The San Francisco Giants have an infrequent yet strong connection to St. John's and this bond was renewed in the 2011 MLB Draft when the team drafted shortstop Joe Panik of the Red Storm in the first round. The most famous St. John's alumnus to don the orange and black is Rich Aurilia.
Born in Brooklyn, Aurilia was a baseball star at St. John's and was later drafted by the Texas Rangers. In 1994, he was traded to the Giants for Burkett and would go on to become the everyday shortstop. Aurilia would end up playing most of his career for the Giants with the exception of three seasons of his 15 year career. His biggest year came in the infamous year of the home run and probably overshadowed by Bonds' 73 home run record. In 2001, Aurilia hit .324 with 37 HR's and 97 RBI's. Let's hope that Panik can follow in his footsteps.
Even though Panik is listed as a shortstop it now seems less likely that he will remain one with the emergence of Brandon Crawford. In a couple years Panik may be the second basemen for the post-Sanchez San Francisco Giants. Here's the scoop on Panik:
He's a native New Yorker and his favorite player is Derek Jeter - we can forgive him for being a Yankees fan. Here are his stats from his junior year at St. John's:
BA .398 OBP .509 SLG .642 HR 10 2B 19 3B 3 RBI 57
Here is a St. John's Baseball video of their journey to the NCAA tourney. Panik is #2.
No comments:
Post a Comment