Tommy Pham

Thomas James Pham (born March 8, 1988) is an American professional baseball outfielder for the Arizona Diamondbacks of Major League Baseball (MLB). He has previously played in MLB for the St. Louis Cardinals, Tampa Bay Rays, San Diego Padres, Cincinnati Reds, Boston Red Sox, and New York Mets. He stands tall, and weighs . Pham was selected by the Cardinals in the 16th round of the 2006 MLB draft. He overcame a number of injuries and a vision impairment in 2008 related to keratoconus (which he overcame the following year with contact lenses that give him 20/15 vision in both eyes) to make his major league debut nine seasons after being drafted. In 2017, Pham became the first Cardinals batter since 1900 to record at least a .300 batting average, 20 home runs, 20 doubles, and 20 stolen bases in the same season. Early life and amateur career Pham was born in Las Vegas, Nevada, to Tawana (age 17) and Anhtuan (age 19). His twin sister Brittany was born two minutes later. At the time, his father was incarcerated, as he would be for most of their lives. His father was born in Vietnam to a Vietnamese mother and an African American father, and moved to the United States with his mother, brother, and sister. Pham's father was gifted in American football, but became entangled in drugs and street crime for decades. Pham's mother's parents helped her raise her twins on the condition that she work. She had not finished high school, and took on jobs as a busser, a casino waitress, and at a bakery, and raised the twins in Spring Valley, Nevada. At the age of two, Pham's pediatrician feared that he had contracted rickets, so he wore leg braces for a year and a half. Because his mother worked so much, Pham said he could "count on one hand" the number of his games she attended.