Samuel Fuld

Samuel Babson Fuld, or Sam, is an American professional baseball player who plays as an outfielder in center field. "Sammy Ballgame", as 'Sam' was known, was diagnosed with diabetes when he was 10 and at 12, and he met up with pitcher Bill Gullickson, who also suffered from diabetes. Bill's words inspired a young Sam to follow his dream and become a professional baseball player.

Sam went to the Berwick Academy and then moved to the Phillips Exeter Academy. In the year 2000, Sam was named to the First Team All-American lineups of Baseball America, Collegiate Baseball, USA Today and Fox Sports as well as being listed amongst the 100 top-high school prospects of 2000 by Baseball America – All this, just in preseason.

In 2000, he became the New Hampshire Gatorade High School Player of the Year. Sam was named as the Central New England Prep School Baseball League All-Conference Player while also being the captain for 3-years at Exeter as well as a 4-time MVP.
Fuld attended Stanford University and graduated in 2004 with an Economics major. All 4-years at college, he started for the baseball team and in his first two seasons, was named an All-American while being named to the All-Pac-10 for the first three seasons. At Stanford, Sam became the all-time leading run scorer with 268 while also leading at 'at-bat' with 1071. In his sophomore year, he broke Stanford's and Pac-10's single season record with 110 hits. In his penultimate game for Stanford, in his senior year, he broke his shoulder while diving in the outfield. That forced him to the sidelines for a year.

In the 10th round of the 2004 MLB Draft, he was picked by the Chicago Cubs, a team who's advances he had a earlier rejected in 2003. In 2005, he went .300 with the bat and had 18 stolen bases for the A-league Peoria Chiefs in the Midwest League where he also had a 17-game hitting streak as well.

In the following year, he again hit .300 with the bat and had 22 steals with 353 at-bats for the High A-league Daytona Cubs in the Florida State League. He was subsequently named to the league's All-Star Team.

His performance dropped a bit in 2007 as he hit at .291 with a .371 on-base percentage. This year, he began with the Tennessee Smokies in the AA-Southern League and became the leadoff hitter for the Smokies with 32 walks and 33 strikeouts. Later that year, Fuld was on his way to the Iowa Cubs in the AAA-Pacific Coast League. He batted at .269 with a .397 on-base percentage during his time at Iowa.

Fuld was named as the AFL Player of the Week after hitting at .526 for the Mesa Solar Sox in the Arizona Fall League. He led the league in numerous statistics, hitting at .402 with 43 hits, 11 doubles, 67 total bases, with an on-base percentage of .492 and a slugging percentage of .626. Baring these first place stats, he was third in runs scored and walks with 20 and 17 respectively. These stats won him the MVP title for the Arizona Fall League and he was also named to the AFL Top-Prospects Team.

Sam was given the Dernell Stenson Award for Leadership, unselfishness and hard work.

Sam was fearless in defense and in 2008, with the Iowa Cubs, he was incredible earning several nicknames like "Crash Test Dummy with a Death Wish", Human Wrecking Ball act", "Wall Magnet" and even "A Manager's Dream and a Trainer's Worst Nightmare".

Finally, towards the end of 2007, Sam finally got a call up to the Chicago Cubs to make his MLB debut against the Los Angeles Dodgers. Despite a number of daredevil plays and wonderful performances, Sam was left out of the Cubs' post-season roster.
In 2008, Fuld started with the AAA-Iowa Cubs but was sent down to the AA-Tennessee Smokies after struggling to bat with a right-thumb injury. However, despite hitting poorly in the beginning, he became better, hitting at .445 by August to gain promotion to the Iowa Cubs for the Playoffs.

In the winter of 2008, he played winter ball in Venezuela in the Tigres de Aragua roster. He was .322 with the bat and had 5 triples, 36 walks and 43 runs.