Jeff Pierce

Jeffrey Charles Pierce (born June 7, 1969) is an American former middle relief pitcher in Major League Baseball who played briefly for the Boston Red Sox during the season.

Listed at 6ft 1in, 190 lb, he batted and threw right-handed.

Pierce was born in Poughkeepsie, New York, where his father, Don, was an engineer for IBM.

Pierce grew up a fan of the New York Yankees and attended games at Yankee Stadium.

He played high school baseball for Franklin Delano Roosevelt High School in Hyde Park, New York, where he was teammates with Frank Cimorelli.

In 1987, he had a batting average of .438.

Pierce did not receive any college baseball scholarship offers and was not drafted out of high school.

Unable to afford college without a scholarship, he joined the United States Army Reserve.

After completing Basic Training and spending the summer with the Army, he enrolled at Dutchess Community College in his native Dutchess County.

At Dutchess, he was talked into joining the baseball team where he was again teammates with Frank Cimorelli.

In 1989, he was the National Junior College Athletic Association Region XV Player of the Year.

He continued his college baseball career for the NC State Wolfpack from 1990–1991.

In 1990, he was named to the All-Atlantic Coast Conference (ACC) Second Team; he had a batting average of .359 with 13 home runs and had a 6–1 record as a pitcher.

Given Pierce's dual role as an outfielder and pitcher, coach Ray Tanner would sometimes toss a ball to Pierce in the outfield during mound visits so that he and teammate Brian Bark could use the time to warm each other up.

He was named to the ACC baseball tournament's All-Tournament Team as an outfielder in 1990 and 1991.

In 67 games as a senior, he hit 19 home runs, drove in 77 runs and maintained a batting average of .370.

During a game in May of his senior year in 1991, Pierce tied an ACC record by hitting four home runs and driving in ten runs.

He was again named to the All-ACC Second Team as an outfielder in 1991.

After not being selected in the 1991 Major League Baseball draft, Pierce signed as a free agent with the Chicago White Sox on June 10, 1991.

Though he primarily played the outfield at NC State, he was signed as a pitcher; Alex Cosmidis, the scout who signed Pierce, had seen him pitch a game in the 1991 ACC Baseball Tournament.

However, he talked the White Sox into letting him take batting practice after signing and performed well enough that he was assigned to the Utica Blue Sox as an outfielder to start his professional baseball career.

Pierce spent the entire 1991 season as an outfielder in Utica where he finished fourth on the team in slugging percentage.

Nonetheless, Pierce spent the 1991–92 offseason training as a pitcher in anticipation of being transferred to the pitching mound.

Pierce made his professional pitching debut in 1992 with the South Bend White Sox.

At midseason, he was named a Midwest League All-Star.

He finished the season with the second-most saves in the league.

Pierce began the 1993 season in Double-A with the Birmingham Barons.

Despite missing two weeks in the summer due to a rib cage injury, he was third in the Southern League in saves by the end of July.

On July 31, 1993, he was traded along with Johnny Ruffin to the Cincinnati Reds in exchange for Tim Belcher.

The Reds kept him in the Southern League with the Chattanooga Lookouts where he served primarily as a setup man for closer Chris Bushing, a transition he told the Birmingham Post-Herald he found "pretty frustrating."

Prior to the 1994 season, in the words of The Cincinnati Enquirer, Pierce was among a group of "young, no-name pitchers" invited to Major League spring training by the Reds.

The Reds also thought highly enough of him to add him to their 40-man roster.

However, in March, the team placed Pierce on waivers at least in part to create room on the roster for Tony Fernández.

The Boston Red Sox signed him on March 18 to fill a spot on the 40-man roster created by their release of Scott Taylor.

The next day, Pierce said he was "glad to be out of the Reds organization" because he "wasn't too happy" there.

Peter Gammons later reported in The Boston Globe that Pierce had "had some problems with teammates" in the organization.

At the conclusion of spring training, Pierce was assigned to the Double-A New Britain Red Sox to start the 1994 season.

Despite pitching only a portion of the season in New Britain, Pierce led the team with ten saves, more than triple the second place finisher.

On June 18, Pierce was called up to Triple-A for the first time in his career with the Pawtucket Red Sox; he became the 37th player rostered by Pawtucket in the 1994 season.

Despite joining the PawSox mid-season, he finished the year with the fourth-most pitching appearances on the team.