
San Diego Padres
The San Diego Padres are a Major League Baseball team based in San Diego, California. They play in the National League Western Division. Founded in 1969, the Padres have won the National League Pennant twice, in 1984 and 1998, losing in the World Series both times...

. Leyritz hit a number of unlikely playoff home runs and clutch hits that season, the most dramatic of which was an opposite field home run against Billy Wagner
Billy Wagner
William Edward Wagner , nicknamed "Billy the Kid", is a retired Major League Baseball relief pitcher. He pitched for the Houston Astros , the Philadelphia Phillies , the New York Mets , the Boston Red Sox , and the Atlanta Braves...

 to off the right field foul pole in the top of the 9th inning in the Astrodome
Reliant Astrodome
Reliant Astrodome, also known as the Houston Astrodome or simply the Astrodome, is the world's first multi-purpose, domed sports stadium, located in Houston, Texas, USA. The stadium is part of the Reliant Park complex...

 that tied Game 2 of the National League Division Series
1998 National League Division Series
-Houston Astros vs. San Diego Padres:-Game 1, September 30:Turner Field in Atlanta, GeorgiaThe Braves faced the Chicago Cubs, who made it into the playoffs by beating the San Francisco Giants in a tiebreaker for the Wild Card spot. The Braves had sixteen more regular season wins and it showed in...

 against the Houston Astros
Houston Astros
The Houston Astros are a Major League Baseball team located in Houston, Texas. They are a member of the National League Central division. The Astros are expected to join the American League West division in 2013. Since , they have played their home games at Minute Maid Park, known as Enron Field...

. However, the Astros would later win the game in the bottom of the ninth. In game 3, Leyritz hit the eventually game-winning home run off Randy Johnson
Randy Johnson
Randall David Johnson , nicknamed "The Big Unit", is a former Major League Baseball left-handed pitcher. During a 22-year career, he pitched for six different teams....

 in the bottom of the 7th inning that broke a 1–1 tie. Overall, Leyritz batted .400 with three home runs and five RBIs in that Division Series. Ironically, Leyritz's Padres would go up against his former team, the Yankees in the World Series
1998 World Series
The 1998 World Series, the 94th edition of Major League Baseball's championship series, matched the New York Yankees against the San Diego Padres . The Yankees swept the Series in four games to capture their second championship in three years, and their 24th overall...

. The Padres were swept in four games and Leyritz did not record a home run or RBI in any game.

In , Leyritz had rejoined the Yankees and hit a solo home run in the bottom of the 8th inning of Game 4 of the World Series
1999 World Series
The 1999 World Series, the 95th edition of Major League Baseball's championship series, featured a rematch between the defending champions New York Yankees against the Atlanta Braves during the month of October, with the Yankees sweeping the Series in four games for their second title in a row,...

. The home run made the score 4–1. NBC
NBC
The National Broadcasting Company is an American commercial broadcasting television network and former radio network headquartered in the GE Building in New York City's Rockefeller Center with additional major offices near Los Angeles and in Chicago...

 commentator Bob Costas
Bob Costas
Robert Quinlan "Bob" Costas is an American sportscaster, on the air for the NBC network since the early 1980s.-Early life:...

 remarked incredulously about Leyritz after the home run:

Amphetamine use

On June 8, 2006, while doing an interview on the Opie and Anthony
Opie and Anthony
Opie and Anthony are the hosts of The Opie & Anthony Show, a talk radio program airing in the United States and Canada on XM Satellite Radio and Sirius Satellite Radio. Since the merger of the two satellite companies, this is now called Sirius/XM...

 show on XM Satellite Radio, Leyritz admitted to using amphetamines after his shoulder surgery in 2001. The statement came in the wake of an admission by pitcher Jason Grimsley
Jason Grimsley
Jason Alan Grimsley is a former Major League Baseball relief pitcher. He made his debut on September 8, , and pitched for the Philadelphia Phillies, Cleveland Indians, Anaheim Angels, New York Yankees, Kansas City Royals, Baltimore Orioles, and most recently, the Arizona Diamondbacks.-Major league...

 that he used performance enhancing drugs throughout his career.

Legal trouble

On December 28, 2007, Leyritz was arrested in Broward County, Florida
Broward County, Florida
-2000 Census:As of the census of 2000, there were 1,623,018 people, 654,445 households, and 411,645 families residing in the county. The population density was 1,346 people per square mile . There were 741,043 housing units at an average density of 615 per square mile...

 on suspicion of drunk driving and vehicular homicide
Vehicular homicide
Vehicular homicide in most states in the United States, is a crime. In general, it involves death that results from the negligent operation of a vehicle, or more so a result from driving while committing an unlawful act that does not amount to a felony...

 in which Leyritz's car struck Freida Veitch's car. Veitch, who was returning home from her bartending job, was not wearing a seat belt. She ejected from the car and died at the scene.

Leyritz was released on $
United States dollar
The United States dollar , also referred to as the American dollar, is the official currency of the United States of America. It is divided into 100 smaller units called cents or pennies....

11,000 bond and charged with two counts of drunk driving.

Police collected two blood samples from Leyritz - one 2½ hours after the crash and the other about an hour later. The first sample showed a blood-alcohol level of .14, and the second, .13, police said. Florida's legal limit for motorists is .08. Prosecutors say Veitch had a blood-alcohol level of .18.

Several days after the accident, it was revealed that Leyritz may face further charges because he had his license suspended in New York
New York
New York is a state in the Northeastern region of the United States. It is the nation's third most populous state. New York is bordered by New Jersey and Pennsylvania to the south, and by Connecticut, Massachusetts and Vermont to the east...

 prior to the accident. On June 20, 2007, Leyritz was ticketed outside Albany, New York
Albany, New York
Albany is the capital city of the U.S. state of New York, the seat of Albany County, and the central city of New York's Capital District. Roughly north of New York City, Albany sits on the west bank of the Hudson River, about south of its confluence with the Mohawk River...

 for using a cell phone while driving. On November 23, his license was suspended after he failed to appear in court. The state of Florida is processing the suspension notice from New York and could file additional charges once his Florida license is suspended. According to an official from the Florida Department of Highway Safety and Motor Vehicles: "The department has the statutory ability to suspend his license based on the fact he had knowledge of a suspension in another state and still came to Florida for a driver's license. It is unlawful." Leyritz's lawyer is quoted as saying that Leyritz's license "was not suspended in the state of Florida on the day of the accident, nor is it suspended today."

On February 13, 2009, Leyritz was ordered back to jail as his bail was revoked following his apparent consumption of alcoholic beverages in violation with his bail conditions. A judge allowed him to return home on bail on February 23 after agreeing with Leyritz's attorney that his pretrial release conditions were unclear and that Leyritz had misunderstood rather than intentionally violated the terms.

On May 13, 2009, Leyritz was hospitalized in Florida. Reports on ESPN
ESPN
Entertainment and Sports Programming Network, commonly known as ESPN, is an American global cable television network focusing on sports-related programming including live and pre-taped event telecasts, sports talk shows, and other original programming....

 claimed Leyritz had threatened suicide, but Leyritz issued a statement later saying he was not suicidal but stressed out. Leyritz ran into trouble on May 14 when he attempted to start his car but the alcohol monitoring device on the car malfunctioned, leading to a false positive and triggering an automatic urine test for Leyritz. The test showed he had not consumed any alcohol and a judge cleared him.

On July 2, 2009, Leyritz was arrested for battery against his former wife, however the charges were later dropped.

In November 2010, Leyritz's trial for the December 2007 DUI crash was held. He was acquitted on the DUI Manslaughter charge, but was convicted on a misdemeanor charge of driving under the influence, which carries a maximum sentence of six months in jail. He was subsequently sentenced to one year's probation and a $500 fine. In May 2010, Leyritz had settled a civil lawsuit for the accident, paying $350,000 to the victim's family.

Radio career

Leyritz hosts a radio show with Vinny Micucci called MLB Radio Daily on MLB Radio and is a regular contributor to The Michael Kay Show on the New York City
New York City
New York is the most populous city in the United States and the center of the New York Metropolitan Area, one of the most populous metropolitan areas in the world. New York exerts a significant impact upon global commerce, finance, media, art, fashion, research, technology, education, and...

 ESPN Radio
ESPN Radio
ESPN Radio is an American sports radio network. It was launched on January 1, 1992 under the original banner of "SportsRadio ESPN." ESPN Radio is located at ESPN headquarters in Bristol, Connecticut...

 affiliate
Radio network
There are two types of radio networks currently in use around the world: the one-to-many broadcast type commonly used for public information and mass media entertainment; and the two-way type used more commonly for public safety and public services such as police, fire, taxicabs, and delivery...

.

Author

Leyritz wrote a book titled Catching Heat: The Jim Leyritz Story, published in June 2011. The book was co-written by brothers Jeffrey Lyons
Jeffrey Lyons (television critic)
Jeffrey Lyons is an American television and film critic.-Life and career:Lyons was born in New York City, one of the four sons of Sylvia and Leonard Lyons...

 and Douglas B. Lyons. In a brief review, Publishers Weekly
Publishers Weekly
Publishers Weekly, aka PW, is an American weekly trade news magazine targeted at publishers, librarians, booksellers and literary agents...

called the book "a surprisingly defensive attempt at a self-serving memoir."

External links

The source of this article is wikipedia, the free encyclopedia.  The text of this article is licensed under the GFDL.
 
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