Buster Posey

Gerald Dempsey "Buster" Posey III (born March 27, 1987) is an American former professional baseball catcher.

Gerald Dempsey "Buster" Posey III was born on March 27, 1987, in Leesburg, Georgia, to Demp and Tracy Posey.

He is the oldest of four children.

He and his family grew up Methodist Christian.

Posey has an uncle who is a Methodist minister and an aunt who is a camp minister for Duke University.

His nickname, "Buster", came from his father's childhood nickname.

Posey grew up a fan of the Atlanta Braves.

He also played football, soccer, and basketball growing up, but baseball was his main sport.

As a junior at Lee County High School, Posey pitched and played shortstop.

That year he hit nine doubles, three triples, and seven home runs while setting school records for batting average (.544) and runs batted in (RBI) (46).

His pitching achievements included a 10–1 record and a 1.53 earned run average (ERA).

In his senior year, he batted .462 with 40 RBIs while setting a school record with 14 home runs.

In 13 starts as a pitcher that year, he had a 12–0 record with a 1.06 ERA and 108 strikeouts.

In the Georgia AAAA State Championship, Lee County was defeated by Henry County High, for whom fellow future major leaguer Jason Heyward played.

After his senior season, Posey was named the Georgia Gatorade Player of the Year, the Louisville Slugger State Player of the Year, an EA Sports All-American, and a Baseball America All-American.

He graduated with a 3.94 grade point average in high school, fourth in his class of 302 students.

He won the Golden Spikes Award and the Brooks Wallace Award in 2008.

He was selected by the Giants with the fifth overall pick in the first round of the 2008 MLB draft.

He spent his entire twelve-year Major League Baseball (MLB) career with the San Francisco Giants, from 2009 until his retirement at the conclusion of the 2021 season.

In September 2022, Posey joined the Giants' ownership group.

Posey was born in Leesburg, Georgia.

He played four sports in high school; in baseball, he excelled at hitting and pitching.

He attended Florida State University, where he began playing the catcher and first base positions.

Posey made his MLB debut on September 11, 2009.

He and Madison Bumgarner both made their Major League debuts in 2009 and established a reputation as one of the best batteries in recent MLB history.

With the presence of then full-time catcher Bengie Molina, Posey played first base when originally called up to the majors, but became the Giants' regular catcher in June 2010 when Molina was traded to the Texas Rangers.

As a rookie, he finished with a .305 batting average, 18 home runs, and 67 runs batted in.

He caught every inning of the playoffs as the Giants won the 2010 World Series.

He was named the NL Rookie of the Year.

In 2011, after he was severely injured in a collision with the Florida Marlins' Scott Cousins at home plate, Posey missed most of the year.

Posey returned from his injury in 2012 and posted perhaps one of the greatest individual comeback seasons in sports history.

He caught Matt Cain's perfect game, batted .336 to win the 2012 NL batting title and was voted the 2012 NL MVP.

He won his second World Series that year, as the Giants swept the Detroit Tigers in four games.

In 2013, Posey signed a franchise-record eight-year, $167 million contract extension with the Giants.

He won his third World Series the following year as the Giants defeated the Kansas City Royals.

Posey is the second player in MLB history, after Pete Rose, to win the Rookie of the Year, a League MVP, and three World Series championships.

Posey played in four no-hitters in his career, catching three of them.

The collision is widely seen as pushing Major League Baseball to adopt rule 7.13 in regards to blocking the plate prior to the 2014 season, informally known as the "Buster Posey Rule".

In 2016, he won a Gold Glove Award.

In 2019, the Johnny Bench Award was renamed the Buster Posey Award, which honors college baseball's top NCAA Division I catcher.