Tyrone Woods

Tyrone Woods
Tyrone Woods
	Woods with the Chunichi Dragons
	First baseman
	Born:August 16, 1969(age 54); Brooksville, Florida,U.S.
	Batted:Right Threw:Right
Professional debut
	NPB:March 23, 2003, for the Yokohama BayStars
	KBO:1998, for the OB Bears
Last appearance
	NPB:October 25, 2008, for the Chunichi Dragons
	KBO:2002, for the Doosan Bears
NPB statistics
Batting average	.289
Home runs	240
Runs batted in	616
KBO statistics
Batting average	.294
Home runs	174
Runs batted in	510
Teams
	OB Bears / Doosan Bears(1998–2002); Yokohama BayStars(2003–2004); Chunichi Dragons(2005–2008);
Career highlights and awards
	NPB 3×NPB All-Star(2003, 2007, 2008); 3×Best Nine Award(2004, 2006, 2007); CLhome run leader (2003, 2004, 2006); CLRBI leader (2006); KBO KBO MVP(1998); Korean Serieschampion (2001); Korean SeriesMVP (2001); KBOAll Star Game MVP (2001); KBOGolden Glove Award(2000); KBOhome run leader (1998); KBORBI leader (1998, 2001);

Walter Tyrone Woods(born August 16, 1969 is an Americanprofessional baseballplayer. He played five seasons with theKorea Baseball Organizationthen six further seasons inNippon Professional Baseball,primarily as afirst baseman.

Career[edit]

Minor league career[edit]

TheMontreal Exposselected Woods in the fifth round of the1988 MLB draftas a high schoolthird baseman.He fielded.882, making 10errorsin 32 games for theGCL Exposandbattedjust.121. He hit just 2home runsin 149at batsandwalked7 times whilewhiffing47 times; he was alsocaught stealingfour times in six tries.^{[citation needed]}

Woods was promoted to theJamestown Exposin 1989. In Single-A action, Woods hit.263; he continued to strike out frequently (58 times in 209 AB), but his walks were up (20) and his average and power (9 homers) were also improved.

In 1990, with theRockford Expos,the 20-year-old third baseman hit.242, above the team average of.226. He also led the team indoubles(27), homers (8) and strikeouts (121). HisOBPwas.310 and heslugged.363.^{[citation needed]}

Woods made it to High-A in 1991 where he hit just.220 for theWest Palm Beach Expos.He also was moved from third base to theoutfieldthat year. He hit.291 for Rockford and even stole 15 bases in 21 tries. He hit.286 for West Palm Beach and struck out in 3 of his 4 at-bats in his first Double-A exposure with theHarrisburg Senators.^{[citation needed]}

In 1993, Woods returned to Harrisburg, batting.252. A year later, Woods split the year between Harrisburg (.316) and the Triple-AOttawa Lynx(.224). On November 18, the Expos gave up on Woods and released him.^{[citation needed]}Woods played for theBaltimore Orioles'Rochester Red Wingsfarm club in 1995, hitting.261 as a 1B/DH/OF.

A year later, Woods was in another system, joining theBoston Red Sox,playing for their Double-A affiliate, theTrenton Thunder,hitting.312, tying for 4th in the league in homers (25) and was among the leaders in average, OBP and slugging.^[1]

In 1997, Woods spent his 10th and final season in a United States-based league, hitting.352 for the Triple-APawtucket Red Sox.He homered 9 times and drove in 28 in 29 games but did not play for the parent Boston team.

He also played that year for thePotros de Minatitlánof theMexican League,homering 18 times in 85 games for 27 homers and 101 runs (73 RBIs in 85 games for the Potros). Woods hit.342. His walk total (59) surpassed his K total (49).^{[citation needed]}

Career in Korea[edit]

1998 found Woods in the KBO,Korea Professional Baseball,where he became the first foreign player to hit a home run and be ejected from a game by an umpire in the league's first year allowing foreign players.^{[citation needed]}Playing for theOB Bears (Doosan Bears),he set a KBO record with 42 homers and became the first foreign player to win theMVPaward.^{[citation needed]}Two years later, he hit.315 with 39 homers and 111 RBIs and lost the home run race by one toPark Kyung-wan.In 2001, he won MVP honors in the All-Star game, playoffs and theKorean Series,in which he blasted four homers in six games for Doosan. In 2002, Woods hit just.256; he struck out 123 times in 407 at-bats though he did hit 25 homers. In five years in Korea, he hit 174 homers, drove in 510 runs and batted.294. Woods left Korea with the longest career of any foreign player in KBO history until 2005, whenJay Davisbroke his mark.^[2] He was nominated for one of the 40 KBO legends, the votes were cast by fans and reporters. He was nominated as the 40 out of the 40 legends.^[3]

Yokohama BayStars[edit]

In 2003, Woods signed with theYokohama BayStars,hitting.273 and tied for the home run lead withAlex Ramirezwith 40. He was 6th in theCentral Leaguein slugging, 4th in walks (66) and 5th in RBIs (87) though he also led the league with 132 K's. Woods became the first man to lead a league in homers in both Korea and Japan.^{[citation needed]}

Woods improved in his second year with Yokohama, hitting.298. He made theBest Nineat first base, tiedTuffy Rhodesfor the home run lead with 45, was third in walks (74) and tied for third in RBIs (103). He was also 5th in slugging and 4th in OBP and OPS. He struck out 142 times, ranking him third in that category.^{[citation needed]}

Chunichi Dragons[edit]

After the 2004 season, he signed with the defending CL championChunichi Dragonsand hit.306 with 38 homers. He was third inOPSand homers, 5th in slugging, 4th in OBP, tied for 4th with 103 RBIs and ground into the mostdouble plays(24) as the Dragons' 1B and cleanup hitter. Woods missed 10 games due to a suspension he served after charging the mound whenShugo Fujiithrew high and inside during an at bat. Woods was also fined 500,000 yen. It was the harshest penalty given to any player in Japan in five years.^{[citation needed]}

After the 2005 season was completed, Woods had hit 421 homers in his pro career.^{[citation needed]}

In 2006, Woods put together an MVP caliber season by batting.310 with a league-leading 47 homers and 144 RBIs. However, the MVP award that season went to his teammate,Kosuke Fukudome.To clinch the title for Chunichi, he hitgrand slamsin back-to-back games, the first Central Leaguer to do so sinceFumio Fujimura53 years earlier. He also set a new team record for home runs. He played for the Dragons until 2008.

Pursuits outside baseball[edit]

In addition to playing baseball, Woods worked for a time for theBrooksvilleFire Department in Florida.^{[citation needed]}

References[edit]

^"1996 Eastern League Batting Leaders".Baseball-Reference.Retrieved1 May2016.
^Jay Davis,Baseball-Reference. Retrieved June 17, 2020.
^"장종훈·김동주·심정수·우즈, Kbo 40인 레전드 선정".12 September 2022.

External links[edit]

Career statistics and player information fromBaseball Reference (Minors)
Nippon Professional Baseball career statistics fromJapaneseBaseball
Venezuelan League statistics
Career statistics and player informationfromKorea Baseball Organization

[1] "1996 Eastern League Batting Leaders".Baseball-Reference.Retrieved1 May2016.

[2] Jay Davis,Baseball-Reference. Retrieved June 17, 2020.

[3] "장종훈·김동주·심정수·우즈, Kbo 40인 레전드 선정".12 September 2022.

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