Troy Percival

He started playing baseball at Moreno Valley Youth Federation (MVYF). Percival played on the Moreno Valley High School baseball team, before attending the University of California, Riverside, where he played college baseball for the Highlanders from 1987–1990. He was then drafted by the California Angels in the 6th round of the 1990 amateur draft as a catcher. He batted .203 in his only season as a catcher with the Boise Hawks and was converted to a pitcher when coaches noticed that his return throws to the mound were actually faster than the pitches he caught. He made his Major League debut as a reliever in 1995, and was mostly used as a setup man for Lee Smith. He was coached by his father Richard Percival for all of his childhood years.\n', ' In 1996, he became the regular closer for the Angels and had 36 saves with 100 strikeouts in 74 innings. He is one of only six pitchers in the Angels\' 44-year history to strike out at least 100 batters in a season without starting a game. The others are Mark Clear (105, 1980), DeWayne Buice (109, 1987), Bryan Harvey (101, 1991) Scot Shields (109, 2004) and Francisco Rodríguez (123, 2004).\n', ' He had a career-high 42 saves in 1998, and enjoyed his best season in 2002 with a 4-1 record, 40 saves, 68 strikeouts, and a 1.92 ERA. That year en route to winning the World Series he was 7 for 7 in save opportunities, tying John Wetteland for most saves in one postseason (since tied by Brad Lidge, Koji Uehara and Greg Holland; Robb Nen was also 7 for 7 but blew one on the 8th opportunity).\n', '