Dave LaRoche #17

David Adam LaRoche...Wife's name is Jenn...Has two children; son Drake (2/1/02) and daughter Montana (7/4/03)...Was born in Orange County, CA, but lived there for just about one year...Is a 1998 graduate of Ft. Scott (KS) High School, where he played baseball, football and basketball...Named All-American in baseball as a senior...Was All-State in sophomore year. ...Attended Fort Scott Junior College and Seminole (OK) Junior College, where he played baseball...Was an All-American at Seminole and was the MVP of the Junior College World Series in 2000...Father, Dave, pitched for Angels, Twins, Cubs, Indians and Yankees in the 1970s and early 1980s...Was originally signed by Braves scout Brian Kohlscheen...Participated in PirateFest in January of 2007 and the team's annual caravan in January of 2008.

2007

Spent first season with Pittsburgh...Led club in RBI?and games played and shared lead in doubles with Freddy Sanchez...Established career highs in at bats, hits and doubles...His 42 doubles tied with Colorado's Todd Helton for third among National League first basemen behind San Diego's Adrian Gonzalez (46) and Chicago's Derrek Lee (43)...His 21 home runs were the most by a Bucco first baseman since Kevin Young hit 25 in 1999...Made career-high 151 appearances (148 starts) at first base and committed six errors (five fielding/one throwing)...His .996 fielding percentage ranked second behind Helton's .999...Led league first basemen with 154 double plays...Batted .328 (96-for-293) in his last 77 games; the 12th-highest average in the N.L. beginning on 6/28...Was the Opening Day starter and went 0-for-5 with four strikeouts in Houston on 4/2...Went hitless in his first eight at bats before going 1-for-4 on 4/4...Struck out 13 times in his first 24 at bats thru 4/8...Hit first home run as a member of the Pirates on 4/7 at Cincinnati and went 2-for-4 in the contest - his only multi-hit game in 27 games thru 5/4...Had three RBI while taking Adam Wainwright deep at St. Louis on 4/17...Committed first error on 4/16 at St. Louis; snapping his 49-game errorless streak dating back to 8/14/06...Was batting .191 following the action on 5/25; hit .303 (123-for-406) from that point on...Batted .459 (17-for-37) with six doubles, five home runs and 12 RBI while hitting safely in nine straight games from 6/27 thru 7/5...Homered twice for seventh career time on 7/5 vs. Milwaukee...Batted .321 (25-for-78) during the month of July; ranked third among N.L. first basemen with a .526 slugging percentage and fourth in batting average for the month...Recorded first career stolen base on 8/4 vs. Cincinnati...Tied career high with four hits on 8/8 at Arizona...Became first Pittsburgh player and 15th opposing player to reach McCovey Cove with his blast off Tim Lincecum at AT&T?Park on 8/11...Produced second nine-game hitting streak from 8/13 (game two) thru 8/21 (17-for-36, .473)...Had season-high four RBI on 8/24 at Houston...Went a season-high 47 games without an error from 7/14 thru 9/7 (416 chances)...Tied season high with third nine-game hitting streak from 9/4-14 (14-for-36, .389)...Homered once in final month (9/5 at St. Louis) and tallied just eight RBI in 24 games in September...Was the recipient of the Chuck Tanner award, presented by the Pittsburgh chapter of the BBWAA to recognize the Pirates player whose professionalism, cooperation and availability best assist the writers in carrying out their daily responsibilities.