Biography

Graduated from Stone (Wiggins, MS) High School…played baseball, football and basketball in high school…helped Stone basketball team to Mississippi state championship…graduated from Mississippi Gulf Coast Community College, where he played baseball and football…attended Southern (Baton Rouge, LA) University, where he played baseball…is cousin of big league outfielder Matt Lawton…has son (Kaleb, Aug. 10, 2002) and daughter (Kaitlyn Simone, Oct. 27, 2006)…single…

2009 Highlights

San Francisco’s Opening Day left-fielder played in 122 games, batting .258 (76- for-295) with 21 2Bs, 3 3Bs 4 HRs and 20 RBI…was starting left-fielder through June 11, starting 49 of SF’s 1st 59 games, however lost starting job in mid-June, making starts in just 21 of Giants’ final 103 games and appearing mainly as pinch-hitter for duration of season…hit .263 (10-for-38) in pinch with 7 2B’s and 7 RBI…only Nate Schierholtz (.371) had higher avg. as pinch-hitter on team…became one of SF’s best pinch-hitting options in 2nd half of year, going 8-for-30 (.267)… posted back-to-back seasons with at least 20 2Bs (25 in 2008)…had 5th-fewest amount of RBI among ML players with at least 300 plate appearances…only Cincinnati’s Willy Taveras (15), Arizona’s Augie Ojeda (16), New York’s-NL Alex Cora (18) and Seattle’s Jack Hannahan (19) had less…batted .542 (13-for-24) on 1st pitch, highest figure among NL players and 3rd-best in majors behind Oakland’s Jack Cust (.577) and Toronto’s Randy Ruiz (.545)…hit better at AT&T Park posting .288 clip (42-for-146) compared to .228 figure (34-for-149) on road…started 70 games overall (69 in LF and 1 as DH)…committed 3 errors in 133 total chances, however, did not commit an error in his final 49 contests (79 total chances)…batted .259 (63-for-243) with 4 HRs and 12 RBI in starting role…hit everywhere in Giants’ lineup except for clean-up spot…started year hitting in 3-hole for 8 games, moved to 5th spot for 3 games and then on to leadoff role for 16 games…proceeded to hit lower in lineup (5th- 8th) for rest of season…although he only appeared in 122 games, ranked 2nd on team with .348 on-base pct….went 20-for-67 (.299) with .420 OBP (11 BBs) in 20 games in month of April…was nominee for NL Player of the Week for 1st week of season April 5-12, posting .450 clip (9-for-20) with 5 runs, 3 2Bs, 3B, RBI, .560 OBP and .700 slugging pct. during stretch…lost out to Florida RHP Josh Johnson (2-0, 0.57 ERA)…hit his 1st home run of season May 15 off New York’s-NL Livan Hernandez…had .182 avg. (18-for-99) from May 19-July 22 lowering season clip from .294 to season low .243…after not starting for 6 games from June 12-18, was back in starting lineup June 19 vs. Texas and belted his 4th home run of season off Scott Feldman, which proved to be game-winning shot…was HR shy of hitting for cycle July 24 at Colorado, going 3-for-3 with BB…was just his 2nd 3-hit game of season and 1st multi-hit game since May 31 at St. Louis…appeared in 22 games in Aug. making 8 starts in LF and batting .412 (14-for-34) with 6 2Bs and 2 RBI…went 5-for-10 with 2 2Bs and RBI as pinch-hitter in month… used his speed to beat out infield groundball to 2nd base with bases loaded in 8th inning of tie game Sept. 21 at Arizona…was credited with fielders choice and RBI, as Travis Ishikawa scored game-winning run in Giants’ 5-4 win…started just 4 of SF’s last 45 games and hit only .091 (2-for-22) in 20 games in Sept. and Oct…