The Baseball Nomad

Name; Steve Finley

Card Company: Upper Deck

Year: 2003

Team: Arizona Diamondbacks

Bats/Throws: L

Ht: 6'2

Steve Finley quietly had a very productive career, amassing over 2,500 hits, 5 Gold Gloves and a World Series ring. Finley was a baseball nomad playing for 8 different teams in his 19-year career, but made the biggest impact as a member of the Arizona Diamondbacks. He was also a great workhorse of a player, playing in 140+ games 14 times during his 19-year career. So today we begin the unearthing of one of the most underappreciated players of his generation, Steve Finley.

Finley play college ball at Southern Illinois University earning a physiology degree as well as being named a third-team All American in 1986. The following year he was selected in the 13th round by the Baltimore Orioles, where he would quickly rise through their minor league system making his debut in 1989. He would spend his first season bouncing around the outfield, playing in 81 games but never locking down a staring gig. In his second season in 1990, he would play in 142 games posting a .256 batting average with 3 HR and 37 RBI’s in 464 AB’s. However, desperate to add power to their line-up the Orioles would trade Finley along with Curt Schilling and Pete Harnisch to the Houston Astros for Glenn Davis a past his prime slugger. Both teams failed do anything with this trade, with Houston failing to sign any of the three players to extensions and with Glenn Davis flaming out in Baltimore. Finley in his four-year stint with the Astros hit .281 with 32 HR, 186 RBI’s in 557 games.

He would then be traded again in 1994 to the San Diego Padres with Ken Caminiti, Andujar Cedeno, Roberto Petagine, Brian Williams and Sean Fresh, for Derek Bell, Doug Brocail, Ricky Gutierrez, Pedro A. Martinez, Phil Plantier and Craig Shipley. In his first season in San Diego Finley would win his first Gold Glove while finishing the year with a career high .297 batting average. That year he finished as the only National league player to have 100 runs, 10 home runs, and 35 stolen bases. In 1996 Finley would finally break through, finishing the year with a .298 batting average, 30 HR, 95 RBI’s, winning another Gold Glove and finished the year in the top 10 of MVP voting. The next season he would make his first all-star team, and had established himself in the league. In 1998 the Padres would

jump out of the NL West cellar winning the division and NL Pennant setting up a World Series match-up with the Yankees. However, the Bronx Bombers would sweep the Padres in a series that saw Steve Finley bat a pedestrian .083.

The following year he would sign with the newly formed Arizona Diamondbacks who had just finished their first season of existence. And in their first ever off-season the Diamondbacks didn’t screw

around, adding the likes of Randy Johnson, Louis Gonzalez, Matt Mantei, Gregg Swindell, Damian Miller, Tony Womack along with Steve Finley. This helped them go from 97 games losers to 100 game winners and Steve Finley won another Gold Glove in the process. However, the young D-Backs squad would lose to the Mets in the NLDS but the D-Backs had made their presence known in the National League. The following year would be a bit of a letdown for the D-Backs, placing 3rd in the NL West and failing to make the playoffs. The same couldn’t be said for Finley however, as he proceeded to make his 2nd All-Star team and won his fourth Gold Glove. In 2001 the D-Backs would acquire Curt Schilling in a trade with the Phillies, and just like that the D-Backs had one of the greatest 1-2 combos of all-time in Randy Johnson and Curt Schilling. This duo along with a revamped D-Backs bullpen and offense would carry them to the 2001 World Series where they would meet up with the New York Yankees who were looking for a 4-peat.

Due to the 9/11 tragedy the baseball season had been delayed causing the World Series to be delayed in the process. It would start out great for the D-Backs, outscoring the Yankees 12-1 in the first two games jumping out to a 2-0 series lead. However, the series would return to the Bronx and sparked on by a raucous crowd the Yankees would take game 3 after dominating performances by both Rodger Clemens and Mariano Rivera. And in game 4 the D-Backs had a 2-run lead going into the 9th, but Tino Martinez blasted a 2-run 2-out homerun that tied the game at 3 runs apiece. And in the bottom of the 10th Derek Jeter would become “Mr. November”, when he hit a walk-off homerun tying the series a 2-2. The Yanks would win game 5 giving them a 3-2 series lead before the series shifted back to the desert. And in game 6 Arizona would pummel the Yankees to the sound of a 15-2 win that set-up a dramatic game 7. And in that game 7 the Diamondbacks and Yankees would be locked at 1 run each until Alfonso Soriano blasted a solo shot in the 8th to give New York a 2-1 lead. But in the 9th the scrappy Arizona team would get to Mariano Rivera to tie the game in the 9th inning. And with the bases loaded in the 9th Louis Gonzalez would hit a bloop single into center that plated the winning run giving Arizona and Steve Finley both their first and only World Series title. Finley would bat .378 in the series proving to be a quiet but big part of Arizona’s championship team.

He would then play parts two and a half more seasons for the D-Backs before being traded to the Dodgers with Brent Mayne for Koyie Hill, Bill Murphy and Reggie Abercrombie in 2004. In that season, he would finish with a .271 batting average to go along with his 36 HR, 96 RBI’s and his fifth and final Gold Glove award. After the 04 season, he would play three more seasons playing for the Angels, Giants and Rockies in that order. Finley would finish his

career with a stat line of (.271 BA) (.332 OBP) (304 HR) (1167 RBI) (2548 Hits).

Being the nomad that he was made it hard for him to ever to get the attention he deserved, and when he did play in a big market it was only for half a season in the twilight of his career. But at the end of the day Steve Finley had a great 19-year career that saw him not only win individual awards and make All-Star teams, but also saw him win the most important thing of all and that’s a World Series ring. Think of him as a poor man’s Johnny Damon, and the only reasons he’s a poor man’s Johnny Damon is that the rich guy overpaid for Johnny Damon

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