Sidney Ponson

Infobox MLB player


width = 150px
name=Sidney Ponson
position=Starting pitcher
team=New York Yankees
number=47
bats=Right
throws=Right
birthdate=birth date and age|1976|11|2
birthplace=Noord, Aruba
debutdate=April 19
debutyear=1998
debutteam=Baltimore Orioles
statyear=2008 season
stat1label=Win-Loss
stat1value=90-106
stat2label=Earned run average
stat2value=4.95
stat3label=Strikeouts
stat3value=999
teams=
*Baltimore Orioles (by|1998-by|2003)
*San Francisco Giants (by|2003)
*Baltimore Orioles (by|2004-by|2005)
*St. Louis Cardinals (by|2006)
*New York Yankees (by|2006)
*Minnesota Twins (by|2007)
*Texas Rangers (by|2008)
*New York Yankees (by|2008-present)

Sidney Alton Ponson (born November 2, 1976 in Noord, Aruba) is a Major League Baseball starting pitcher for the New York Yankees. Ponson stands at 6'1" tall and weighs 260 pounds. He bats and throws right-handed.

Ponson has played most of his career with the Baltimore Orioles. When he made his debut for the Orioles in by|1998, he became the third player from Aruba to play in the major leagues.

Ponson attended Maria College high school in Aruba. He was picked up by the Orioles as an amateur in by|1993.

After the by|2003 season, he was made a knight in the Order of Orange-Nassau by Queen Beatrix of the Netherlands, along with fellow baseball players Eugene Kingsale and Calvin Maduro. [ [http://www.newarkbearsfan.com/news/features/aruba/aruba.htm FORMER BEARS AND OTHER BASEBALL LUMINARIES CONGREGATE ON ARUBA FOR CHARITY SOFTBALL] ]

2003

In 2003, he went 14-6 with a 3.77 ERA for the Orioles. Because Baltimore was not in contention for a playoff spot and Ponson was in the last year of his contract, the Orioles traded Ponson to the San Francisco Giants at the trading deadline for three Giants players: Kurt Ainsworth, Damian Moss, and prospect Ryan Hannaman. At the end of the 2003 season, Ponson re-signed with the Orioles for a 3 year, 22.5 million dollar contract.

2004

In by|2004, Ponson was the opening day starter for Baltimore. However, he started off disastrously; his record was 3-12 by the All-Star Break. He rebounded for a strong second half, going 8-3. He finished with an 11-15 record and a 5.30 ERA.

2005 and beyond

On September 1, 2005, the Orioles released Ponson and voided his contract, saying that his infractions with the law went against a morals clause in Major League Baseball contracts. A week later, on September 8, the Major League Baseball Players Association filed a grievance on Ponson's behalf.

On December 12, 2005, Ponson was sentenced to five days in the Baltimore city jail after he was found guilty of driving while impaired. He was also fined $535. He was released from jail on December 19.

On December 21, 2005, Ponson signed a one-year contract with the St. Louis Cardinals calling for a $1 million salary with the ability to earn an additional $1.5 million in incentives. Although his season started promisingly, Ponson struggled with stamina and rarely went more than five innings in his starts. On July 7, by|2006, the Cardinals designated Ponson for assignment, ending his stint with the Cardinals.

On July 14, 2006, he signed on with the New York Yankees. The Yankees won his first game, lost the second game, and he was subsequently sent to the bullpen when the Yankees acquired Cory Lidle from the Philadelphia Phillies. Reportedly, Brian Cashman asked Ponson if he would be amenable to being placed in the pen before going ahead with the trade (which also involved acquiring Bobby Abreu). If Ponson had refused, he would have been released and the trade that sent Shawn Chacon to the Pittsburgh Pirates in exchange for Craig Wilson would have fallen through. [Kepner, Tyler. [http://www.nytimes.com/2006/08/01/sports/baseball/01yankees.html "Waiting Game Works to Yankees’ Advantage"] "New York Times" (1 August 2006)]

After a poor pitching performance on August 18, 2006, the Yankees released Ponson, making him a free agent.

In January by|2007, he signed a minor league contract with the Minnesota Twins and on March 31, 2007, his contract was purchased by the Twins and he was added to their 25-man roster as the fifth starter. He got off to a relatively slow start, having only a couple quality starts while hovering at an ERA around 7. On May 13, the Twins designated him for assignment [Thesier, Kelly. [http://mlb.mlb.com/news/article.jsp?ymd=20070513&content_id=1963313&vkey=news_min&fext=.jsp&c_id=min "Twins designate Ponson for assignment"] "MLB News" (13 May 2007)] and he was later released.

On March 9, by|2008, Ponson signed a minor league contract with an invite to spring training with the Texas Rangers. Ponson began the 2008 season with the Triple-A Oklahoma RedHawks. On April 26, his contract was purchased.

On June 6, 2008, despite having a 4-1 record and 3.88 ERA for the season, Texas abruptly designated the starter for assignment. He was placed on release waivers on June 16. Rangers general manager John Daniels acting on direct orders from Owner Tom Hicks explained, "We don't feel Sidney deserves to be here or wants to be here. We're not going to get into details other than to say we're clearly trying to put together a team here, in a true sense of the word. Based on some recent comments and other such things, it was pretty clear that he did not want to be part of that, and it's something we're not going to tolerate." [citenews | url=http://www.star-telegram.com/284/story/687448.html | title=Rangers to Ponson: You're out of here | date=June 7, 2008 | publisher=Fort Worth Star Telegram]

On June 18, Ponson signed a minor league deal to return to the Yankees. He made his first start on June 27, 2008 in the subway series with the Mets. Ponson pitched 6 shutout innings in his first start back with the Yankees, which they eventually won 9-0.

Controversies

On December 25, 2004, Ponson was arrested in Aruba and charged with assaulting an Aruban judge following an incident about a complaint of Ponson's handling of his powerboat. He spent 11 days in jail, but the charges were dropped after he reached a settlement that included restitution, community service, and contributions to local charities on the island. In January 2005, he was charged with driving under the influence in Broward County, Florida. Because of these activities, it was thought that he would not be able to enter Canada to pitch in a series against the Toronto Blue Jays in May by|2005. [http://baltimore.orioles.mlb.com/news/article.jsp?c_id=bal&content_id=959494&fext=.jsp&vkey=news_bal&ymd=20050307] [http://www.startribune.com/sports/twins/11690851.html] However, a visa was later granted, and he was able to make his scheduled start.Fact|date=June 2008

Baltimore attempted to trade Ponson to San Diego for first baseman Phil Nevin shortly before the 2005 trade deadline, but the deal was canceled when Nevin invoked his no-trade clause. Nevin eventually was traded to Texas. [http://sports.espn.go.com/mlb/news/story?id=2114965]

Early on the morning of August 25, 2005, Ponson was arrested for driving under the influence and driving while impaired on southbound Interstate 95 near downtown Baltimore, Maryland. He was stopped for following too closely and was subsequently arrested by Maryland Transportation Authority Police for the traffic violation, DWI; he was later released. This was his second drunk-driving incident of 2005. [http://nbcsports.msnbc.com/id/9071665/]

References

External links

*
* [http://sports.espn.go.com/mlb/news/story?id=2148842 Ponson released]
* [http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2005/09/08/AR2005090802256.html Union grievance filed]
* [http://minnesota.publicradio.org/collections/special/columns/baseball/archive/2007/04/sidney_ponson_u.shtml Sidney Ponson Uncut (Minnesota Public Radio)]