Tony Batista

[William Malone]

Leocadio Francisco Batista Hernandez was born on December 9, 1973 in the Dominican Republic.

He was signed by the Oakland Athletics as an amateur free agent in 1991, making his Major League debut for them in 1996. Over the next decade, Batista would establish himself as a great power hitting infielder. He had four seasons with at least 30 home runs and three seasons with at least 100 RBI. This included career highs of 41 homers and 114 RBI for the Toronto Blue Jays in 2000.

After hitting 31 homers and driving in 100 runs for the Montreal Expos in 2004, Batista had several offers in free agency from Major League clubs. So it came as a shock when he inked a two year, $15 million deal with the Fukuoka SoftBank Hawks of the Japanese Pacific League. There was also a $5 million signing bonus, and he instantly became one of the highest paid players in Japan. But his time overseas didn't go that well. While his statistics were solid, Batista was dubbed "Mr. Nonchalant" by a local beat writer and he was not well received by fans or teammates. His contract was bought out, and he returned to the United States on a one year deal with the Minnesota Twins.

His time with the Twins got off to a great start. Batista homered on Opening Day against Blue Jays ace Roy Halladay. He went deep again a few days later in the Twins home opener, and had a pretty strong month of April. But that was as good as it got, and Batista was released in mid-June after he began to struggle. He played for the Washington Nationals in 2007, which was his final season in the Majors.

Off the field, Batista was both charitable and religious. He often gave thousands of dollars to church donation baskets while on the road in churches he had never been to before. Batista was also known to frequently make himself available for autographs, often times holding up team bus departures because he was still outside signing for fans.

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[ashbury]

If his first name is Leocadio and his middle name is Francisco, how did he get the nickname Tony?