BACK ON TOP OF HIS GAME JETHAWKS INFIELDER UGGLA REBOUNDS FOR ALL-STAR YEAR.Byline: Gideon Rubin Staff Writer LANCASTER - Dan Uggla Daniel Cooley Uggla (born March 11 , 1980 in Louisville, Kentucky) is a Major League Baseball second baseman for the Florida Marlins. Uggla finished third in the 2006 National League Rookie of the Year voting behind teammate Hanley Ramirez and Ryan Zimmerman of the Washington thought it would be easy. A collegiate standout at University of Memphis The University of Memphis is a public research university located in Memphis, Tennessee, United States, and is a flagship public research university of the Tennessee Board of Regents system. selected by the JetHawks' parent Arizona Diamondbacks This article is about the baseball team. For other uses, see Diamondback. The Arizona Diamondbacks (also referred to as the D-backs) are a Major League Baseball team based in Phoenix, Arizona. They play in the West Division of the National League. in the 11th round of the 2001 draft, Uggla didn't miss a beat later that year when he began his professional career at short-season Yakima (Wash.), where he was a Northwest League The Northwest League is a class A minor league. The league is the descendant of the Western International League which ran as a class B league from 1937-1951 (with time out for WWII) and class A from 1952-1954. postseason all-star second baseman second baseman n. Baseball The infielder who is positioned near and to the first-base side of second base. Noun 1. second baseman - (baseball) the person who plays second base second sacker . All he had to do was show up and good things would happen, as they had throughout his athletic career, he figured. It didn't take him long to learn otherwise. Uggla was overmatched by the California League's advanced Single-A pitching last season at Lancaster, where he batted .228 (42 for 184) in half a season. After being demoted to Single-A South Bend South Bend, city (1990 pop. 105,511), seat of St. Joseph co., N Ind., on the great south bend of the St. Joseph River, in a farming and mint-growing region; inc. as a city 1865. (Ind.) in the low-A Midwest League The Midwest League is a Class A minor league baseball league which operates in the Midwestern United States. History Six teams – the Belleville Stags, the Centralia Cubs, the Marion Indians, the Mattoon Indians, the Mount Vernon Braves, and the West Frankfort , where the Diamondbacks hoped he'd regain his confidence, he continued to struggle, batting .199 (34 for 171). But after taking his lumps, Uggla rededicated himself to an intense offseason conditioning program, focusing on preparing himself mentally, as much as physically, for this season, which he knew would be his make- or-break year. The extra work has paid huge dividends for Uggla and the JetHawks. He's batting .293 (83 for 283) and ranks second in the California League The California League is a minor league baseball league which operates throughout the state of California. Before 2002, it was classified as a "High-A" league, indicating its status as a Class A league with the highest level of competition within that classification, and the fifth with 14 homers and fifth with 52 RBI RBI abbr. Baseball runs batted in Noun 1. rbi - a run that is the result of the batter's performance; "he had more than 100 rbi last season" run batted in . Uggla is among three JetHawks who will represent the team at Tuesday's California/Carolina League All-Star Game An all-star game is an exhibition game played by the best players in their sports league. The players are often chosen by a popular vote of fans of the sport and the game often occurs at the halfway point of the regular season, although this is not the case for some all-star games at Rancho Cucamonga Rancho Cucamonga (răn`chō k  'kəmäng`gə), city (1990 pop. 101,409), San Bernardino co., S Calif. .
``Last year was definitely a down year in my life,'' Uggla said. ``I've always been able to play baseball, but I was struggling. It was very stressful, and that just made it a lot harder than it actually was.'' Uggla's struggles were especially hard to deal with because he'd never experienced failure in any sport. A prep athlete of note, Uggla rushed for more than 1,000 yards as an option quarterback at Central Columbia (Tenn.) High, leading his team to the playoffs for the first time in 20 years. During the offseason, Uggla moved to Orlando, Fla., with a former South Bend teammate to get a head start on spring training. He practiced fielding groundballs and hitting, and began a grueling strength training program, focusing on doing more reps than he thought he could. Part of his mental preparation included going through the process of thinking through all the highs and lows he'd inevitably experience in the course of the grind that is full-season baseball. ``I came back after my reality check and said to myself that if I was going to have another bad year, it wasn't going to be because I didn't work hard enough in the offseason,'' Uggla said. Uggla's numbers only tell part of the story of his turnaround. A natural second baseman, he's moved back and forth between second and third and has been a standout defender at both positions, making many exceptional plays and committing just six errors. Despite boasting impressive power numbers, he's also emerged as one of the team's best bunters, something he's been asked to do often batting second in the lineup behind speedster speed·ster n. 1. One who drives very fast. 2. A fast car. Marland Williams. ``It just shows you that he has a lot of confidence in all of his game,'' JetHawks outfielder Jay Garthwaite said. ``He's got a repertoire of things he can pull out at any time, which is a really good thing to have.'' Uggla never considered quitting, even during the worst of times. However, he knew the Diamondbacks' patience had limits. ``Obviously there was a question of being released,'' Uggla said. ``You don't get too many chances to mess up, and I was definitely a little concerned there.'' JetHawks manager Mike Aldrete saw something in Uggla when he was his hitting coach at Yakima two years ago that made him believe Uggla could handle what he went through last season. ``He's a guy who's had this game kick him in the teeth, and it would have been really easy to succumb, but he's chosen to work real hard and come out fighting,'' Aldrete said. ``That tells you something about him.'' In retrospect, Uggla thinks his disastrous year might have been the best thing that ever happened to him. ``I'm glad it happened when it did because I learned a lot from it,'' he said. ``I've tried to pick out all the negatives from last year and turn them into positives so I can make sure it doesn't happen again.'' Gideon Rubin (818)713-3607 gideon.rubin(at)dailynews.com CAPTION(S): photo Photo: Dan Uggla struggled last year, but the extra work he did in the offseason has him batting .293 and ranking second in the league with 14 homers. Tom Mendoza/Staff Photographer |
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