Shelley Duncan

Shelley Duncan
Cleveland Indians – No. 47
First baseman / Outfielder / Designated hitter
Born: September 29, 1979 (1979-09-29) Tucson, Arizona
Bats: Right	Throws: Right
MLB debut
July 20, 2007 for the New York Yankees
Career statistics (through 2011 season)
Batting average	.239
Home runs	30
Runs batted in	107
Teams
New York Yankees (2007–2009) Cleveland Indians (2010–present)

David Shelley Duncan (born September 29, 1979 in Tucson, Arizona) is a Major League Baseball first baseman, outfielder, and designated hitter for the Cleveland Indians.

Personal

Duncan is the oldest son of Dave Duncan, a MLB catcher and pitching coach. His younger brother, Chris, is also a MLB first baseman and outfielder.

Baseball career

High school

Shelley graduated from Canyon del Oro High School, located in the Tucson suburb of Oro Valley, in 1998. While there he was a teammate of current All Star second baseman Ian Kinsler. He played on the school's 1997 baseball team that went on to capture the 5A State Championship title.

College

Duncan attended the University of Arizona, where in 1999 he was a Freshman First Team All-American outfielder, and in 2001 he was a First Team College All-American outfielder and Pacific-10 Conference All-Star for the Arizona Wildcats baseball team. He was selected by the Yankees in the second round of the 2001 Major League Baseball Draft, 62nd overall.

Professional career

In 2001, Duncan had a .410 slugging percentage with the Staten Island Yankees. In 2002, while playing outfield for the Greensboro Bats he had 10 assists from the outfield in 69 games, and had a .375 on base percentage.

In 2004, he hit 19 home runs in 424 at bats for the Tampa Yankees of the Florida State League. In 2005 he hit a league-leading 34 home runs and had 92 RBIs for the Trenton Thunder, and was an Eastern League (AA) mid-season and post-season All-Star first baseman. He was also the winner of the 2005 Eastern League All-Star Game Home Run Derby. In 2006 he hit 19 home runs for Trenton in 351 at bats, and was twice the league's player of the week.

In 2007, Duncan was a member of the International League All-Star Team, and was the Topps IL Player of the Month in May while playing for the Triple-A Scranton/Wilkes-Barre Yankees. Duncan hit .296 for the Yankees AAA team, hitting 25 home runs (2nd in the International League at the time of his call-up) with a .577 slugging percentage in 336 at bats.

Duncan made his major league debut on July 20, 2007, as the designated hitter against the Tampa Bay Devil Rays, and recorded his first career hit and RBI. The next day, he hit his first major league home run against the Devil Rays, and the following day had his first multi-home run game, going deep twice in front of the Yankee Stadium crowd. Duncan later hit his fourth Major League home run at Yankee Stadium on July 31, 2007 against the Chicago White Sox.^{[citation needed]}

He spent time in 2008 with both the major league Yankees, and their Triple-A affiliate, before suffering a shoulder separation. Duncan remained in Triple-A for the remainder of the season. He was designated for assignment that offseason, but cleared waivers and remained in the Yankees organization.^{[citation needed]}

On July 31, 2009, Duncan was recalled from Scranton/Wilkes-Barre temporarily as an extra bat. He was optioned the following day. On September 7, Duncan was recalled from Scranton/Wilkes-Barre by the Yankees. In each of his 3 starts he went 1 for 3 and recorded 1 RBI. Duncan was named the International League Most Valuable Player for 2009 leading the league in home runs and RBIs. Following the 2009 season, Duncan was outrighted to Scranton/Wilkes-Barre, but refused the assignment and elected to become a free agent.

On January 4, 2010, Duncan signed a contract with the Cleveland Indians. He began the season with the Triple-A Columbus Clippers.

Enthusiasm

Duncan is joked about by announcers for his enthusiastic high fives, brother bashes, and chest bumps in the dugout with his teammates.^{[citation needed]} Former Yankee manager Joe Torre said in an interview with the YES Network that he tried to avoid Duncan whenever Duncan would celebrate.^{[citation needed]} Following his first home run, he was interviewed by YES Network's Kim Jones, who asked him for a high five, which he enthusiastically gave her.

Controversies

Duncan was involved in some minor controversy on September 14, 2007, when, before the game between the Yankees and Red Sox at Fenway Park, Duncan wrote "Red Sox Suck!" along with his autograph on a 10-year-old Red Sox fan's notebook. Duncan later apologized to the boy's family, saying he got caught up in the excitement of the Yankees – Red Sox rivalry.

During a spring training game on March 12, 2008, leading off the 2nd inning in a spring training game against the Tampa Bay Rays, Duncan reached first on a fielding error by third-baseman Evan Longoria. However, he continued on to second, where second baseman Akinori Iwamura caught the ball well before Duncan arrived. Duncan slid, raising his left foot up and spiking Iwamura high and inside of his right thigh. Iwamura sustained a cut above his right knee but was otherwise fine, and made the tag regardless. Duncan was called out and ejected. Many believe that this was in response to Elliot Johnson's aggressive hit on Francisco Cervelli, which resulted in a broken wrist for the catcher. Shortly thereafter, as the Rays and Yankees benches cleared, Rays right fielder Jonny Gomes rushed Duncan and tried to body-block him, only to stumble and eventually be restrained. Gomes was also ejected, as were two of the Yankees' coaches, Bobby Meacham and Kevin Long. On March 14, Duncan and teammate Melky Cabrera both received three game suspensions for their parts in the incident. Rays outfielder Jonny Gomes was also suspended for his actions on the field. Each of these three players' suspensions was reduced one day in length after they decided to drop their appeal of the suspensions.

See also

• List of second-generation Major League Baseball players

External links

• Career statistics and player information from MLB, or ESPN, or Baseball-Reference, or Fangraphs, or The Baseball Cube, or Baseball-Reference (Minors)
• Minor League Baseball profile
• This is Shelley Duncan - The Times-Tribune