Does it get any funner than five fun facts about Mark Grudzielanek? The five fun facts about Gobble and Sanders were fun, but Grudz takes it to the next level. A level akin to what Phil Collins describes in the Take Me Home video.
1. Mark Grudzielanek was born in Milwaukee in 1970. According to baseball-reference 229 major leaguers have been born in Wisconsin, including a large number from Wisconsin's shining jewel. Fellow Milwaukeeans include: Ken Keltner, Bob Uecker and our boy Joe Randa.
2. Grudz has played in 1570 games since his debut in 1995. With any luck, Grudz will move into the Top 500 in baseball history in terms of games played this season (#500 is former Kansas City Blues player Billy Hamilton at 1591 games between 1888-1901). Grudz currently stands alone at #523, one game behind 1980s Astro Kevin Bass and three games ahead of 1980s Ranger/Mariner Pete O'Brien. Grudz is only 13 games behind Darryl Strawberry... I'm not sure what that says, but it says something.
3. Grudzielanek stole 33 bases in 1996 and 25 in 1997 (both in Montreal), but has only stolen more than more than 8 bases in a season once since 1998. He don't run much anymore.
4. Mark's first career homer came on May 16, 1995 against the Cincinnati Reds, a solo blast in the 3rd inning against Kevin Jarvis. Reggie Sanders hit cleanup for the Reds that day, going 1-3 with a walk and a run scored.
5. Grudzielanek finished 27th in the 2003 National League MVP voting, picking up 3 points.