Juan Encarnación
Outfielder
Born: (1976-03-08) March 8, 1976 (age 36) Las Matas de Farfán, Dominican Republic
Batted: Right	Threw: Right
MLB debut
September 2, 1997 for the Detroit Tigers
Last MLB appearance
August 31, 2007 for the St. Louis Cardinals
Career statistics
Batting average	.270
Home runs	156
Runs batted in	667
Teams
Detroit Tigers (1997–2001) Cincinnati Reds (2002) Florida Marlins (2002–2003) Los Angeles Dodgers (2004) Florida Marlins (2004–2005) St. Louis Cardinals (2006–2007)
Career highlights and awards
2× World Series champion (2003, 2006)

Juan De Dios Encarnación (born March 8, 1976, in Las Matas de Farfan, Dominican Republic) is a former Major League Baseball outfielder. His last major league team was the St. Louis Cardinals. Encarnación suffered a career-ending injury after getting hit in the eye by a foul ball on August 31, 2007.

Early career[link]

Encarnación was signed by the Detroit Tigers as an amateur free agent in 1992, at age 17, and made his Major League debut in 1997 at age 21 for the Tigers. He was the fourth youngest player in the AL that year. Encarnación played for the Tigers until 2002, when he was traded and had his best season as a Cincinnati Red and Florida Marlin, hitting a career-high 24 home runs and driving in 85 runs. In 2003 he had 94 RBI as well as a team-leading 37 doubles on the way to a World Series ring with Florida, then was traded to the Los Angeles Dodgers in December of that year. He was traded back to Florida midway through the 2004 season along with Paul Lo Duca and Guillermo Mota for Brad Penny, Bill Murphy, and Hee Seop Choi after hitting a disappointing .235 in 86 games. Encarnación bounced back with a solid year in 2005, batting .287 with 16 homers and 76 runs batted in. He was also on the roster for the Dominican team in the inaugural World Baseball Classic.^[1] Encarnación signed a three-year contract with St. Louis on December 23, 2005, worth $15 million.^[2]

2006 season[link]

Encarnación finished the 2006 season, his first with the Cardinals, batting .278 with 19 home runs and 79 RBI for the Cards, with 6 steals. He led the Cardinals in games played (153) and at bats (557), was third in runs scored (74), second in hits (155), fourth in doubles (25), tied for first with Aaron Miles in triples (5), tied for fourth with Jim Edmonds in home runs (19), third in RBI (79), third in total bases (247), tied for eighth with Chris Duncan in walks (30), third in strikeouts (86), sixth in steals (6), second in caught stealing (5), 11th in on-base percentage (.317), sixth in slugging average (.443), and seventh in batting average (.278). He also had 265 put-outs, 4 assists, and 6 errors in 275 total chances, for a .978 fielding percentage.^[3]

In the playoffs he was 8-for-44 (.182) with two triples and five RBI. He hit an RBI triple in Game 4 of the NLDS which turned out to be the game-winner, as the Cardinals went on to beat the Padres, 6–4, winning the series. However, he struggled the rest of the postseason and sat the final 3 games of the World Series, in which the Cardinals defeated the Detroit Tigers, 4 games to 1. Encarnación confused many fans when he, without explanation, did not appear at the Cardinals' World Series victory parade. This marked the second time he has won a World Series but skipped the victory parade with the winning team; he also skipped the 2003 Florida Marlins World Series victory parade. It was later known that he went back to his home in Dominican Republic right after the World Series to tend to a matter with his son.^[4]

2007 season[link]

The 2007 season marked Encarnación's tenth in the Majors and his second with the Cardinals. Before the season, he had surgery on his left wrist, and was not ready for opening day. He started the year on the 15-day disabled list.^[5] Juan rehabbed first in Florida at extended Spring Training, homering twice in three games. He did not appear in any games during regular Spring Training. Next, Encarnación had a rehabilitation assignment at Double-A Springfield.^[6] He batted just .155 (9-for-58) with 4 doubles and 4 runs batted in during the assignment. He returned to the Cardinals on Mother's Day, May 13, playing right field vs. San Diego, going 0-for-3. From May 30 to June 18, Encarnación had an 18-game hitting streak, just one short of his career-high of 19, which he set in 2000. He lost some playing time after the emergence of pitcher-turned outfielder Rick Ankiel.

Eye Injury[link]

On August 31, Encarnación was struck in the face by a foul ball hit by teammate Aaron Miles while he was on the on-deck circle. Encarnación suffered multiple fractures to his left eye socket and an injury to his left eye and missed the remainder of the 2007 season.^[7]

The injury was regarded by the Cardinals' head team physician, Dr. George Paletta, to be the worst injury he'd ever seen to the face on a baseball player. Paletta said the eye socket was essentially crushed on impact, comparing the injured area to the disintegration of an egg shell or ice cream cone, and that the optic nerve had sustained severe trauma. Paletta also said the eyeball had not been ruptured.^[8]

2008 season[link]

On January 16, 2008 it was reported that he would miss the entire 2008 season, and the future of his career was in serious jeopardy.^[9]

On May 2, 2008, during a web chat hosted by MLB and the St. Louis Cardinals for fans to talk with the team's new general manager, John Mozeliak, a question was asked regarding the possibility of Encarnación returning to the team. Mozeliak stated "I'm sorry to say that he will not. His injury will likely result in his career ending." ^[10]

On November 10, 2008, Juan filed for free agency, ending his tenure with the Cardinals.

Life after baseball[link]

In July of 2009, a Dominican news organization reported that Encarnación was organizing a run to become a senator in the Dominican Republic, representing his home province of San Juan de la Maguana.^[11] The St. Louis Post-Dispatch later reported that the Dominican rumors were unsubstantiated and without merit, and Juan had instead been working heavily on his charity, the Juan Encarnacion Foundation. On Feb 7, 2011 Juan inaugurated the National Campaign Headquarters in San Juan de la Maguana of his independent Political Movement, M-12 in support of the PRD Party's Presidential Candidate Miguel Vargas Maldonado in 2012. Vargas Maldonado was present personally to support these efforts and to take juramentation of Juan's National Diplomatic team. He has National presence with 32 different affiliates in each Province in the Dominican Republic. Juan also is the leader of the National Sports Committee for Miguel Vargas' Presidential Project as part of the National Board of Director of Independent Movements with Miguel.^[12]

Records[link]

• Had two career best 19-game hitting streaks in 2000 with Detroit.^[13]
• In 2003, was one of just three outfielders without an error, along with Milwaukee's Geoff Jenkins and St. Louis' Orlando Palmeiro. He was also the first Marlins outfielder to post a 1.000 fielding percentage in their history.
• His stint of 227 errorless games in the outfield was the second-longest streak in baseball behind the Mets' Joe McEwing (228).^[14]
• Hit two grand slams in April 2005 (including one off Atlanta's John Smoltz on Opening Day), and became just the 16th player in history to record grand slams in their first two homers of the season. Encarnación only had one grand slam in his career prior to that.^[15]
• Has 4 career multi-homer games, two of them coming in 2006 with the Cardinals.
• On April 25, 2006, Encarnación fell a single short of a cycle against the Pittsburgh Pirates.^[16]
• His 46 career triples ranked 24th among active players. [2]
• He currently ranks 421st on the all-time home run list (as of 8/13/2011), tied with Ken McMullen and Bob Meusel, with 156 home runs.

Career honors and awards[link]

• 1997 – Southern League All-Star Team (Double-A) (Outfielder)
• 1997 – Double-A All-Star Team (Baseball America)
• 1997 – Southern League All-Star Game Most Valuable Player
• 1997 – Southern League's Best Batting Prospect, Best Outfield Arm, and Most Exciting Player (Baseball America)
• 1997 – One of baseball's Top 10 prospects (Howe Sportsdata)
• 1998 – Detroit's Player of the Month (September)
• 2000 – Detroit's Player of the Month (April)
• 2003 – World Series Champion (Florida Marlins)
• 2006 – World Series Champion (St. Louis Cardinals)

References[link]

External links[link]

• Career statistics and player information from MLB, or ESPN, or Baseball-Reference, or Fangraphs, or The Baseball Cube, or Baseball-Reference (Minors)
• Yahoo! Sports stats and photos from Yahoo! Sports
• Baseball Almanac - career stats
• BaseballLibrary.com - info and biography
• TSN.ca - scouting report, transactions, awards, etc.
• The Juan Encarnacion Foundation

This biographical article needs additional citations for verification. Its only attribution is to IMDb, which may not be a reliable source for biographical information. Please help by adding additional, reliable sources for verification. Contentious material about living persons that is unsourced or poorly sourced must be removed immediately, especially if potentially libelous or harmful. (September 2010)

For the Taoist practitioner, see The Barefoot Doctor.

Stephen Russell is an actor, writer, Theatre Director and voice actor, arguably best known for his voice acting in the Thief computer game series as the protagonist Garrett. He also voiced the character of Karras, Garrett's chief antagonist in Thief II: The Metal Age, as well as voicing many of the supporting characters (such as the guards) in the series. Russell additionally contributed the voice of the starship Von Braun's central computer XERXES and that of William Bedford Diego in Irrational Games' System Shock 2. He has since become a popular figure in both gaming communities. He was also provided the voices of Andy, Mister Buckingham, The Great One, Wadsworth, Sergeant RL-3, Cerberus and All Mr. Handy and Mr. Gutsy for the 2008 game Fallout 3.

A member of the Wellfleet Harbor Actors Theatre (WHAT) since 1987, Russell has been a mainstay on the stage of WHAT for over 20 years and has also acted with the Huntington Theatre Company, New Repertory Theatre, Stoneham Theatre and the Lyric Theatre. He lives and works in Wellfleet and is a proud member of Actors' Equity and the Screen Actors Guild.^[1][2]

Russell made his debut film appearances as Bob, in the 2007 independent film Noëlle and, in 2008 appeared as Luther Norris in the romantic comedy film Chatham. In 2009 played a minor role in the film; The Ghosts of Girlfriends Past.

Also, he did early voicework for the main character in BioShock Infinite, however the official voice actor is now confirmed as Troy Baker.

The fifth installment in the Elder Scrolls series, The Elder Scrolls V: Skyrim, features Russell voicing a range of characters including; Barbas the talking dog, the Daedric Prince Clavicus Vile, and Mercer Frey, the leader of the Thieves Guild.

References[link]

External links[link]

• Stephen Russell at the Internet Movie Database

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