Ryan Braun
Encyclopedia
Ryan Joseph Braun is an American right-handed Major League Baseball
left fielder
for the Milwaukee Brewers
. A perennial standout, he was ranked No. 16 by the Sporting News in its 2011 list of the 50 greatest current players in baseball and is the reigning National League MVP.
Braun was a two-time All American baseball player at the University of Miami
, where he was named "National Freshman of the Year" by Baseball America in 2003. The Brewers drafted him in the first round (fifth overall) in the 2005 major league draft. He was the team's Minor League Player of the Year in 2006.
Braun has led the National League
(NL) twice in slugging percentage (in 2007, while setting the major league rookie record, and 2011), twice in extra-base hits (2008 and 2011), and once in hits (2009). On defense, he led all major league outfielders in fielding percentage
in 2008, led NL left fielders in fielding percentage twice (2009 and 2011), and led NL left fielders in range factor
in 2009. His 128 home runs through 2010 were the 8th-most by any major leaguer ever through their first four seasons. Through 2011, he was third among all active ballplayers in career slugging percentage, and first among active left fielders in career fielding percentage.
Braun won the National League Rookie of the Year Award in 2007. He was both voted a starting All-Star
and won the NL Outfielder Silver Slugger
Award the past four straight seasons (2008–11).
, and pitched through his junior year. As a sophomore in 2000, he recorded the highest batting average
of his prep career (.456), while posting a .654 on-base percentage (OBP). During his junior year, he hit .421, with a .668 OBP. Braun capped off his high school career by batting .451 as a senior, with an OBP of .675, and breaking the school record for career home runs with 25.
He was a two-time all-area selection by the Los Angeles Times
, and a three-time choice by the Los Angeles Daily News
. As a senior, Braun was rated the sixth-best shortstop prospect in the country by Team One Baseball, and among the top 100 overall prospects by Baseball America
. He graduated in 2002, but went undrafted as he told teams that he intended to attend college.
Academically, he excelled as well, receiving only one B (in AP Chemistry).
and UC-Berkeley
, he instead attended the University of Miami
(on an academic scholarship, due to his high school grades). He chose Miami for its academics, its athletics, and its social scene, noting: "I think the girls were the deal closer on the recruiting trip."
There, Braun was named "National Freshman of the Year," as well as a first-team "Freshman All-American," by Baseball America in 2003, as well as first team All American by the Jewish Sports Review
. He was also named first-team All-American by Collegiate Baseball. He clinched the awards by batting .364 with 76 runs batted in (RBIs) and 17 home runs. As a sophomore shortstop/designated hitter
, Braun hit .335, slugged .606, and had 21 stolen base
s.
During his junior year, his final and most successful at Miami, Braun batted .396 with 18 home runs, a .726 slugging percentage, 76 RBIs, and 23 stolen bases. He was ninth in slugging and 10th in RBIs in NCAA Division I, and was named to Baseball America's 2005 College All-American Team as the DH. He moved from shortstop to third base
during the year. His performance earned Braun a spot as one of the finalists for the Golden Spikes Award
, the most prestigious individual award in college baseball, and the Atlantic Coast Conference
Baseball Player of the Year award.
drafted Braun in the first round (fifth overall) in the 2005 major league draft
as a third baseman, and he signed for $2.45 million.
Assigned to the Helena Brewers
in the Advanced Rookie Pioneer League in 2005, Braun batted .341/.383/.585 in 10 games. He was then promoted to the West Virginia Power
in the Class A South Atlantic League
, where he hit .355/.396/.645, and was rated the fifth-best prospect in the league. His most memorable moment there was when he hit a walk-off grand slam
to lead the Power into the playoffs. Following the 2005 season he was rated by Baseball America as the Brewers' Best Minor League Hitter for Average, the fifth-best prospect in the South Atlantic League, and the third-best prospect in the Brewers organization.
Braun began 2006 playing for the A-Advanced Brevard County Manatees
. He earned a spot in the Florida State League
All-Star
game, and played in the All-Star Futures Game
. He was rated the top third base prospect in the FSL, and Baseball America rated him the best batting prospect in the league. On June 21, Braun was promoted to the Class AA Huntsville Stars
(Alabama) of the Southern League
. In July he was voted the Brewers' Organizational Player of the Month, and at the end of the season he was voted the sixth-best prospect in the Southern League. Collectively between Class A and Class AA, Braun finished with a .289 average, 22 home runs, 77 RBIs, and 26 stolen bases. He received the 2006 Robin Yount Performance Award as the Milwaukee Brewers Minor League Player of the Year.
Later in 2006, in the Arizona Fall League
he hit .326/.396/.641 in 92 at bats for the Scottsdale Scorpions
. He led the AFL with 16 extra-base hits, tied for tops with 9 doubles, ranked second in slugging percentage and HR/AB ratio (1/15), tied for second in home runs (6), and tied for third in RBIs (25). He was rated one of the top three prospects in the league, and was voted to the AFL All-Prospects Team.
Baseball America rated Braun the Brewers' # 2 prospect for 2007. He began the year with the Nashville Sounds
of the AAA
Pacific Coast League
. Before being called up to the majors in late May, in 113 at bats he led the PCL with a .726 slugging percentage while batting .354 (6th), with 10 home runs (T-2nd) and a .426 on base percentage (5th).
in 2007. Their regular third baseman Corey Koskie
was suffering from post-concussion syndrome
, and missed the entire year. In 11 spring training games, Braun tied for 10th in the majors in home runs (5), and second in RBIs (15).
In 2007, Braun had what some sportswriters called one of the most dominant rookie seasons in baseball history. Called up on May 24 by the Brewers, he hit his first major league home run two nights later. Braun was voted the National League (NL) Rookie of the Month for June, ranking first in RBIs (21) and tied for first in home runs (6) among NL rookies that month. He also recorded a .716 slugging percentage and a .435 OBP. In July, Braun became the fastest in Brewer history to hit 10 major league home runs, doing so in his 38th game. He hit his 15th home run in the 50th game of his career, and his 20th in his 64th game, making him the fastest to those milestones since Albert Pujols
in 2001. He was also the fastest to 20 homers in Brewers history. At month's end, he received his second consecutive NL Rookie of the Month Award, as well as his first NL Player of the Month
Award (making him the first player to won both awards in the same month). He hit a league-leading 11 home runs, with 25 RBIs, while batting .345.
In mid-August, Yost moved Braun from third in the batting order to cleanup, switching him with Prince Fielder
. The move was expected to allow Braun to steal more, as batting before Fielder was not conducive to him risking being thrown out on steal attempts. Additionally, successfully stealing a base would hypothetically allow opponents to intentionally walk
Fielder and avoid pitching to him. At the end of the month, however, Yost reverted to his previous batting order.
On August 26, Braun hit his 25th home run in his 82nd game, quicker than any major leaguer since Mark McGwire
in 1987.
On September 9, the Brewers became the third team in major league history to start a game with three straight home runs, as Rickie Weeks
, J. J. Hardy, and Braun homered in consecutive at bats. Braun said, "That was pretty cool. I was never part of something like that before." Braun's home run in that game also broke the Brewers rookie record for home runs (28). Braun hit his 30th homer in his 94th game, a pace no player had set to start a career since McGwire hit 30 in 84 games during 1986 and 1987.
Braun finished with an NL-leading .634 slugging percentage, a mark that set new all-time rookie and Brewers records. He was fifth in the league in at bats per home run (13.3) and OPS
(1.004), tied for fifth in home runs (34), and eighth in batting average (.324) among hitters with at least 490 plate appearance
s. He led the Brewers in batting average and slugging percentage, and was second behind Fielder in home runs, runs (91), and RBIs (97), tied for second in triples
(6), and third in OBP (.370) and steals (15), despite not having played in the first 48 games of the season. Braun obliterated the club rookie records of 28 home runs and 81 RBIs, set by Fielder in 2006.
Braun had considerable success against left-handed pitchers. He had the best batting average (.450), OBP (.516), and slugging percentage (.964) of any major league hitter with at least 125 plate appearances against lefties, and was tied for second in the majors in home runs (15). Braun credits his father with his success against lefties. "My dad is left-handed, so growing up, the majority of time, I took batting practice off of him."
Braun collected several awards at season's end. He won the 2007 NL Rookie of the Year Award in a vote by 32 members of the Baseball Writers' Association of America
. He beat out Troy Tulowitzki
by 2 points in the closest NL vote since the system was revised in 1980. Of all prior NL Rookies of the Year, only Pujols and Willie McCovey
hit for higher batting averages in their rookie year. Braun was voted the 2007 NL Sporting News Rookie of the Year
by 488 major league players and 30 managers. Braun also received the 2007 Players Choice NL Most Outstanding Rookie
in a vote by his fellow major league players. "When your peers recognize you with an award, that's great," he said. "Those are the guys out there on the field with you, competing against you. Their opinion counts the most, for a player." In voting for the NL Most Valuable Player (MVP) Award, Braun received two 10th-place votes and finished 24th overall.
In March 2008, the Brewers renewed Braun's contract for $455,000, a $75,000 increase.
Braun then signed an 8-year, $45–$51 million contract extension (the total depending on his "Super 2" service-time ranking after the 2009 season) on May 15, 2008. The contract is through the year 2015. The deal included Braun's $455,000 salary for 2008, and a $2.3 million bonus in 2008. It could increase to $51 million through incentives. Braun also has a no-trade clause for the first four years, and then a limited no-trade clause allowing him to block deals to 12 teams from 2012–13, and 6 teams from 2014–15. The contract will keep Braun locked up through his age-31 season.
It was the largest contract in Brewers' history, surpassing Jeff Suppan
's. It was also the largest contract in baseball history given to a player with less than three years' experience. Braun's agent, Nez Balelo, crunched enough numbers to show him what he potentially could have made over the life of this contract if he had chosen not to sign it. "But the question I ultimately asked myself was, `What can't I buy with that amount of money?"' Braun said.
Regular season and postseason
Braun drove in 134 runs in his first 162 games in the majors, more RBIs than any active player. He reached the 150-RBI milestone faster than any major leaguer since Boston's Walt Dropo
needed only 155 games, in 1949–51. On June 17, 2008, he drove in his 152nd career RBI, in his 182nd game.
Braun was named the NL's Player of the Month, after batting .366 in July (6th in the NL) with 9 home runs (3rd), and 23 RBIs (7th). He also led the league with 76 total bases and 18 extra base hits, and was among NL leaders with 37 hits (2nd), 3 triples (2nd), and a 1.163 OPS (3rd). He had back-to-back 4-hit games, just the 5th player in team history to accomplish that feat. "It's a huge honor," Braun said. "The way I look at it, you're the MVP of the National League for that month. It's definitely a big accomplishment.
As of August 8, Braun's major league career start was one of the best ever. In 227 games to start a career, he was first with 558 total bases and 133 extra base hits, second with 64 home runs, and tied for second with 181 RBIs.
On August 9, Braun strained the intercostal
muscles around his oblique
ribcage. That led to him missing a number of games, and shortening his swing for a few weeks. After returning, on September 25 he hit his first grand slam in "grand" fashion. With the bases loaded, he delivered a 2-out, 2–2 pitch from the Pirates' Jesse Chavez
into the left field bleachers of Miller Park in the bottom of the 10th inning, winning the game 5–1, and keeping the Brewers' 2008 post-season hopes alive. Three days later, Braun helped put the Brewers into the post-season for the first time since 1982, by hitting a go-ahead 2-run homer in the bottom of the 8th against the Chicago Cubs. The homer was the difference in the game, which gave the Brewers a one-game lead over the New York Mets for the NL wild card.
Braun was a starting outfielder for the NL in the 2008 All Star Game
. He finished first in fan voting among NL outfielders, and second among all NL players, with 3,835,840 votes, behind only Chase Utley
of the Phillies (3,889,602). He also finished first in player voting. Braun was the first Brewers outfielder voted to start an All Star game. He was one of seven first-time starters in the game, and–along with Kosuke Fukudome
and Josh Hamilton–one of only three who had not reached the major leagues until 2007 or 2008.
Braun came in third in the Home Run Derby
at Yankee Stadium. "It's something you dream about," Braun said. "That's as big a stage as you can get on.... it's going to be a lot of fun." He had his friend and agent, Nez Balelo, a former minor league infielder
, pitch to him. Braun's longest homer was estimated at 448 feet. He hit seven home runs in each of the first and second rounds, finishing with 14 (three behind finalist Justin Morneau
, who hit five in the final round to win the Derby).
On June 3, Braun became the third-fastest major leaguer to reach 50 career home runs. He did so in 171 career games; the only players to reach that plateau sooner were Rudy York
and Mark McGwire. On July 8, Braun hit his 56th home run in his 200th game, the third-highest total ever in a major leaguer's initial 200 games, behind McGwire (59) and York (59).
In early August, Braun hit his 30th home run, becoming just the second player in MLB history to hit 30 or more homers in each of his first two seasons, joining Pujols. Braun hit 71 home runs in his first two seasons, tying him with Pujols for fourth all-time. Joe DiMaggio
tops the list with 75 home runs, followed by Ralph Kiner
(74) and Eddie Mathews
(72).
In 2008, in 151 games Braun hit 37 home runs (tied for 4th in the NL, behind Ryan Howard
, Adam Dunn
, and Carlos Delgado
), with 106 RBIs (9th), and batted .285 with a .553 slugging percentage (5th). He also led the league with 83 extra base hits, and had 338 total bases (2nd in the NL), 7 triples (6th), 16.5 at-bats-per-home-run (10th), and 611 at bats (10th). 12.5% of his plate appearances were extra base hits (3rd in the NL; behind Ryan Ludwick
and Pujols), he had 29 infield hit
s (7th), and he stole third base 6 times (9th).
Against starting pitchers, Braun hit .244 the first time he faced them in a game, .331 the second time, and .328 with a .672 slugging percentage the third time. Braun led the Brewers in batting average, slugging percentage, triples, home runs, RBIs, extra base hits, total bases, at-bats-per-home run, OPS (.888), runs (92), and hits (174).
Braun hit .313 in October against the Phillies in his first post-season series, which the Brewers lost 3–1.
Season awards
Braun was voted to the 2008 NL Sporting News All Star Team, by a panel of 41 major league general managers and assistant general managers. He also won the 2008 NL Outfielder Silver Slugger Award, in a vote by major league coaches and managers who select the top offensive performer at each position in both leagues. The award, sponsored by Louisville Slugger, is based on a combination of statistics, including batting average, on base percentage, and slugging percentage, as well as the coaches' and managers' general impressions of a player's overall offensive value. In voting for the 2008 NL MVP award, Braun was third (with 139 points), behind Pujols and Ryan Howard.
World Baseball Classic
Braun was invited to play for Team USA in 2009 in the second World Baseball Classic
. "I'm really excited to get to represent my country," he said. "It's an honor just to get invited for the event." He batted .381 as the team's starting left fielder, helping it reach the semi-finals.
Regular season
Braun was named National League Player of the Week
for May 4–10, after leading the NL with 12 RBIs for the week while hitting .458/.567/.958 with 3 home runs. He hit the second grand slam of his career and recorded a career-high six RBIs on May 6, and on May 9 he reached base in all five of his plate appearances.
Braun led all NL outfielders in fan voting for the All Star Game for the second year in a row, with 4.1 million votes, ahead of Raúl Ibáñez
and Carlos Beltrán
. He was third among all NL vote-getters, trailing Pujols and Chase Utley. He was the first Brewer to be voted in as a starter in consecutive years since Robin Yount
(in 1982 and 1983), and the third Brewer position player voted to start twice, along with Yount and Paul Molitor
(1980 and 1988). Braun started in right field, the first time he had ever played the position, and batted cleanup, going 0–2.
Braun was second all-time, with 79 home runs over his first two calendar years in the major leagues, to Phillies Hall of Famer Chuck Klein
(83); ahead of third-place Joe DiMaggio and Mark McGwire (77). If Braun continues to hit home runs at the rate he had hit them through July 1, 2009, he will reach 600 home runs in his 15th major league season. In September, Braun became the second-fastest active player to hit 100 home runs (behind only Ryan Howard), as he hit his 100th homer in his 400th major league game. Later in the month, he became the second player in major league history (joining Pujols) to hit 30 or more home runs in each of his first three seasons. Braun's 103 home runs in his first three Major League seasons are sixth-most in baseball history, behind Pujols (114), Mark Teixeira
(107), and three Hall of Fame
rs—Kiner (114), Matthews (112), and Joe DiMaggio (107).
As in 2007, in 2009 Braun had even greater success against left-handed pitchers. Against them he had the second-best OBP (.475), slugging percentage (.723), and OPS (1.198), and third-best batting average (.395), of all NL hitters with at least 125 plate appearances.
He finished the season with an NL-leading 203 hits, becoming the first Brewer to lead his league in hits since Molitor topped the AL in 1991. Braun became the fourth Brewer in team history to collect 200 or more hits in a season, and the first in 18 years. He joined Cecil Cooper
, Molitor, and Yount. His .320 batting average at the end of the season was the highest by a Brewer since Jeff Cirillo
hit .326 in 1999.
In 2009, in addition to leading the NL in hits, Braun was 2nd in runs (113), 4th in RBIs (114), total bases (350), extra base hits (77), and hit by pitch (13), 7th in batting average (.320) and power-speed number
(24.6), 8th in OPS (.937), 9th in slugging percentage (.551) and doubles (39), tied for 10th in triples (6), and tied for 11th in home runs (32). He was also 4th in the league in infield hits (25).
He became only the second Brewer ever to hit 30 home runs and steal 20 bases in the same season. Braun also became the eighth player in major league history with at least 100 runs, 100 RBIs, 200 hits, 30 homers, 20 stolen bases, and a .300 average in the same season.
Season awards
Braun was voted to the NL Sporting News All Star Team in 2009, making it for the second year in a row. He received votes from all 14 voting NL team executives (as did Pujols and Utley; Mauer was named on all AL ballots). Braun was awarded the 2009 NL Outfielder Silver Slugger Award, winning it for the second year in a row. He became the first Brewer since Molitor, more than two decades prior, to win a Silver Slugger Award in consecutive years. Cecil Cooper is the only other Brewer to have done it.
He was elected a starting NL All Star outfielder for the third year in a row, in 2010. Braun led all major league outfielders in All Star votes for the third straight year, with 2,972,525, despite Milwaukee being the smallest media market in the majors. As in 2009, he received more votes than any NL players other than Pujols and Utley. He became the first Brewer to be a three-time All Star starter, passing Yount and Molitor.
Braun was named NL Player of the Week for August 1–8, after leading the majors with a .538 batting average, 14 hits, and 8 runs scored, and notching a career-best 5-hit performance in one game.
For the season, Braun was 2nd in the NL in hits (188) and doubles (45), 5th in total bases (310), 6th in runs (101), 7th in RBIs (103) and extra base hits (71), and 9th in batting average (.304).
Braun hit the 8th-most home runs by any major leaguer through his first four seasons (128). He also became the fifth player in major league history to hit at least 125 homers with a .300 average over his first four seasons, joining Joe DiMaggio, Chuck Klein, Pujols, and Ted Williams. His 94 home runs in 2008–10 were the most by any right-handed outfielder.
He was the first player in Brewers history to hit 20 or more home runs in each of his first four seasons, and the third Brewer to have 100 or more RBIs in three consecutive seasons (joining Richie Sexson
(2001–03) and Prince Fielder (2007–09)). He also became the second player in Brewers history to have consecutive 100-RBI, 100-run seasons (joining Cecil Cooper, who did it in 1982–83).
Braun was awarded the 2010 NL Outfielder Silver Slugger Award, winning it for the third year in a row. He became the second Brewer to win a Silver Slugger Award in three consecutive years, joining Cecil Cooper (1980–82). Robin Yount is the only other Brewer to have won the award three times (1980, 1982, and 1989). Braun was also voted to the 2010 NL Sporting News All Star Team, making the team for the third year in a row.
He was named NL Player of the Month for April, after tying for the NL lead in home runs (10) and runs scored (24), while setting a new team record by reaching base in 28 consecutive games to start a season (erasing Yount's record of 23 games, set in 1983). He was also named NL Player of the Week, for the week ended April 25.
He led all National League players in All Star balloting, with an NL-record 5.93 million votes, as he garnered more votes than any other NL outfielder for the fourth year in a row. He was voted an NL All Star starter for a franchise record fourth time. Braun had a 23-game hitting streak, the third-longest in team history. On August 31, he hit a ball deep to left-center field and tried for an inside-the-park home run
, but fell on his way to home plate and was tagged out. The crowd gave him a standing ovation for his effort.
On September 23, Braun hit a three-run, 450-foot home run that sealed the Brewers' NL-Central-clinching victory. He reflected that it was "eerily similar" to his home run on the last day of the 2008 season, also in the bottom of the eighth inning with the game tied 1–1, which enabled the Brewers to reach the post-season for the first time since 1982. Prince Fielder observed: ""It's not new. That's what he does." He was named the NL Player of the Month for the fourth time in his career in September, after tying for second in the league with 8 home runs and 22 RBIs, while batting .330.
In 2011, Braun led the National League in slugging percentage (.597), OPS (.994), and extra base hits (77). He was 2nd in the NL in batting average (.332), runs (109), and total bases (336), 4th in RBIs (111) and doubles (38; tied), 5th in on base percentage (.397) and hits (187), 6th in home runs (33; T), and 7th in stolen bases (33; a career high). On defense, he led all major league left fielders in fielding percentage, at .996.
Braun became the 7th player to have at least four 30-homer, 100-RBI seasons in his first five years, joining Chuck Klein
, Joe DiMaggio
, Ted Williams
, Ralph Kiner
, Mark Teixeira
, and Albert Pujols
. He also became the 1th major leaguer to hit at least 30 home runs in four of his first five seasons. He joined Klein, DiMaggio, Williams, Kiner, Eddie Mathews
, Frank Robinson
, Mark McGwire
, Teixeira, Pujols, and Dan Uggla
.
In 2011, Braun became the second Brewer (and 56th player in MLB history) to join the 30–30 club, joining Tommy Harper
(1970). He was also the second player in Brewers' history to have two 20-steals/20-homers seasons, joining Corey Hart. He became the first Brewer to post three 100-run, 100-RBI seasons. In addition, he became one of three Brewers who have had four 100-RBI seasons, joining Cecil Cooper and Prince Fielder.
Through 2011, he was third among active ballplayers in career slugging percentage (.563), behind Pujols and Alex Rodriguez, and first among left fielders in career fielding percentage (.994). He was also the Brewers' all-time leader in career batting average (.312), slugging percentage, and OPS (.933), and fourth in on base percentage (.371).
In the 2011 playoffs, through October 14 Braun set the major league post-season record by reaching base in the first inning in nine consecutive playoff games. He also tied Yount and Molitor for the Brewers' team record with his 22nd career post-season hit, and tied Charlie Moore
for team's longest post-season hitting streak, at 7 games. In the post-season he led the Brewers with a .405 batting average, while driving in a team-best 10 RBIs.
Braun was awarded the 2011 NL Outfielder Silver Slugger Award, winning it for the fourth year in a row. That was a Brewers record, and he became the fourth National League outfielder to win the award four years in a row, joining Barry Bonds
(who did it twice, from 1990–1994 and 2000–04), Dale Murphy
(1982–85), and Sammy Sosa
(1998–2002). He was named the team's 2011 MVP in unanimous voting by the Milwaukee chapter of the BBWAA.
On November 22, Braun was named the NL MVP award winner for the 2011 season, receiving 20 of 32 first place votes.
with strong wrists. Braun waits well on offspeed pitches, and uses the entire field. He drives the ball, no matter where it is in the strike zone. Brewers hitting coach Jim Skaalen observed: "He's got tremendously quick hands and really hits through the ball. He stays on the ball as well as anyone we've got."
third baseman Alex Rodriguez
. Braun has been timed at 4.2 seconds to first base from the right side of the plate. In spring training in 2007, he was second-fastest in the Brewers' 60-yard dash.
While Yost removed Braun from a number of games in September 2007 for defense, he praised Braun for his improvements. "The great thing about it is it doesn't involve throwing at all now," said Yost, referring to Braun's biggest issue in the spring. "It involves first-step quickness to the ball, which will increase his range. [He needs to] soften his hands a little bit. [His] hand-eye coordination to the ball needs to be a little better. That comes with repetition, repetition, repetition." Braun finished 2007 last of all eligible third basemen in fielding percentage (.895, with 26 errors; only the fourth third baseman since 1916 to play 100 games or more in a season and have a fielding percentage under .900), range factor (2.11), and zone rating (.697). His target at first base was Prince Fielder, who finished 2007 last of all eligible major league first basemen in range factor (8.49), and first in errors (14). Similarly, his target at second base, Rickie Weeks
, had the lowest fielding percentage of all NL second basemen (.976), and the lowest zone rating among all major league second basemen (.737).
It was suggested that it was possible that Braun would learn to play the position adequately, given that David Wright (who tied for the major league lead in errors by a third baseman in 2005 (his second in the league) in 2007 became a "passable defender" (and won the NL Gold Glove at third base).
Braun, for his part, noted after the 2007 season: "It's only my second full (professional) year of playing third base. I don't expect to be perfect, but I certainly expect to be better than I have been. I have to continue to work hard, and hopefully I'll improve."
-winning center fielder Mike Cameron
, prompting the team to move center fielder Bill Hall to third base and Braun to left field.
Before the news broke, Braun was taking ground balls at Pepperdine University
near Los Angeles. General Manager Doug Melvin
left him a voicemail, and after returning the call and learning of the team's plans Braun grabbed his outfield glove, and started taking fly balls. Braun supported the switch. "[The outfield glove] is not broken in yet, but it will get there. I feel like I'm a good enough athlete and have a good enough work ethic to make the transition pretty easily."
While Braun's outfield experience until then had consisted of "two games in center field my freshman year in high school," Braun had speed, arm strength that would make him stand out against other left fielders, and athleticism to make the transition. Early reports were good, as in spring training in 2008 he showed an ability to cover ground, go back on the ball, to his left into the gap, and to his right to cut off balls down the line. Braun looked good tracking liners and high fly balls, and took good routes when cutting off balls down the line or in the gap, holding batters to singles. In March 2008 Manager Ned Yost said that Braun has been "spectacular" in left, and "he's got an opportunity one day to win a Gold Glove in left field. He certainly does."
In July, by which time Braun was being mentioned in the press as a Gold Glove candidate, Ed Sedar
, the Brewers' outfield defense expert, said: "He probably has the best arm in baseball in left field. He can cover more ground than 90% of the outfielders out there."
In 2008, Braun led all major league outfielders with a 1.000 fielding percentage. He also led all NL left fielders in putouts (275), and was second in the league in range factor
(1.95) and fourth in assists (9), in 1,310.1 innings.
On May 23, 2009, Braun was charged with his first error ever in 190 games in left field, when his throw to third was not caught by either Bill Hall or Craig Counsell
, one of whom should have caught it according to Manager Ken Macha
, but both of whom were confused as to who was covering the base. In July 2009, ESPNs Jon Heyman wrote that Braun had "become a terrific left fielder in no time". Braun led all NL left fielders in 2009 with a .994 fielding percentage. He also led them in putouts (304) and range factor (2.06), was tied for the lead in double plays (2), and was third in assists (8), in 1,364 innings.
In 2010, Braun led NL left fielders in putouts for the third year in a row (279), was second in range factor per game (1.86), and 4th in assists (6).
. His father immigrated to the United States at age seven. His father is Jewish and his mother is Catholic.
Braun said "I am Jewish," and "I'm extremely proud to be a role model for young Jewish kids." "It's something I'm really proud of. But I don't want to make it into something more than what it is. I didn't have a Bar Mitzvah.... I didn't celebrate the holidays." He reiterated: "It's something that draws a lot of interest and something I take pride in."
His nickname is "The Hebrew Hammer," which references his Jewish heritage, former Milwaukee star Hank Aaron (whose nickname was "Hammerin' Hank"), and the movie The Hebrew Hammer
, starring Adam Goldberg
. It is also the nickname of former teammate Gabe Kapler
, and was a nickname for former All-Stars Al Rosen
and Hank Greenberg
.
Braun is one of the highest-drafted Jewish ballplayers in the history of professional baseball. The New York Yankees
made Ron Blomberg
the number one pick in the 1967 draft. Braun was considered the best Jewish minor league baseball prospect in 2006, and became major league baseball's first Jewish Rookie of the Year the following season. In each of 2007 and 2008, Braun hit more home runs (34 and 37) than all but 3 of the top 10 career Jewish home run hitters had hit in their best seasons. Only Hank Greenberg
(58), Shawn Green
(49), and Al Rosen
(43) hit more in a single year. Through the 2010 season, he was 2nd on the all-time career list in batting average (behind Hank Greenberg), 7th in home runs (behind Mike Epstein
), and 10th on the RBI list (behind Kevin Youkilis
), for Jewish major leaguers.
"Braun" was, coincidentally, the family name of Sandy Koufax
, until his mother remarried and he took his stepfather's name. "There's no [family] connection that I know of," Braun said, "but it's kind of cool." In another coincidence, Braun lived for a time with his maternal grandfather in a house that previously belonged to Jewish Hall of Fame
outfielder Hank Greenberg
. Braun's grandfather has lived in the house for over 40 years.
In December 2007, Braun was the only Jewish athlete invited by President George W. Bush
to the annual Hanukkah
Dinner at the White House
, where he talked baseball with the President. Braun was later featured in the 2008 Hank Greenberg 75th Anniversary edition of Jewish Major Leaguers Baseball Cards, published in affiliation with Fleer
Trading Cards and the American Jewish Historical Society
, commemorating the Jewish Major Leaguers from 1871 through 2008. He joined, among other Jewish major leaguers, Brad Ausmus
, Youkilis, Ian Kinsler
, Brian Horwitz
, Gabe Kapler
, Jason Marquis
, Ike Davis
, Jason Hirsh
, John Grabow
, Craig Breslow
, Scott Feldman
, and Scott Schoeneweis
. Braun was one of three Jewish players in the 2008 All-Star Game, joining Kinsler and Youkilis, and one of three Jewish players on the Team USA 2009 World Baseball Classic
team, joining Youkilis and Grabow. He and Feldman were voted the 2009 co-Jewish MVP by Jewish Major Leaguers, and he was voted the 2010 Jewish MVP as Breslow received the Most Valuable Jewish Pitcher honors. "There aren't too many Jewish athletes at the highest level," said Braun. "It's something that I certainly embrace."
Braun was inducted into the Southern California Jewish Sports Hall of Fame in January 2010.
In 2011, Braun became the fourth self-identifying Jewish player, and the first in nearly a half-century, to win the Most Valuable Player Award, after Greenberg (1935 and 1940), Rosen (1953), and Koufax (1963).
. He signed with the Brewers in 2008 as a free agent
, and in 2009 was on the roster of the Brewers' low-A affiliate, the Wisconsin Timber Rattlers
.
line for Affliction Clothing
, a California-based clothing manufacturer owned by friends of his which manufactures shirts that are garment dyed and hand distressed. In August 2008, he filmed a YouTube
video with supermodel
Marisa Miller
for Remington
's ShortCut clippers. And in October 2008, Apple released a commercial for a new iPhone
, that showed a clip of Braun's 10th inning walk-off grand slam against the Pittsburgh Pirates on September 25, 2008, which kept the Brewers' Wild Card
hopes alive. Gatorade
used the same clip in its November 2008 "League of Clutch" commercial.
He has also signed endorsement deals with CytoSport
, a supplement maker, Nike
, Wilson
, Mikita Sports for autographs and memorabilia, Sam Bat, and AirTran Airways
, and is working on his own line of aluminum bats. He has appeared in commercials for Muscle Milk
, Dick's Sporting Goods
, and regional convenience store
chain Kwik Trip
. Braun turned down a request by ABC
that he appear on the TV show "The Bachelor".
Also in 2010, Braun opened two restaurants in Wisconsin, Ryan Braun's Waterfront in Milwaukee's Historic Third Ward and Ryan Braun's Tavern & Grill in Lake Geneva. In late 2010, Braun's Milwaukee location closed for remodeling and to upgrade its menu before re-opening in April 2011 as Ryan Braun's Graffito, an Italian restaurant.
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...
left fielder
Left fielder
In baseball, a left fielder is an outfielder who plays defense in left field. Left field is the area of the outfield to the left of a person standing at home plate and facing towards the pitcher's mound...
for the Milwaukee Brewers
Milwaukee Brewers
The Milwaukee Brewers are a professional baseball team based in Milwaukee, Wisconsin, currently playing in the Central Division of Major League Baseball's National League...
. A perennial standout, he was ranked No. 16 by the Sporting News in its 2011 list of the 50 greatest current players in baseball and is the reigning National League MVP.
Braun was a two-time All American baseball player at the University of Miami
University of Miami
The University of Miami is a private, non-sectarian university founded in 1925 with its main campus in Coral Gables, Florida, a medical campus in Miami city proper at Civic Center, and an oceanographic research facility on Virginia Key., the university currently enrolls 15,629 students in 12...
, where he was named "National Freshman of the Year" by Baseball America in 2003. The Brewers drafted him in the first round (fifth overall) in the 2005 major league draft. He was the team's Minor League Player of the Year in 2006.
Braun has led the National League
National League
The National League of Professional Baseball Clubs, known simply as the National League , is the older of two leagues constituting Major League Baseball, and the world's oldest extant professional team sports league. Founded on February 2, 1876, to replace the National Association of Professional...
(NL) twice in slugging percentage (in 2007, while setting the major league rookie record, and 2011), twice in extra-base hits (2008 and 2011), and once in hits (2009). On defense, he led all major league outfielders in fielding percentage
Fielding percentage
In baseball statistics, fielding percentage, also known as fielding average, is a measure that reflects the percentage of times a defensive player properly handles a batted or thrown ball...
in 2008, led NL left fielders in fielding percentage twice (2009 and 2011), and led NL left fielders in range factor
Range Factor
Range Factor is a baseball statistic developed by Bill James. It is calculated by dividing putouts and assists by number of innings or games played at a given defense position...
in 2009. His 128 home runs through 2010 were the 8th-most by any major leaguer ever through their first four seasons. Through 2011, he was third among all active ballplayers in career slugging percentage, and first among active left fielders in career fielding percentage.
Braun won the National League Rookie of the Year Award in 2007. He was both voted a starting All-Star
Major League Baseball All-Star Game
The Major League Baseball All-Star Game, also known as the "Midsummer Classic", is an annual baseball game between players from the National League and the American League, currently selected by a combination of fans, players, coaches, and managers...
and won the NL Outfielder Silver Slugger
Silver Slugger
The Silver Slugger Award is awarded annually to the best offensive player at each position in both the American League and the National League, as determined by the coaches and managers of Major League Baseball...
Award the past four straight seasons (2008–11).
High school
Braun was a four-year letterman on the Granada Hills High School baseball team, and three-year team captain and Most Valuable Player (MVP). He played shortstopShortstop
Shortstop, abbreviated SS, is the baseball fielding position between second and third base. Shortstop is often regarded as the most dynamic defensive position in baseball, because there are more right-handed hitters in baseball than left-handed hitters, and most hitters have a tendency to pull the...
, and pitched through his junior year. As a sophomore in 2000, he recorded the highest batting average
Batting average
Batting average is a statistic in both cricket and baseball that measures the performance of cricket batsmen and baseball hitters. The two statistics are related in that baseball averages are directly descended from the concept of cricket averages.- Cricket :...
of his prep career (.456), while posting a .654 on-base percentage (OBP). During his junior year, he hit .421, with a .668 OBP. Braun capped off his high school career by batting .451 as a senior, with an OBP of .675, and breaking the school record for career home runs with 25.
He was a two-time all-area selection by the Los Angeles Times
Los Angeles Times
The Los Angeles Times is a daily newspaper published in Los Angeles, California, since 1881. It was the second-largest metropolitan newspaper in circulation in the United States in 2008 and the fourth most widely distributed newspaper in the country....
, and a three-time choice by the Los Angeles Daily News
Los Angeles Daily News
The Los Angeles Daily News is the second-largest circulating daily newspaper of Los Angeles, California. It is the flagship of the Los Angeles Newspaper Group, a branch of Colorado-based MediaNews Group....
. As a senior, Braun was rated the sixth-best shortstop prospect in the country by Team One Baseball, and among the top 100 overall prospects by Baseball America
Baseball America
Baseball America is a magazine which covers baseball at every level, with a particular focus on up-and-coming players in high school, college, Japan, and the minor leagues. It is currently published in the form of a bi-weekly newspaper, five annual reference book titles, a weekly podcast, and a...
. He graduated in 2002, but went undrafted as he told teams that he intended to attend college.
Academically, he excelled as well, receiving only one B (in AP Chemistry).
College
Offered scholarships by Stanford UniversityStanford University
The Leland Stanford Junior University, commonly referred to as Stanford University or Stanford, is a private research university on an campus located near Palo Alto, California. It is situated in the northwestern Santa Clara Valley on the San Francisco Peninsula, approximately northwest of San...
and UC-Berkeley
University of California, Berkeley
The University of California, Berkeley , is a teaching and research university established in 1868 and located in Berkeley, California, USA...
, he instead attended the University of Miami
University of Miami
The University of Miami is a private, non-sectarian university founded in 1925 with its main campus in Coral Gables, Florida, a medical campus in Miami city proper at Civic Center, and an oceanographic research facility on Virginia Key., the university currently enrolls 15,629 students in 12...
(on an academic scholarship, due to his high school grades). He chose Miami for its academics, its athletics, and its social scene, noting: "I think the girls were the deal closer on the recruiting trip."
There, Braun was named "National Freshman of the Year," as well as a first-team "Freshman All-American," by Baseball America in 2003, as well as first team All American by the Jewish Sports Review
Jewish Sports Review
Jewish Sports Review is a bi-monthly magazine that was established in 1997. Its editors are Ephraim Moxson and Shel Wallman.The magazine identifies which star and professional athletes are Jewish...
. He was also named first-team All-American by Collegiate Baseball. He clinched the awards by batting .364 with 76 runs batted in (RBIs) and 17 home runs. As a sophomore shortstop/designated hitter
Designated hitter
In baseball, the designated hitter rule is the common name for Major League Baseball Rule 6.10, an official position adopted by the American League in 1973 that allows teams to designate a player, known as the designated hitter , to bat in place of the pitcher each time he would otherwise come to...
, Braun hit .335, slugged .606, and had 21 stolen base
Stolen base
In baseball, a stolen base occurs when a baserunner successfully advances to the next base while the pitcher is delivering the ball to home plate...
s.
During his junior year, his final and most successful at Miami, Braun batted .396 with 18 home runs, a .726 slugging percentage, 76 RBIs, and 23 stolen bases. He was ninth in slugging and 10th in RBIs in NCAA Division I, and was named to Baseball America's 2005 College All-American Team as the DH. He moved from shortstop to third base
Third baseman
A third baseman, abbreviated 3B, is the player in baseball whose responsibility is to defend the area nearest to third base — the third of four bases a baserunner must touch in succession to score a run...
during the year. His performance earned Braun a spot as one of the finalists for the Golden Spikes Award
Golden Spikes Award
The Golden Spikes Award is awarded annually to the best amateur baseball player. It is awarded by USA Baseball and sponsored by the Major League Baseball Players Association. Though the award can be presented to any amateur player, it has always been given to a college baseball player.-Past...
, the most prestigious individual award in college baseball, and the Atlantic Coast Conference
Atlantic Coast Conference
The Atlantic Coast Conference is a collegiate athletic league in the United States. Founded in 1953 in Greensboro, North Carolina, the ACC sanctions competition in twenty-five sports in Division I of the National Collegiate Athletic Association for its twelve member universities...
Baseball Player of the Year award.
Minor leagues (2005–2007)
The Milwaukee BrewersMilwaukee Brewers
The Milwaukee Brewers are a professional baseball team based in Milwaukee, Wisconsin, currently playing in the Central Division of Major League Baseball's National League...
drafted Braun in the first round (fifth overall) in the 2005 major league draft
2005 Major League Baseball Draft
The 2005 First-Year Player Draft, Major League Baseball's annual amateur draft, was held on June 7 and 8. It was conducted via conference call with representatives from each of the league's 30 teams...
as a third baseman, and he signed for $2.45 million.
Assigned to the Helena Brewers
Helena Brewers
The Helena Brewers are a minor league baseball team in the Pioneer League and are the Advanced Rookie League affiliate of the Milwaukee Brewers. They are located in Helena, Montana...
in the Advanced Rookie Pioneer League in 2005, Braun batted .341/.383/.585 in 10 games. He was then promoted to the West Virginia Power
West Virginia Power
This article is about the baseball team, for the electric utility serving southeast West Virginia from 1986-99, see Allegheny Energy.The West Virginia Power is a minor league baseball team of the South Atlantic League, and is the Class A affiliate of the Pittsburgh Pirates. They are located in...
in the Class A South Atlantic League
South Atlantic League
The South Atlantic League is a minor league baseball league based chiefly in the Southeastern United States, with the exception of three teams in the Mid-Atlantic States...
, where he hit .355/.396/.645, and was rated the fifth-best prospect in the league. His most memorable moment there was when he hit a walk-off grand slam
Grand slam (baseball)
In the sport of baseball, a grand slam is a home run hit with all three bases occupied by baserunners , thereby scoring four runs—the most possible in one play. According to The Dickson Baseball Dictionary, the term originated in the card game of contract bridge, in which a grand slam involves...
to lead the Power into the playoffs. Following the 2005 season he was rated by Baseball America as the Brewers' Best Minor League Hitter for Average, the fifth-best prospect in the South Atlantic League, and the third-best prospect in the Brewers organization.
Braun began 2006 playing for the A-Advanced Brevard County Manatees
Brevard County Manatees
The Brevard County Manatees are a minor league baseball team of the Florida State League, and are the A-Advanced affiliate of the Milwaukee Brewers...
. He earned a spot in the Florida State League
Florida State League
The Florida State League is a Class A-Advanced minor league baseball league operating in the state of Florida. They are one of three leagues currently operating in Class A-Advanced, the third highest of six classifications of minor leagues...
All-Star
All-star
All-star is a term designating an individual as having a high level of performance in their field. Originating in sports, it has since drifted into vernacular and been borrowed heavily by the entertainment industry...
game, and played in the All-Star Futures Game
All-Star Futures Game
The All-Star Futures Game is an annual baseball exhibition game between a team of top minor league prospects from the United States and a team of prospects from other parts of the World...
. He was rated the top third base prospect in the FSL, and Baseball America rated him the best batting prospect in the league. On June 21, Braun was promoted to the Class AA Huntsville Stars
Huntsville Stars
The Huntsville Stars are a minor league baseball team of the Southern League and are the Double-A affiliate of the Milwaukee Brewers. They are located in Huntsville, Alabama and are named for the space industry with which Huntsville is economically tied .The Stars play their home games at Joe W...
(Alabama) of the Southern League
Southern League (baseball)
The Southern League is a minor league baseball league which operates in the Southern United States. It is classified a Double-A league. The original league was formed in , and shut down in . A new league, the Southern Association, was formed in , consisting of twelve teams...
. In July he was voted the Brewers' Organizational Player of the Month, and at the end of the season he was voted the sixth-best prospect in the Southern League. Collectively between Class A and Class AA, Braun finished with a .289 average, 22 home runs, 77 RBIs, and 26 stolen bases. He received the 2006 Robin Yount Performance Award as the Milwaukee Brewers Minor League Player of the Year.
Later in 2006, in the Arizona Fall League
Arizona Fall League
The Arizona Fall League is an off-season league owned and operated by Major League Baseball which operates during the fall in Arizona, United States at five spring training complexes...
he hit .326/.396/.641 in 92 at bats for the Scottsdale Scorpions
Scottsdale Scorpions
The Scottsdale Scorpions are a baseball team that plays in the East Division of the Arizona Fall League located in Scottsdale, Arizona. They play their home games at Scottsdale Stadium....
. He led the AFL with 16 extra-base hits, tied for tops with 9 doubles, ranked second in slugging percentage and HR/AB ratio (1/15), tied for second in home runs (6), and tied for third in RBIs (25). He was rated one of the top three prospects in the league, and was voted to the AFL All-Prospects Team.
Baseball America rated Braun the Brewers' # 2 prospect for 2007. He began the year with the Nashville Sounds
Nashville Sounds
The Nashville Sounds are a minor league baseball team of the Pacific Coast League , and the Triple-A affiliate of the Milwaukee Brewers. They are located in Nashville, Tennessee, and are named for the city's association with the music industry...
of the AAA
AAA (baseball)
Triple-A refers to the highest level of play in minor league baseball in the United States and Mexico.-Purpose:Triple-A teams' main purpose is to prepare players for the Major Leagues:...
Pacific Coast League
Pacific Coast League
The Pacific Coast League is a minor-league baseball league operating in the Western, Midwestern and Southeastern United States. Along with the International League and the Mexican League, it is one of three leagues playing at the Triple-A level, which is one step below Major League Baseball.The...
. Before being called up to the majors in late May, in 113 at bats he led the PCL with a .726 slugging percentage while batting .354 (6th), with 10 home runs (T-2nd) and a .426 on base percentage (5th).
2007: Rookie of the Year
The Brewers brought Braun to spring trainingSpring training
In Major League Baseball, spring training is a series of practices and exhibition games preceding the start of the regular season. Spring training allows new players to try out for roster and position spots, and gives existing team players practice time prior to competitive play...
in 2007. Their regular third baseman Corey Koskie
Corey Koskie
Cordel Leonard "Corey" Koskie is a former Major League Baseball third baseman. He batted left-handed and threw right-handed.-Baseball career:...
was suffering from post-concussion syndrome
Post-concussion syndrome
Post-concussion syndrome, also known as postconcussive syndrome or PCS, and historically called shell shock, is a set of symptoms that a person may experience for weeks, months, or occasionally up to a year or more after a concussion – a mild form of traumatic brain injury . PCS may also...
, and missed the entire year. In 11 spring training games, Braun tied for 10th in the majors in home runs (5), and second in RBIs (15).
In 2007, Braun had what some sportswriters called one of the most dominant rookie seasons in baseball history. Called up on May 24 by the Brewers, he hit his first major league home run two nights later. Braun was voted the National League (NL) Rookie of the Month for June, ranking first in RBIs (21) and tied for first in home runs (6) among NL rookies that month. He also recorded a .716 slugging percentage and a .435 OBP. In July, Braun became the fastest in Brewer history to hit 10 major league home runs, doing so in his 38th game. He hit his 15th home run in the 50th game of his career, and his 20th in his 64th game, making him the fastest to those milestones since Albert Pujols
Albert Pujols
José Alberto Pujols Alcántara , better known as Albert Pujols , is a Dominican-American professional baseball player, who is currently a free agent...
in 2001. He was also the fastest to 20 homers in Brewers history. At month's end, he received his second consecutive NL Rookie of the Month Award, as well as his first NL Player of the Month
Player of the Month
The Player of the Month Award is a Major League Baseball award named by each league every month of the regular season. The National League started recognizing the award on June 4, 1958. National League president Warren Giles conducted a poll of baseball writers in each Major League city and...
Award (making him the first player to won both awards in the same month). He hit a league-leading 11 home runs, with 25 RBIs, while batting .345.
In mid-August, Yost moved Braun from third in the batting order to cleanup, switching him with Prince Fielder
Prince Fielder
Prince Semien Fielder is a Major League Baseball free agent who plays first base. He is currently listed at 5' 11" and . He was selected by the Brewers in the first round of the 2002 Major League Baseball Draft out of Eau Gallie High School in Melbourne, Florida.He is the son of former Detroit...
. The move was expected to allow Braun to steal more, as batting before Fielder was not conducive to him risking being thrown out on steal attempts. Additionally, successfully stealing a base would hypothetically allow opponents to intentionally walk
Intentional base on balls
In baseball, an intentional base on balls, usually referred to as an intentional walk and denoted in baseball scorekeeping by IBB, is a walk issued to a batter by a pitcher with the intent of removing the batter's opportunity to swing at the pitched ball...
Fielder and avoid pitching to him. At the end of the month, however, Yost reverted to his previous batting order.
On August 26, Braun hit his 25th home run in his 82nd game, quicker than any major leaguer since Mark McGwire
Mark McGwire
Mark David McGwire , nicknamed "Big Mac", is an American former professional baseball player who played his major league career with the Oakland Athletics and the St. Louis Cardinals. He is currently the hitting coach for the St...
in 1987.
On September 9, the Brewers became the third team in major league history to start a game with three straight home runs, as Rickie Weeks
Rickie Weeks
Rickie Darnell Weeks is a Major League Baseball second baseman for the Milwaukee Brewers....
, J. J. Hardy, and Braun homered in consecutive at bats. Braun said, "That was pretty cool. I was never part of something like that before." Braun's home run in that game also broke the Brewers rookie record for home runs (28). Braun hit his 30th homer in his 94th game, a pace no player had set to start a career since McGwire hit 30 in 84 games during 1986 and 1987.
Braun finished with an NL-leading .634 slugging percentage, a mark that set new all-time rookie and Brewers records. He was fifth in the league in at bats per home run (13.3) and OPS
On-base plus slugging
On-base plus slugging is a sabermetric baseball statistic calculated as the sum of a player's on-base percentage and slugging percentage. The ability of a player to both get on base and to hit for power, two important hitting skills, are represented. An OPS of .900 or higher in Major League...
(1.004), tied for fifth in home runs (34), and eighth in batting average (.324) among hitters with at least 490 plate appearance
Plate appearance
In baseball statistics, a player is credited with a plate appearance each time he completes a turn batting. A player completes a turn batting when: He strikes out or is declared out before reaching first base; or He reaches first base safely or is awarded first base ; or He hits a fair ball which...
s. He led the Brewers in batting average and slugging percentage, and was second behind Fielder in home runs, runs (91), and RBIs (97), tied for second in triples
Triple (baseball)
In baseball, a triple is the act of a batter safely reaching third base after hitting the ball, with neither the benefit of a fielder's misplay nor another runner being put out on a fielder's choice....
(6), and third in OBP (.370) and steals (15), despite not having played in the first 48 games of the season. Braun obliterated the club rookie records of 28 home runs and 81 RBIs, set by Fielder in 2006.
Braun had considerable success against left-handed pitchers. He had the best batting average (.450), OBP (.516), and slugging percentage (.964) of any major league hitter with at least 125 plate appearances against lefties, and was tied for second in the majors in home runs (15). Braun credits his father with his success against lefties. "My dad is left-handed, so growing up, the majority of time, I took batting practice off of him."
Braun collected several awards at season's end. He won the 2007 NL Rookie of the Year Award in a vote by 32 members of the Baseball Writers' Association of America
Baseball Writers Association of America
The Baseball Writers' Association of America is a professional association for baseball journalists writing for daily newspapers, magazines and qualifying Web sites. The BBWAA was founded on October 14, 1908, to improve working conditions for sportswriters in the early part of the 20th century...
. He beat out Troy Tulowitzki
Troy Tulowitzki
Troy Trevor Tulowitzki , nicknamed Tulo, is a Major League Baseball shortstop for the Colorado Rockies.Tulowitzki's arm, range and instincts at shortstop are highly regarded...
by 2 points in the closest NL vote since the system was revised in 1980. Of all prior NL Rookies of the Year, only Pujols and Willie McCovey
Willie McCovey
Willie Lee McCovey , nicknamed "Mac", "Big Mac", and "Stretch", is a former Major League Baseball first baseman. He played nineteen seasons for the San Francisco Giants, and three more for the San Diego Padres and Oakland Athletics, between and...
hit for higher batting averages in their rookie year. Braun was voted the 2007 NL Sporting News Rookie of the Year
The Sporting News Rookie of the Year Award
The Sporting News Rookie of the Year Award was established in 1946 by The Sporting News .*In 1947-48, and again in 1950, a single award was given for all of Major League Baseball....
by 488 major league players and 30 managers. Braun also received the 2007 Players Choice NL Most Outstanding Rookie
Players Choice Award
The Players Choice Awards are annual Major League Baseball awards, given by the Major League Baseball Players Association .The Players Choice Awards are given following a secret ballot by players. Four awards go to a player in each league, while two awards each go to one player in all of Major...
in a vote by his fellow major league players. "When your peers recognize you with an award, that's great," he said. "Those are the guys out there on the field with you, competing against you. Their opinion counts the most, for a player." In voting for the NL Most Valuable Player (MVP) Award, Braun received two 10th-place votes and finished 24th overall.
2008: All Star and Silver Slugger
ContractIn March 2008, the Brewers renewed Braun's contract for $455,000, a $75,000 increase.
Braun then signed an 8-year, $45–$51 million contract extension (the total depending on his "Super 2" service-time ranking after the 2009 season) on May 15, 2008. The contract is through the year 2015. The deal included Braun's $455,000 salary for 2008, and a $2.3 million bonus in 2008. It could increase to $51 million through incentives. Braun also has a no-trade clause for the first four years, and then a limited no-trade clause allowing him to block deals to 12 teams from 2012–13, and 6 teams from 2014–15. The contract will keep Braun locked up through his age-31 season.
It was the largest contract in Brewers' history, surpassing Jeff Suppan
Jeff Suppan
Jeffrey Scot Suppan , is a Major League Baseball pitcher, who is currently a free agent.-Baseball career:Suppan was drafted out of high school by the Boston Red Sox in the second round of the 1993 amateur draft, and rapidly ascended to the Majors making his debut at the age of 20...
's. It was also the largest contract in baseball history given to a player with less than three years' experience. Braun's agent, Nez Balelo, crunched enough numbers to show him what he potentially could have made over the life of this contract if he had chosen not to sign it. "But the question I ultimately asked myself was, `What can't I buy with that amount of money?"' Braun said.
Regular season and postseason
Braun drove in 134 runs in his first 162 games in the majors, more RBIs than any active player. He reached the 150-RBI milestone faster than any major leaguer since Boston's Walt Dropo
Walt Dropo
Walter Dropo , nicknamed "Moose", was an American college basketball standout and a professional baseball first baseman...
needed only 155 games, in 1949–51. On June 17, 2008, he drove in his 152nd career RBI, in his 182nd game.
Braun was named the NL's Player of the Month, after batting .366 in July (6th in the NL) with 9 home runs (3rd), and 23 RBIs (7th). He also led the league with 76 total bases and 18 extra base hits, and was among NL leaders with 37 hits (2nd), 3 triples (2nd), and a 1.163 OPS (3rd). He had back-to-back 4-hit games, just the 5th player in team history to accomplish that feat. "It's a huge honor," Braun said. "The way I look at it, you're the MVP of the National League for that month. It's definitely a big accomplishment.
As of August 8, Braun's major league career start was one of the best ever. In 227 games to start a career, he was first with 558 total bases and 133 extra base hits, second with 64 home runs, and tied for second with 181 RBIs.
On August 9, Braun strained the intercostal
Intercostal muscle
Intercostal muscles are several groups of muscles that run between the ribs, and help form and move the chest wall. The intercostal muscles are mainly involved in the mechanical aspect of breathing...
muscles around his oblique
Abdominal internal oblique muscle
The internal oblique muscle is the intermediate muscle of the abdomen, lying just underneath the external oblique and just above the transverse abdominal muscle.-Structure:...
ribcage. That led to him missing a number of games, and shortening his swing for a few weeks. After returning, on September 25 he hit his first grand slam in "grand" fashion. With the bases loaded, he delivered a 2-out, 2–2 pitch from the Pirates' Jesse Chavez
Jesse Chavez
Jesse David Chavez is an American professional baseball pitcher for the Toronto Blue Jays of Major League Baseball. He bats and throws right-handed....
into the left field bleachers of Miller Park in the bottom of the 10th inning, winning the game 5–1, and keeping the Brewers' 2008 post-season hopes alive. Three days later, Braun helped put the Brewers into the post-season for the first time since 1982, by hitting a go-ahead 2-run homer in the bottom of the 8th against the Chicago Cubs. The homer was the difference in the game, which gave the Brewers a one-game lead over the New York Mets for the NL wild card.
Braun was a starting outfielder for the NL in the 2008 All Star Game
Major League Baseball All-Star Game
The Major League Baseball All-Star Game, also known as the "Midsummer Classic", is an annual baseball game between players from the National League and the American League, currently selected by a combination of fans, players, coaches, and managers...
. He finished first in fan voting among NL outfielders, and second among all NL players, with 3,835,840 votes, behind only Chase Utley
Chase Utley
Chase Cameron Utley is a second baseman for the Philadelphia Phillies of Major League Baseball. A native of the Greater Los Angeles area, he was raised in the city of Long Beach. He was a star baseball player at Long Beach Polytechnic High School, before moving on to UCLA...
of the Phillies (3,889,602). He also finished first in player voting. Braun was the first Brewers outfielder voted to start an All Star game. He was one of seven first-time starters in the game, and–along with Kosuke Fukudome
Kosuke Fukudome
is a Japanese professional baseball outfielder.Prior to arriving in the United States, Fukudome played nine seasons for the Chunichi Dragons of the Japanese Central League...
and Josh Hamilton–one of only three who had not reached the major leagues until 2007 or 2008.
Braun came in third in the Home Run Derby
2008 Major League Baseball Home Run Derby
The 2008 Major League Baseball Home Run Derby was held on Monday, July 14, 2008, at Yankee Stadium in The Bronx, New York City...
at Yankee Stadium. "It's something you dream about," Braun said. "That's as big a stage as you can get on.... it's going to be a lot of fun." He had his friend and agent, Nez Balelo, a former minor league 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...
, pitch to him. Braun's longest homer was estimated at 448 feet. He hit seven home runs in each of the first and second rounds, finishing with 14 (three behind finalist Justin Morneau
Justin Morneau
Justin Ernest George Morneau is a Canadian Major League Baseball first baseman for the Minnesota Twins. At 6 feet 4 inches and 225 lbs, Morneau was originally drafted as a catcher by the Twins in 1999. He converted to first base in the minor leagues and made his MLB debut in 2003...
, who hit five in the final round to win the Derby).
On June 3, Braun became the third-fastest major leaguer to reach 50 career home runs. He did so in 171 career games; the only players to reach that plateau sooner were Rudy York
Rudy York
Preston Rudolph York was a Major League Baseball first baseman who played for the Detroit Tigers , Boston Red Sox , Chicago White Sox and Philadelphia Athletics . York was born in Ragland, Alabama...
and Mark McGwire. On July 8, Braun hit his 56th home run in his 200th game, the third-highest total ever in a major leaguer's initial 200 games, behind McGwire (59) and York (59).
In early August, Braun hit his 30th home run, becoming just the second player in MLB history to hit 30 or more homers in each of his first two seasons, joining Pujols. Braun hit 71 home runs in his first two seasons, tying him with Pujols for fourth all-time. Joe DiMaggio
Joe DiMaggio
Joseph Paul "Joe" DiMaggio , nicknamed "Joltin' Joe" and "The Yankee Clipper," was an American Major League Baseball center fielder who played his entire 13-year career for the New York Yankees. He is perhaps best known for his 56-game hitting streak , a record that still stands...
tops the list with 75 home runs, followed by Ralph Kiner
Ralph Kiner
Ralph McPherran Kiner is an American former Major League Baseball player and has been an announcer for the New York Mets since the team's inception. Though injuries forced his retirement from active play after 10 seasons, Kiner's tremendous slugging outpaced nearly all of his National League...
(74) and Eddie Mathews
Eddie Mathews
Edwin Lee "Eddie" Mathews was an American Major League Baseball third baseman. He is regarded as one of the greatest third basemen ever to play the game.-Early life:...
(72).
In 2008, in 151 games Braun hit 37 home runs (tied for 4th in the NL, behind Ryan Howard
Ryan Howard
Ryan James Howard is a Major League Baseball first baseman for the Philadelphia Phillies. Nicknamed "The Big Piece", Howard stands and weighs . He bats and throws left-handed....
, Adam Dunn
Adam Dunn
Adam Troy Dunn , nicknamed "Big Donkey", is an American Major League Baseball first baseman, outfielder, and designated hitter for the Chicago White Sox. He bats left-handed and throws right-handed....
, and Carlos Delgado
Carlos Delgado
Carlos Juan Delgado Hernández is a retired Puerto Rican professional baseball player. With 473 home runs and 1,512 RBI, he holds the all-time home run and RBI records among Puerto Rican players....
), with 106 RBIs (9th), and batted .285 with a .553 slugging percentage (5th). He also led the league with 83 extra base hits, and had 338 total bases (2nd in the NL), 7 triples (6th), 16.5 at-bats-per-home-run (10th), and 611 at bats (10th). 12.5% of his plate appearances were extra base hits (3rd in the NL; behind Ryan Ludwick
Ryan Ludwick
Ryan Andrew Ludwick is a Major League Baseball right fielder. His brother Eric played four seasons in Major League Baseball as a pitcher.-High school, college, and minor leagues:Ludwick attended Durango High School in Las Vegas, Nevada....
and Pujols), he had 29 infield hit
Infield hit
An infield hit is an outcome in baseball in which the batted ball stays in the infield but neither the batter nor any of the runners are put out. If the batter and the runners reach safely due to an error, it is not considered an infield hit. Runners normally only advance one base in an infield...
s (7th), and he stole third base 6 times (9th).
Against starting pitchers, Braun hit .244 the first time he faced them in a game, .331 the second time, and .328 with a .672 slugging percentage the third time. Braun led the Brewers in batting average, slugging percentage, triples, home runs, RBIs, extra base hits, total bases, at-bats-per-home run, OPS (.888), runs (92), and hits (174).
Braun hit .313 in October against the Phillies in his first post-season series, which the Brewers lost 3–1.
Season awards
Braun was voted to the 2008 NL Sporting News All Star Team, by a panel of 41 major league general managers and assistant general managers. He also won the 2008 NL Outfielder Silver Slugger Award, in a vote by major league coaches and managers who select the top offensive performer at each position in both leagues. The award, sponsored by Louisville Slugger, is based on a combination of statistics, including batting average, on base percentage, and slugging percentage, as well as the coaches' and managers' general impressions of a player's overall offensive value. In voting for the 2008 NL MVP award, Braun was third (with 139 points), behind Pujols and Ryan Howard.
2009: All Star, Silver Slugger, and Team USA
In 2009, Braun was named to Sporting News list of the 50 greatest current players in baseball, ranking No. 32. A panel of 100 baseball people, many of them members of the Hall of Fame and winners of major baseball awards, were polled to arrive at the list.World Baseball Classic
Braun was invited to play for Team USA in 2009 in the second World Baseball Classic
World Baseball Classic
The World Baseball Classic is an international baseball tournament sanctioned by the International Baseball Federation and created by Major League Baseball , the Major League Baseball Players Association , and other professional baseball leagues and their players associations around the world...
. "I'm really excited to get to represent my country," he said. "It's an honor just to get invited for the event." He batted .381 as the team's starting left fielder, helping it reach the semi-finals.
Regular season
Braun was named National League Player of the Week
Player of the Week
The Player of the Week award is a Major League Baseball award named by each of the American and National Leagues each week of the regular season...
for May 4–10, after leading the NL with 12 RBIs for the week while hitting .458/.567/.958 with 3 home runs. He hit the second grand slam of his career and recorded a career-high six RBIs on May 6, and on May 9 he reached base in all five of his plate appearances.
Braun led all NL outfielders in fan voting for the All Star Game for the second year in a row, with 4.1 million votes, ahead of Raúl Ibáñez
Raúl Ibáñez
Raúl Javier Ibáñez is an American Major League Baseball outfielder.Over his career, Ibáñez, who did not make 500 plate appearances until the age of thirty, has batted .280 with 377 doubles, 252 home runs and 1054 runs batted in over sixteen Major League seasons...
and Carlos Beltrán
Carlos Beltrán
Carlos Iván Beltrán is a Major League Baseball outfielder.-Early life:In his youth, Beltrán excelled in many sports, with volleyball and baseball being his favorites. At his father's urging, he gave up volleyball to concentrate on baseball when he was seventeen...
. He was third among all NL vote-getters, trailing Pujols and Chase Utley. He was the first Brewer to be voted in as a starter in consecutive years since Robin Yount
Robin Yount
Robin R. Yount is an American former Major League Baseball shortstop and center fielder. He spent his entire 20-year baseball career with the Milwaukee Brewers . In 1999, Yount was elected to the Baseball Hall of Fame in his first year of eligibility.-Early years:Yount was born in Danville, Illinois...
(in 1982 and 1983), and the third Brewer position player voted to start twice, along with Yount and Paul Molitor
Paul Molitor
Paul Leo Molitor , nicknamed "Molly" and "The Ignitor", is an American former Major League Baseball designated hitter and infielder. During his 21-year baseball career, he played for the Milwaukee Brewers , Toronto Blue Jays , and Minnesota Twins...
(1980 and 1988). Braun started in right field, the first time he had ever played the position, and batted cleanup, going 0–2.
Braun was second all-time, with 79 home runs over his first two calendar years in the major leagues, to Phillies Hall of Famer Chuck Klein
Chuck Klein
Charles Herbert "Chuck" Klein was a Major League Baseball outfielder who played for the Philadelphia Phillies , Chicago Cubs and Pittsburgh Pirates ....
(83); ahead of third-place Joe DiMaggio and Mark McGwire (77). If Braun continues to hit home runs at the rate he had hit them through July 1, 2009, he will reach 600 home runs in his 15th major league season. In September, Braun became the second-fastest active player to hit 100 home runs (behind only Ryan Howard), as he hit his 100th homer in his 400th major league game. Later in the month, he became the second player in major league history (joining Pujols) to hit 30 or more home runs in each of his first three seasons. Braun's 103 home runs in his first three Major League seasons are sixth-most in baseball history, behind Pujols (114), Mark Teixeira
Mark Teixeira
Mark Charles Teixeira , nicknamed "Tex" is an American Major League Baseball player for the New York Yankees. Mostly a first baseman, he has also played third base and in the outfield...
(107), and three Hall of Fame
Hall of Fame
A hall of fame, wall of fame, walk of fame, walk of stars or avenue of stars is a type of attraction established for any field of endeavor to honor individuals of noteworthy achievement in that field...
rs—Kiner (114), Matthews (112), and Joe DiMaggio (107).
As in 2007, in 2009 Braun had even greater success against left-handed pitchers. Against them he had the second-best OBP (.475), slugging percentage (.723), and OPS (1.198), and third-best batting average (.395), of all NL hitters with at least 125 plate appearances.
He finished the season with an NL-leading 203 hits, becoming the first Brewer to lead his league in hits since Molitor topped the AL in 1991. Braun became the fourth Brewer in team history to collect 200 or more hits in a season, and the first in 18 years. He joined Cecil Cooper
Cecil Cooper
Cecil Celester Cooper , nicknamed "Coop," is a former first baseman in Major League Baseball and the former manager of the Houston Astros. From through , Cooper played for the Boston Red Sox and Milwaukee Brewers...
, Molitor, and Yount. His .320 batting average at the end of the season was the highest by a Brewer since Jeff Cirillo
Jeff Cirillo
Jeffrey Howard Cirillo is a former third baseman in Major League Baseball. In a 14-season career, Cirillo was a .296 hitter with 112 home runs and 727 RBI in 1617 games. He was named an All-Star in and . He is the Brewers all-time career leader in batting average at .306...
hit .326 in 1999.
In 2009, in addition to leading the NL in hits, Braun was 2nd in runs (113), 4th in RBIs (114), total bases (350), extra base hits (77), and hit by pitch (13), 7th in batting average (.320) and power-speed number
Power-speed number
Power–speed number or power/speed number is a sabermetrics baseball statistic developed by baseball author and analyst Bill James which combines a player's home run and stolen base numbers into one number.The formula is:...
(24.6), 8th in OPS (.937), 9th in slugging percentage (.551) and doubles (39), tied for 10th in triples (6), and tied for 11th in home runs (32). He was also 4th in the league in infield hits (25).
He became only the second Brewer ever to hit 30 home runs and steal 20 bases in the same season. Braun also became the eighth player in major league history with at least 100 runs, 100 RBIs, 200 hits, 30 homers, 20 stolen bases, and a .300 average in the same season.
Season awards
Braun was voted to the NL Sporting News All Star Team in 2009, making it for the second year in a row. He received votes from all 14 voting NL team executives (as did Pujols and Utley; Mauer was named on all AL ballots). Braun was awarded the 2009 NL Outfielder Silver Slugger Award, winning it for the second year in a row. He became the first Brewer since Molitor, more than two decades prior, to win a Silver Slugger Award in consecutive years. Cecil Cooper is the only other Brewer to have done it.
2010: All Star and Silver Slugger
Braun was named to Sporting News 2010 list of the 50 greatest current players in baseball, ranking No. 22.He was elected a starting NL All Star outfielder for the third year in a row, in 2010. Braun led all major league outfielders in All Star votes for the third straight year, with 2,972,525, despite Milwaukee being the smallest media market in the majors. As in 2009, he received more votes than any NL players other than Pujols and Utley. He became the first Brewer to be a three-time All Star starter, passing Yount and Molitor.
Braun was named NL Player of the Week for August 1–8, after leading the majors with a .538 batting average, 14 hits, and 8 runs scored, and notching a career-best 5-hit performance in one game.
For the season, Braun was 2nd in the NL in hits (188) and doubles (45), 5th in total bases (310), 6th in runs (101), 7th in RBIs (103) and extra base hits (71), and 9th in batting average (.304).
Braun hit the 8th-most home runs by any major leaguer through his first four seasons (128). He also became the fifth player in major league history to hit at least 125 homers with a .300 average over his first four seasons, joining Joe DiMaggio, Chuck Klein, Pujols, and Ted Williams. His 94 home runs in 2008–10 were the most by any right-handed outfielder.
He was the first player in Brewers history to hit 20 or more home runs in each of his first four seasons, and the third Brewer to have 100 or more RBIs in three consecutive seasons (joining Richie Sexson
Richie Sexson
Richmond Lockwood "Big Sexy" Sexson is a former Major League Baseball first baseman who played for five teams from 1997 to 2008...
(2001–03) and Prince Fielder (2007–09)). He also became the second player in Brewers history to have consecutive 100-RBI, 100-run seasons (joining Cecil Cooper, who did it in 1982–83).
Braun was awarded the 2010 NL Outfielder Silver Slugger Award, winning it for the third year in a row. He became the second Brewer to win a Silver Slugger Award in three consecutive years, joining Cecil Cooper (1980–82). Robin Yount is the only other Brewer to have won the award three times (1980, 1982, and 1989). Braun was also voted to the 2010 NL Sporting News All Star Team, making the team for the third year in a row.
2011: NL MVP, All Star, Silver Slugger, and 30–30 club
In 2011, Braun was again named to Sporting News list of the 50 greatest current players in baseball, ranking No. 16. A panel of 21 MLB executives was polled to arrive at the list.He was named NL Player of the Month for April, after tying for the NL lead in home runs (10) and runs scored (24), while setting a new team record by reaching base in 28 consecutive games to start a season (erasing Yount's record of 23 games, set in 1983). He was also named NL Player of the Week, for the week ended April 25.
He led all National League players in All Star balloting, with an NL-record 5.93 million votes, as he garnered more votes than any other NL outfielder for the fourth year in a row. He was voted an NL All Star starter for a franchise record fourth time. Braun had a 23-game hitting streak, the third-longest in team history. On August 31, he hit a ball deep to left-center field and tried for an inside-the-park home run
Inside-the-park home run
In baseball parlance, an inside-the-park home run, "leg home run", or "quadruple", is a play where a batter hits a home run without hitting the ball out of play.-Discussion:...
, but fell on his way to home plate and was tagged out. The crowd gave him a standing ovation for his effort.
On September 23, Braun hit a three-run, 450-foot home run that sealed the Brewers' NL-Central-clinching victory. He reflected that it was "eerily similar" to his home run on the last day of the 2008 season, also in the bottom of the eighth inning with the game tied 1–1, which enabled the Brewers to reach the post-season for the first time since 1982. Prince Fielder observed: ""It's not new. That's what he does." He was named the NL Player of the Month for the fourth time in his career in September, after tying for second in the league with 8 home runs and 22 RBIs, while batting .330.
In 2011, Braun led the National League in slugging percentage (.597), OPS (.994), and extra base hits (77). He was 2nd in the NL in batting average (.332), runs (109), and total bases (336), 4th in RBIs (111) and doubles (38; tied), 5th in on base percentage (.397) and hits (187), 6th in home runs (33; T), and 7th in stolen bases (33; a career high). On defense, he led all major league left fielders in fielding percentage, at .996.
Braun became the 7th player to have at least four 30-homer, 100-RBI seasons in his first five years, joining Chuck Klein
Chuck Klein
Charles Herbert "Chuck" Klein was a Major League Baseball outfielder who played for the Philadelphia Phillies , Chicago Cubs and Pittsburgh Pirates ....
, Joe DiMaggio
Joe DiMaggio
Joseph Paul "Joe" DiMaggio , nicknamed "Joltin' Joe" and "The Yankee Clipper," was an American Major League Baseball center fielder who played his entire 13-year career for the New York Yankees. He is perhaps best known for his 56-game hitting streak , a record that still stands...
, Ted Williams
Ted Williams
Theodore Samuel "Ted" Williams was an American professional baseball player and manager. He played his entire 21-year Major League Baseball career as the left fielder for the Boston Red Sox...
, Ralph Kiner
Ralph Kiner
Ralph McPherran Kiner is an American former Major League Baseball player and has been an announcer for the New York Mets since the team's inception. Though injuries forced his retirement from active play after 10 seasons, Kiner's tremendous slugging outpaced nearly all of his National League...
, Mark Teixeira
Mark Teixeira
Mark Charles Teixeira , nicknamed "Tex" is an American Major League Baseball player for the New York Yankees. Mostly a first baseman, he has also played third base and in the outfield...
, and Albert Pujols
Albert Pujols
José Alberto Pujols Alcántara , better known as Albert Pujols , is a Dominican-American professional baseball player, who is currently a free agent...
. He also became the 1th major leaguer to hit at least 30 home runs in four of his first five seasons. He joined Klein, DiMaggio, Williams, Kiner, Eddie Mathews
Eddie Mathews
Edwin Lee "Eddie" Mathews was an American Major League Baseball third baseman. He is regarded as one of the greatest third basemen ever to play the game.-Early life:...
, Frank Robinson
Frank Robinson
Frank Robinson , is a former Major League Baseball outfielder and manager. He played from 1956–1976, most notably for the Cincinnati Reds and the Baltimore Orioles. He is the only player to win league MVP honors in both the National and American Leagues...
, Mark McGwire
Mark McGwire
Mark David McGwire , nicknamed "Big Mac", is an American former professional baseball player who played his major league career with the Oakland Athletics and the St. Louis Cardinals. He is currently the hitting coach for the St...
, Teixeira, Pujols, and Dan Uggla
Dan Uggla
Daniel Cooley Uggla is an American professional baseball second baseman with the Atlanta Braves of Major League Baseball....
.
In 2011, Braun became the second Brewer (and 56th player in MLB history) to join the 30–30 club, joining Tommy Harper
Tommy Harper
Tommy Harper is an American former Major League Baseball outfielder and third baseman. He played with the Cincinnati Reds , Cleveland Indians , Seattle Pilots , Milwaukee Brewers , Boston Red Sox , California Angels , Oakland Athletics , and the Baltimore Orioles .-High School...
(1970). He was also the second player in Brewers' history to have two 20-steals/20-homers seasons, joining Corey Hart. He became the first Brewer to post three 100-run, 100-RBI seasons. In addition, he became one of three Brewers who have had four 100-RBI seasons, joining Cecil Cooper and Prince Fielder.
Through 2011, he was third among active ballplayers in career slugging percentage (.563), behind Pujols and Alex Rodriguez, and first among left fielders in career fielding percentage (.994). He was also the Brewers' all-time leader in career batting average (.312), slugging percentage, and OPS (.933), and fourth in on base percentage (.371).
In the 2011 playoffs, through October 14 Braun set the major league post-season record by reaching base in the first inning in nine consecutive playoff games. He also tied Yount and Molitor for the Brewers' team record with his 22nd career post-season hit, and tied Charlie Moore
Charlie Moore
Charles William Moore Jr. , is a former professional baseball player who played in the Major Leagues primarily as a catcher and outfielder from 1973-1987...
for team's longest post-season hitting streak, at 7 games. In the post-season he led the Brewers with a .405 batting average, while driving in a team-best 10 RBIs.
Braun was awarded the 2011 NL Outfielder Silver Slugger Award, winning it for the fourth year in a row. That was a Brewers record, and he became the fourth National League outfielder to win the award four years in a row, joining Barry Bonds
Barry Bonds
Barry Lamar Bonds is an American former Major League Baseball outfielder. Bonds played from 1986 to 2007, for the Pittsburgh Pirates and San Francisco Giants. He is the son of former major league All-Star Bobby Bonds...
(who did it twice, from 1990–1994 and 2000–04), Dale Murphy
Dale Murphy
Dale Bryan Murphy is a former Major League Baseball outfielder and first baseman. During an 18-year baseball career, 1976–1993, he played for three different teams, but is noted for his time with the Atlanta Braves...
(1982–85), and Sammy Sosa
Sammy Sosa
Samuel Peralta "Sammy" Sosa is a Dominican former professional baseball right fielder. Sosa played with four Major League Baseball teams over his career which spanned from 1989-2007....
(1998–2002). He was named the team's 2011 MVP in unanimous voting by the Milwaukee chapter of the BBWAA.
On November 22, Braun was named the NL MVP award winner for the 2011 season, receiving 20 of 32 first place votes.
Hitting
Braun has the ability to hit for average and significant power. His fluid swing is compact and short, with tremendous bat speed and a protracted follow-through, and he is a pull hitterPull hitter
In baseball, a pull hitter is a batter who usually hits the ball to the side of the field from which he bats. For example, a right-handed pull hitter, who bats from the third-base side of the plate, will usually hit the ball to the third-base side of the field, termed "left field" according to the...
with strong wrists. Braun waits well on offspeed pitches, and uses the entire field. He drives the ball, no matter where it is in the strike zone. Brewers hitting coach Jim Skaalen observed: "He's got tremendously quick hands and really hits through the ball. He stays on the ball as well as anyone we've got."
Speed
In addition, his speed garnered him comparisons to New York YankeesNew 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...
third baseman Alex Rodriguez
Alex Rodriguez
Alexander Emmanuel "Alex" Rodriguez is an American professional baseball third baseman with the New York Yankees of Major League Baseball. Known popularly by his nickname A-Rod, he previously played shortstop for the Seattle Mariners and the Texas Rangers.Rodriguez is considered one of the best...
. Braun has been timed at 4.2 seconds to first base from the right side of the plate. In spring training in 2007, he was second-fastest in the Brewers' 60-yard dash.
Third base
A shortstop most of his life and in college, Braun was inconsistent on defense after switching to third base in 2006. However, he was noted for his athleticism, his occasional web gems, and particularly for his powerful throwing arm, which was rated the best infield arm in the Brewers' minor league system by Baseball America in early 2007. Braun was charged with 34 errors in 2006, the majority on throws. "It's a matter of proper footwork," said Ash in early 2007. "Most of his problems come because he relies on his arm, which is very strong."While Yost removed Braun from a number of games in September 2007 for defense, he praised Braun for his improvements. "The great thing about it is it doesn't involve throwing at all now," said Yost, referring to Braun's biggest issue in the spring. "It involves first-step quickness to the ball, which will increase his range. [He needs to] soften his hands a little bit. [His] hand-eye coordination to the ball needs to be a little better. That comes with repetition, repetition, repetition." Braun finished 2007 last of all eligible third basemen in fielding percentage (.895, with 26 errors; only the fourth third baseman since 1916 to play 100 games or more in a season and have a fielding percentage under .900), range factor (2.11), and zone rating (.697). His target at first base was Prince Fielder, who finished 2007 last of all eligible major league first basemen in range factor (8.49), and first in errors (14). Similarly, his target at second base, Rickie Weeks
Rickie Weeks
Rickie Darnell Weeks is a Major League Baseball second baseman for the Milwaukee Brewers....
, had the lowest fielding percentage of all NL second basemen (.976), and the lowest zone rating among all major league second basemen (.737).
It was suggested that it was possible that Braun would learn to play the position adequately, given that David Wright (who tied for the major league lead in errors by a third baseman in 2005 (his second in the league) in 2007 became a "passable defender" (and won the NL Gold Glove at third base).
Braun, for his part, noted after the 2007 season: "It's only my second full (professional) year of playing third base. I don't expect to be perfect, but I certainly expect to be better than I have been. I have to continue to work hard, and hopefully I'll improve."
Left field
In January 2008, however, the Brewers acquired three-time Gold GloveRawlings Gold Glove Award
The Rawlings Gold Glove Award, usually referred to as the Gold Glove, is the award given annually to the Major League Baseball players judged to have exhibited superior individual fielding performances at each fielding position in both the National League and the American League , as voted by the...
-winning center fielder Mike Cameron
Mike Cameron
Michael Terrance Cameron is an American professional baseball outfielder who is currently a free agent. He has previously played for the Chicago White Sox, Cincinnati Reds, Seattle Mariners, New York Mets, San Diego Padres, Milwaukee Brewers, Boston Red Sox, and Florida Marlins.Cameron has won 3...
, prompting the team to move center fielder Bill Hall to third base and Braun to left field.
Before the news broke, Braun was taking ground balls at Pepperdine University
Pepperdine University
Pepperdine University is an independent, private, medium-sized university affiliated with the Churches of Christ. The university's campus overlooking the Pacific Ocean in unincorporated Los Angeles County, California, United States, near Malibu, is the location for Seaver College, the School of...
near Los Angeles. General Manager Doug Melvin
Doug Melvin
Douglas Robert Melvin is a Canadian front office executive in Major League Baseball who currently serves as the general manager of the Milwaukee Brewers of the National League...
left him a voicemail, and after returning the call and learning of the team's plans Braun grabbed his outfield glove, and started taking fly balls. Braun supported the switch. "[The outfield glove] is not broken in yet, but it will get there. I feel like I'm a good enough athlete and have a good enough work ethic to make the transition pretty easily."
While Braun's outfield experience until then had consisted of "two games in center field my freshman year in high school," Braun had speed, arm strength that would make him stand out against other left fielders, and athleticism to make the transition. Early reports were good, as in spring training in 2008 he showed an ability to cover ground, go back on the ball, to his left into the gap, and to his right to cut off balls down the line. Braun looked good tracking liners and high fly balls, and took good routes when cutting off balls down the line or in the gap, holding batters to singles. In March 2008 Manager Ned Yost said that Braun has been "spectacular" in left, and "he's got an opportunity one day to win a Gold Glove in left field. He certainly does."
In July, by which time Braun was being mentioned in the press as a Gold Glove candidate, Ed Sedar
Ed Sedar
Edward Joseph Sedar is a Major League Baseball third base coach for the Milwaukee Brewers. He previously served as the first base coach for the Brewers from 2007 to 2010.-Biography:...
, the Brewers' outfield defense expert, said: "He probably has the best arm in baseball in left field. He can cover more ground than 90% of the outfielders out there."
In 2008, Braun led all major league outfielders with a 1.000 fielding percentage. He also led all NL left fielders in putouts (275), and was second in the league in range factor
Range Factor
Range Factor is a baseball statistic developed by Bill James. It is calculated by dividing putouts and assists by number of innings or games played at a given defense position...
(1.95) and fourth in assists (9), in 1,310.1 innings.
On May 23, 2009, Braun was charged with his first error ever in 190 games in left field, when his throw to third was not caught by either Bill Hall or Craig Counsell
Craig Counsell
Craig John Counsell is a Major League Baseball infielder.Counsell grew up in Whitefish Bay, Wisconsin, and attended Whitefish Bay High School, where he played baseball. His father worked for the Milwaukee Brewers...
, one of whom should have caught it according to Manager Ken Macha
Ken Macha
Kenneth Edward Macha is a former Major League Baseball third baseman and manager. During an 8-year managing career, he managed the Oakland Athletics , whom he guided to the American League's Western Division championship in both his first and final seasons with the team, and the Milwaukee Brewers...
, but both of whom were confused as to who was covering the base. In July 2009, ESPNs Jon Heyman wrote that Braun had "become a terrific left fielder in no time". Braun led all NL left fielders in 2009 with a .994 fielding percentage. He also led them in putouts (304) and range factor (2.06), was tied for the lead in double plays (2), and was third in assists (8), in 1,364 innings.
In 2010, Braun led NL left fielders in putouts for the third year in a row (279), was second in range factor per game (1.86), and 4th in assists (6).
Jewish heritage
Braun's father Joe, most of whose side of the family perished in the Holocaust, was born in IsraelIsrael
The State of Israel is a parliamentary republic located in the Middle East, along the eastern shore of the Mediterranean Sea...
. His father immigrated to the United States at age seven. His father is Jewish and his mother is Catholic.
Braun said "I am Jewish," and "I'm extremely proud to be a role model for young Jewish kids." "It's something I'm really proud of. But I don't want to make it into something more than what it is. I didn't have a Bar Mitzvah.... I didn't celebrate the holidays." He reiterated: "It's something that draws a lot of interest and something I take pride in."
His nickname is "The Hebrew Hammer," which references his Jewish heritage, former Milwaukee star Hank Aaron (whose nickname was "Hammerin' Hank"), and the movie The Hebrew Hammer
The Hebrew Hammer
The Hebrew Hammer is a 2003 American film directed by Jonathan Kesselman. It stars Adam Goldberg, Judy Greer, Andy Dick, Mario Van Peebles, and Peter Coyote...
, starring Adam Goldberg
Adam Goldberg
Adam Charles Goldberg is an American actor, director, producer, and musician.-Early life:Goldberg was born in Santa Monica, California, the son of Donna and Earl Goldberg, a former lifeguard. His father is Jewish and his mother is a "lapsed" Roman Catholic of Irish, French, and German descent...
. It is also the nickname of former teammate Gabe Kapler
Gabe Kapler
Gabriel "Gabe" Stefan Kapler is an American Major League Baseball outfielder.He has played portions of 13 seasons with the Detroit Tigers, Texas Rangers, Colorado Rockies, Boston Red Sox, Milwaukee Brewers, and the Tampa Bay Rays...
, and was a nickname for former All-Stars Al Rosen
Al Rosen
Albert Leonard Rosen , nicknamed "Al", "Flip", and the "Hebrew Hammer", is a former American professional baseball player who was a third baseman and right-handed slugger in the Major Leagues for ten seasons in tthe 1940s and 1950s.He played his entire 10-year career with the Cleveland Indians in...
and Hank Greenberg
Hank Greenberg
Henry Benjamin "Hank" Greenberg , nicknamed "Hammerin' Hank" or "The Hebrew Hammer," was an American professional baseball player in the 1930s and 1940s. A first baseman primarily for the Detroit Tigers, Greenberg was one of the premier power hitters of his generation...
.
Braun is one of the highest-drafted Jewish ballplayers in the history of professional baseball. 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...
made Ron Blomberg
Ron Blomberg
Ronald Mark Blomberg , nicknamed Boomer, is a former Major League Baseball designated hitter, first baseman, and right fielder...
the number one pick in the 1967 draft. Braun was considered the best Jewish minor league baseball prospect in 2006, and became major league baseball's first Jewish Rookie of the Year the following season. In each of 2007 and 2008, Braun hit more home runs (34 and 37) than all but 3 of the top 10 career Jewish home run hitters had hit in their best seasons. Only Hank Greenberg
Hank Greenberg
Henry Benjamin "Hank" Greenberg , nicknamed "Hammerin' Hank" or "The Hebrew Hammer," was an American professional baseball player in the 1930s and 1940s. A first baseman primarily for the Detroit Tigers, Greenberg was one of the premier power hitters of his generation...
(58), Shawn Green
Shawn Green
Shawn David Green is a former Major League Baseball player.Green was a 1st round draft pick and a two-time major league All-Star...
(49), and Al Rosen
Al Rosen
Albert Leonard Rosen , nicknamed "Al", "Flip", and the "Hebrew Hammer", is a former American professional baseball player who was a third baseman and right-handed slugger in the Major Leagues for ten seasons in tthe 1940s and 1950s.He played his entire 10-year career with the Cleveland Indians in...
(43) hit more in a single year. Through the 2010 season, he was 2nd on the all-time career list in batting average (behind Hank Greenberg), 7th in home runs (behind Mike Epstein
Mike Epstein
Michael Peter Epstein , nicknamed SuperJew, is a former Major League Baseball player for the Baltimore Orioles, Washington Senators, Oakland Athletics, Texas Rangers, and California Angels from –....
), and 10th on the RBI list (behind Kevin Youkilis
Kevin Youkilis
Kevin Edmund Youkilis , also known as "Youk" , is an American professional baseball player with the Boston Red Sox of Major League Baseball...
), for Jewish major leaguers.
"Braun" was, coincidentally, the family name of Sandy Koufax
Sandy Koufax
Sanford "Sandy" Koufax is a former left-handed baseball pitcher who played his entire 12-year Major League Baseball career for the Brooklyn/Los Angeles Dodgers...
, until his mother remarried and he took his stepfather's name. "There's no [family] connection that I know of," Braun said, "but it's kind of cool." In another coincidence, Braun lived for a time with his maternal grandfather in a house that previously belonged to Jewish Hall of Fame
Hall of Fame
A hall of fame, wall of fame, walk of fame, walk of stars or avenue of stars is a type of attraction established for any field of endeavor to honor individuals of noteworthy achievement in that field...
outfielder Hank Greenberg
Hank Greenberg
Henry Benjamin "Hank" Greenberg , nicknamed "Hammerin' Hank" or "The Hebrew Hammer," was an American professional baseball player in the 1930s and 1940s. A first baseman primarily for the Detroit Tigers, Greenberg was one of the premier power hitters of his generation...
. Braun's grandfather has lived in the house for over 40 years.
In December 2007, Braun was the only Jewish athlete invited by President George W. Bush
George W. Bush
George Walker Bush is an American politician who served as the 43rd President of the United States, from 2001 to 2009. Before that, he was the 46th Governor of Texas, having served from 1995 to 2000....
to the annual Hanukkah
Hanukkah
Hanukkah , also known as the Festival of Lights, is an eight-day Jewish holiday commemorating the rededication of the Holy Temple in Jerusalem at the time of the Maccabean Revolt of the 2nd century BCE...
Dinner at the White House
White House
The White House is the official residence and principal workplace of the president of the United States. Located at 1600 Pennsylvania Avenue NW in Washington, D.C., the house was designed by Irish-born James Hoban, and built between 1792 and 1800 of white-painted Aquia sandstone in the Neoclassical...
, where he talked baseball with the President. Braun was later featured in the 2008 Hank Greenberg 75th Anniversary edition of Jewish Major Leaguers Baseball Cards, published in affiliation with Fleer
Fleer
The Fleer Corporation, founded by Frank H. Fleer in 1885, was the first company to successfully manufacture bubblegum; it remained a family-owned enterprise until it was taken private in 1989....
Trading Cards and the American Jewish Historical Society
American Jewish Historical Society
The American Jewish Historical Society was founded in 1892 with the mission to foster awareness and appreciation of the American Jewish heritage and to serve as a national scholarly resource for research through the collection, preservation and dissemination of materials relating to American...
, commemorating the Jewish Major Leaguers from 1871 through 2008. He joined, among other Jewish major leaguers, Brad Ausmus
Brad Ausmus
Bradley David "Brad" Ausmus is a former All Star catcher in Major League Baseball, and currently a special assistant for the San Diego Padres....
, Youkilis, Ian Kinsler
Ian Kinsler
Ian Michael Kinsler is a Major League Baseball All-Star second baseman for the Texas Rangers.Despite having been drafted in only the 17th round out of college, Kinsler has risen to become a two-time All Star, and a member of the Sporting News 2009 list of the 50 greatest current players in baseball...
, Brian Horwitz
Brian Horwitz
Brian Jeffery Horwitz, nicknamed "The Rabbi," is an American baseball outfielder who is currently a free agent. He has won two minor league batting titles, and made his major league debut in 2008....
, Gabe Kapler
Gabe Kapler
Gabriel "Gabe" Stefan Kapler is an American Major League Baseball outfielder.He has played portions of 13 seasons with the Detroit Tigers, Texas Rangers, Colorado Rockies, Boston Red Sox, Milwaukee Brewers, and the Tampa Bay Rays...
, Jason Marquis
Jason Marquis
Jason Scott Marquis is an American professional baseball pitcher who is a free agent. He previously pitched for the Atlanta Braves, St. Louis Cardinals, Chicago Cubs, Colorado Rockies, Washington Nationals and Arizona Diamondbacks....
, Ike Davis
Ike Davis
Isaac Benjamin "Ike" Davis is a Major League Baseball first baseman for the New York Mets. He and his father Ron Davis, who pitched in the majors for 11 years, are the 197th father-son combination to have both played in the major leagues.He led his high school team to three straight Arizona state...
, Jason Hirsh
Jason Hirsh
Jason Michael Hirsh is a starting pitcher in Major League Baseball who is a free agent.Hirsh was a dominant minor league pitcher in 2005–06, winning the Double-A Texas League Pitcher of the Year Award and the Triple-A Pacific Coast League Pitcher of the Year Award in successive seasons, as he went...
, John Grabow
John Grabow
John William Grabow, nicknamed "Grabes" , is a Major League Baseball left-handed reliever....
, Craig Breslow
Craig Breslow
Craig Andrew Breslow is a Major League Baseball relief pitcher for the Oakland Athletics. He throws left-handed, and is considered a lefty specialist....
, Scott Feldman
Scott Feldman
Scott Feldman was a news anchor for News 12 Long Island for 22 years.-Early life:Feldman was born in St. Louis, Missouri, graduated from the University of Denver in 1971. He served in the U.S. Army Reserves and National Guard....
, and Scott Schoeneweis
Scott Schoeneweis
Scott David Schoeneweis is an American Major League Baseball left-handed relief pitcher who is currently a free agent.In the five seasons from 2003–07, Schoeneweis allowed only one home run to left-handed batters...
. Braun was one of three Jewish players in the 2008 All-Star Game, joining Kinsler and Youkilis, and one of three Jewish players on the Team USA 2009 World Baseball Classic
World Baseball Classic
The World Baseball Classic is an international baseball tournament sanctioned by the International Baseball Federation and created by Major League Baseball , the Major League Baseball Players Association , and other professional baseball leagues and their players associations around the world...
team, joining Youkilis and Grabow. He and Feldman were voted the 2009 co-Jewish MVP by Jewish Major Leaguers, and he was voted the 2010 Jewish MVP as Breslow received the Most Valuable Jewish Pitcher honors. "There aren't too many Jewish athletes at the highest level," said Braun. "It's something that I certainly embrace."
Braun was inducted into the Southern California Jewish Sports Hall of Fame in January 2010.
In 2011, Braun became the fourth self-identifying Jewish player, and the first in nearly a half-century, to win the Most Valuable Player Award, after Greenberg (1935 and 1940), Rosen (1953), and Koufax (1963).
Family
He is also the cousins of Hannah and Blair Braun. Braun's younger brother, middle infielder Steve Braun, played for the University of Maryland, College ParkUniversity of Maryland, College Park
The University of Maryland, College Park is a top-ranked public research university located in the city of College Park in Prince George's County, Maryland, just outside Washington, D.C...
. He signed with the Brewers in 2008 as a free agent
Free agent
In professional sports, a free agent is a player whose contract with a team has expired and who is thus eligible to sign with another club or franchise....
, and in 2009 was on the roster of the Brewers' low-A affiliate, the Wisconsin Timber Rattlers
Wisconsin Timber Rattlers
The Wisconsin Timber Rattlers are a minor league baseball team of the Midwest League, and the Class A affiliate of the Milwaukee Brewers. They are located in Grand Chute, Wisconsin, and are named for timber rattlesnakes. The team plays its home games at Time Warner Cable Field at Fox Cities Stadium...
.
Pursuits outside baseball
Braun developed his own signature fashion t-shirtT-shirt
A T-shirt is a style of shirt. A T-shirt is buttonless and collarless, with short sleeves and frequently a round neck line....
line for Affliction Clothing
Affliction Clothing
Affliction Clothing is an American clothing manufacturer based in Seal Beach, California. It is owned by Affliction Inc., which ran a mixed martial arts promotion, Affliction Entertainment.- History :Affliction was launched in August 2005...
, a California-based clothing manufacturer owned by friends of his which manufactures shirts that are garment dyed and hand distressed. In August 2008, he filmed a YouTube
YouTube
YouTube is a video-sharing website, created by three former PayPal employees in February 2005, on which users can upload, view and share videos....
video with supermodel
Supermodel
The term supermodel refers to a highly-paid fashion model who usually has a worldwide reputation and often a background in haute couture and commercial modeling. The term became prominent in the popular culture of the 1980s. Supermodels usually work for top fashion designers and labels...
Marisa Miller
Marisa Miller
Marisa Lee Miller is an American model best known for her appearances in the Sports Illustrated Swimsuit Issues and her work for lingerie retailer Victoria's Secret. After a stint shooting with photographer Mario Testino for fashion magazines like Vogue, Miller began working for both companies in...
for Remington
Remington Products
Remington Products, commonly known as simply Remington, is a worldwide personal care corporation which manufactures razors , epilators, and haircare products for both men and women. It is a subsidiary of Spectrum Brands.-History:...
's ShortCut clippers. And in October 2008, Apple released a commercial for a new iPhone
IPhone
The iPhone is a line of Internet and multimedia-enabled smartphones marketed by Apple Inc. The first iPhone was unveiled by Steve Jobs, then CEO of Apple, on January 9, 2007, and released on June 29, 2007...
, that showed a clip of Braun's 10th inning walk-off grand slam against the Pittsburgh Pirates on September 25, 2008, which kept the Brewers' Wild Card
Wild card (sports)
The term wild card refers broadly to a tournament or playoff berth awarded to an individual or team that has not qualified through normal play.-International sports:...
hopes alive. Gatorade
Gatorade
Gatorade is a brand of sports-themed food and beverage products, built around its signature product: a line of sports drinks. Gatorade is currently manufactured by PepsiCo, distributed in over 80 countries...
used the same clip in its November 2008 "League of Clutch" commercial.
He has also signed endorsement deals with CytoSport
CytoSport
CytoSport is a Benicia, California, manufacturer of sports-oriented nutritional products, or "supplements". It offers a line of protein-enhanced powders, shakes, and bars has broken into the mainstream market with a ready-to-drink form of protein supplement "Muscle Milk", a non-dairy beverage...
, a supplement maker, Nike
Nike, Inc.
Nike, Inc. is a major publicly traded sportswear and equipment supplier based in the United States. The company is headquartered near Beaverton, Oregon, which is part of the Portland metropolitan area...
, Wilson
Wilson Sporting Goods
The Wilson Sporting Goods Company is a sports equipment manufacturer based in Chicago, Illinois, and currently is a foreign subsidiary of the Finnish company Amer Sports....
, Mikita Sports for autographs and memorabilia, Sam Bat, and AirTran Airways
AirTran Airways
AirTran Airways, a subsidiary of the Dallas, Texas-based Southwest Airlines, is an American low-cost airline headquartered in Orlando, Florida. AirTran operates over 650 daily flights , primarily in the eastern and midwestern United States...
, and is working on his own line of aluminum bats. He has appeared in commercials for Muscle Milk
CytoSport
CytoSport is a Benicia, California, manufacturer of sports-oriented nutritional products, or "supplements". It offers a line of protein-enhanced powders, shakes, and bars has broken into the mainstream market with a ready-to-drink form of protein supplement "Muscle Milk", a non-dairy beverage...
, Dick's Sporting Goods
Dick's Sporting Goods
Dick's Sporting Goods, Inc. , or Dick's, is a Fortune 500 American corporation in the sporting goods and retail industries.The company's headquarters are on the grounds of Pittsburgh International Airport in Findlay Township near Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania. Dick's has 451 stores in 42 states as of...
, and regional convenience store
Convenience store
A convenience store, corner store, corner shop, commonly called a bodega in Spanish-speaking areas of the United States, is a small store or shop in a built up area that stocks a range of everyday items such as groceries, toiletries, alcoholic and soft drinks, and may also offer money order and...
chain Kwik Trip
Kwik Trip
Kwik Trip/Kwik Star is a chain of convenience stores founded in 1965 with locations throughout Wisconsin and Minnesota under the name Kwik Trip, and in northeast Iowa under the name Kwik Star . The company also operates stores under the name Hearty Platter and Tobacco Outlet Plus. Kwik Trip, Inc...
. Braun turned down a request by ABC
American Broadcasting Company
The American Broadcasting Company is an American commercial broadcasting television network. Created in 1943 from the former NBC Blue radio network, ABC is owned by The Walt Disney Company and is part of Disney-ABC Television Group. Its first broadcast on television was in 1948...
that he appear on the TV show "The Bachelor".
Also in 2010, Braun opened two restaurants in Wisconsin, Ryan Braun's Waterfront in Milwaukee's Historic Third Ward and Ryan Braun's Tavern & Grill in Lake Geneva. In late 2010, Braun's Milwaukee location closed for remodeling and to upgrade its menu before re-opening in April 2011 as Ryan Braun's Graffito, an Italian restaurant.
See also
- List of select Jewish Major League Baseball players
External links
- Nashville Sounds bio
- BR Bullpen profile
- ArmchairGM Profile
- "Baseball America Freshman of the Year, 2003, Ryan Braun" June 16, 2003
- Ryan Braun (Nashville Sounds) Interview The Brew Crew Review, April 2007
- "Adam Carolla Interviews Braun – Jim Rome Is BurningJim Rome is BurningJim Rome Is Burning, originally titled Rome Is Burning and often abbreviated as JRIB, is a sports conversation and opinion show hosted by Jim Rome. Debuting on May 6, 2003 as Rome Is Burning, it was originally a once a week show in primetime at 7:00 PM ET on Tuesday nights on ESPN...
," August 2007 - "Ryan Braun Goes For Rookie Slugging Record," August 23, 2007