Junior Spivey

Ernest Lee Spivey Jr.

• Bats Right, Throws Right
• Height 6' 0", Weight 185 lb.
• School Cowley County Community College
• High School Douglass High School
• Debut June 2, 2001
• Final Game September 27, 2005
• Born January 28, 1975 in Oklahoma City, OK USA

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Biographical Information

Junior Spivey played in the major leagues from 2001 to 2005, and retired from Triple A ball in 2007. Injuries limited his playing time over his last seasons.

Born in Oklahoma, he attended Douglass High School in Oklahoma City, OK, and went to Cowley County Community College. He was selected in the 36th round of the 1996 amateur draft at age 21 by the Arizona Diamondbacks. He played in the minors from 1996 to 2001.

In 1996, he hit over .330 for both the AZL Diamondbacks rookie and also the Lethbridge Black Diamonds at the rookie level. He played for the High Desert Mavericks in the California League for 1997 and most of 1998, hitting around .275 and getting lots of walks. Moved up to the Tulsa Drillers in Double A at the end of 1998 for a month, he hit .311.

In the next two years, he was with the El Paso Diablos in Double A and the Tucson Sidewinders in Triple A, and although he hit .232 with Tucson in 2001, he spent most of the season with the major league Diamondbacks, where he hit .258 in 72 games as a second baseman, backing up Jay Bell. He did not appear in the World Series.

In 2002 with the Diamondbacks, he matured, hitting .301/.389/.476 with 16 home runs. He was named to the All Star team and was 14th in the MVP voting.

From 2003 to 2006, he was plagued by a whole variety of injuries. In 2003, he hit .255 with 13 home runs in 106 games, and was traded after the season to the Milwaukee Brewers, where he spent 2004, hitting .272 in 59 games. 2005 was split between the Brewers and the Washington Nationals. Between the two teams, he hit .232 in 77 games.

That was his last taste of the Major Leagues, but he played in Triple A in both 2006 and 2007. The first year, he hit a poor .200 in 89 games for the Memphis Redbirds in the St. Louis Cardinals organization, then in 2007 he posted a .241 batting average in 25 games for the Pawtucket Red Sox. He came back to play independent ball in 2009, hitting .261 in 62 games for the Camden Riversharks of the Atlantic League and .366 in 30 games for the Tucson Toros of the Golden Baseball League.

Notable Achievements

• NL All-Star (2002)
• 100 Runs Scored Seasons: 1 (2002)
• Won a World Series with the Arizona Diamondbacks in 2001 (he did not play in the World Series)