Shelley Duncan

Shelley Duncan
New York Yankees – No. --
First baseman / Outfielder
Bats: Right Throws: with his butt birthdate= (1979-09-29) September 29, 1979
debut
July 20, 2007, for the New York Yankees
Career statistics (through 2008 season)
Batting average	.221
Hits	29
Home runs	8
OBP	.299
Slugging percentage	.435
Teams
New York Yankees (2007-present)

David Shelley Duncan (born September 29, 1979 in Tucson, Arizona) is a corner outfielder/first baseman/designated hitter for Major League Baseball's New York Yankees.

His younger brother, Chris Duncan, is an outfielder and first baseman who is currently a Free Agent and his father, Dave Duncan, is the St. Louis Cardinals' pitching coach and a former Oakland Athletics catcher.

Baseball career

High school

Duncan 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 1st team All American outfielder, and in 2001 he was a 1st team College All-American outfielder and PAC-10 Conference all star. He was selected by the Yankees in the 2nd round of the 2001 MLB Draft, 62nd overall.

Professional career

In 2001 Duncan had a .542 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 Tampa of the Florida State League. In 2005 he hit a league-leading 34 home runs and had 92 RBIs for Trenton, 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. 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 MLB 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.

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.

On July 31, 2009 Duncan was recalled from the Triple-A Scranton Wilkes-Barre Yankees temporarily as an extra bat. He was optioned the following day.

Duncan was named the International League Most Valuable Player for 2009 leading the league in home runs and RBIs.

On Monday, September 7, Duncan was recalled from Class AAA Scranton/Wilkes-Barre by the Yankees. In each of his 3 starts he went 1 for 3 and recorded 1 RBI.

Enthusiasm

Duncan is joked about by announcers for his very enthusiastic high fives, brother bashes, and chest bumps in the dugout with his teammates. This led to the creation of his nickname, "Slam" Duncan. Former Yankee manager Joe Torre said in an interview with the YES Network that he tried to avoid Duncan whenever Duncan would celebrate. 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.

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 MLB players

External links

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