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| Tyrone Woods | |
|---|---|
 Woods with the Chunichi Dragons | |
| First baseman | |
| Born: (1969-08-16)August 16, 1969 (age 55) Brooksville, Florida, U.S. | |
Batted: Right Threw: Right | |
| Professional debut | |
| NPB: March 23, 2003, for the Yokohama BayStars | |
| KBO: 1998, for the OB Bears | |
| Last appearance | |
| NPB: October 25, 2008, for the Chunichi Dragons | |
| KBO: 2002, for the Doosan Bears | |
| NPB statistics | |
| Batting average | .289 |
| Home runs | 240 |
| Runs batted in | 616 |
| KBO statistics | |
| Batting average | .294 |
| Home runs | 174 |
| Runs batted in | 510 |
| Teams | |
| Career highlights and awards | |
NPB
KBO
| |
Walter Tyrone Woods (born August 16, 1969 is an Americanprofessional baseball player. He played five seasons with theKorea Baseball Organization then six further seasons inNippon Professional Baseball, primarily as afirst baseman.
TheMontreal Expos selected Woods in the fifth round of the1988 MLB draft as a high schoolthird baseman. He fielded .882, making 10errors in 32 games for theGCL Expos andbatted just .121. He hit just 2home runs in 149at bats andwalked 7 times whilewhiffing 47 times; he was alsocaught stealing four times in six tries.[citation needed]
Woods was promoted to theJamestown Expos in 1989. In Single-A action, Woods hit .263; he continued to strike out frequently (58 times in 209 AB), but his walks were up (20) and his average and power (9 homers) were also improved.
In 1990, with theRockford Expos, the 20-year-old third baseman hit .242, above the team average of .226. He also led the team indoubles (27), homers (8) and strikeouts (121). HisOBP was .310 and heslugged .363.[citation needed]
Woods made it to High-A in 1991 where he hit just .220 for theWest Palm Beach Expos. He also was moved from third base to theoutfield that year. He hit .291 for Rockford and even stole 15 bases in 21 tries. He hit .286 for West Palm Beach and struck out in 3 of his 4 at-bats in his first Double-A exposure with theHarrisburg Senators.[citation needed]
In 1993, Woods returned to Harrisburg, batting .252. A year later, Woods split the year between Harrisburg (.316) and the Triple-AOttawa Lynx (.224). On November 18, the Expos gave up on Woods and released him.[citation needed] Woods played for theBaltimore Orioles'Rochester Red Wings farm club in 1995, hitting .261 as a 1B/DH/OF.
A year later, Woods was in another system, joining theBoston Red Sox, playing for their Double-A affiliate, theTrenton Thunder, hitting .312, tying for 4th in the league in homers (25) and was among the leaders in average, OBP and slugging.[1]
In 1997, Woods spent his 10th and final season in a United States-based league, hitting .352 for the Triple-APawtucket Red Sox. He homered 9 times and drove in 28 in 29 games but did not play for the parent Boston team.
He also played that year for thePotros de Minatitlán of theMexican League, homering 18 times in 85 games for 27 homers and 101 runs (73 RBIs in 85 games for the Potros). Woods hit .342. His walk total (59) surpassed his K total (49).[citation needed]
1998 found Woods in the KBO,Korea Professional Baseball, where he became the first foreign player to hit a home run and be ejected from a game by an umpire in the league's first year allowing foreign players.[citation needed] Playing for theOB Bears (Doosan Bears), he set a KBO record with 42 homers and became the first foreign player to win theMVP award.[citation needed] Two years later, he hit .315 with 39 homers and 111 RBIs and lost the home run race by one toPark Kyung-wan. In 2001, he won MVP honors in the All-Star game, playoffs and theKorean Series, in which he blasted four homers in six games for Doosan. In 2002, Woods hit just .256; he struck out 123 times in 407 at-bats though he did hit 25 homers. In five years in Korea, he hit 174 homers, drove in 510 runs and batted .294. Woods left Korea with the longest career of any foreign player in KBO history until 2005, whenJay Davis broke his mark.[2]He was nominated for one of the 40 KBO legends, the votes were cast by fans and reporters. He was nominated as the 40 out of the 40 legends.[3]
In 2003, Woods signed with theYokohama BayStars, hitting .273 and tied for the home run lead withAlex Ramirez with 40. He was 6th in theCentral League in slugging, 4th in walks (66) and 5th in RBIs (87) though he also led the league with 132 K's. Woods became the first man to lead a league in homers in both Korea and Japan.[citation needed]
Woods improved in his second year with Yokohama, hitting .298. He made theBest Nine at first base, tiedTuffy Rhodes for the home run lead with 45, was third in walks (74) and tied for third in RBIs (103). He was also 5th in slugging and 4th in OBP and OPS. He struck out 142 times, ranking him third in that category.[citation needed]
After the 2004 season, he signed with the defending CL championChunichi Dragons and hit .306 with 38 homers. He was third inOPS and homers, 5th in slugging, 4th in OBP, tied for 4th with 103 RBIs and ground into the mostdouble plays (24) as the Dragons' 1B and cleanup hitter. Woods missed 10 games due to a suspension he served after charging the mound whenShugo Fujii threw high and inside during an at bat. Woods was also fined 500,000 yen. It was the harshest penalty given to any player in Japan in five years.[citation needed]
After the 2005 season was completed, Woods had hit 421 homers in his pro career.[citation needed]
In 2006, Woods put together an MVP caliber season by batting .310 with a league-leading 47 homers and 144 RBIs. However, the MVP award that season went to his teammate,Kosuke Fukudome. To clinch the title for Chunichi, he hitgrand slams in back-to-back games, the first Central Leaguer to do so sinceFumio Fujimura 53 years earlier. He also set a new team record for home runs. He played for the Dragons until 2008.
In addition to playing baseball, Woods worked for a time for theBrooksville Fire Department in Florida.[citation needed]