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The youngest of the four Christie brothers, Bruce's aggressive and often spectacular play at shortstop solidified the middle of the AWA defense from the time he joined the team in 1983. Over the last few years that he played with the team, his hitting (six consecutive .600+ seasons, including a team-leading .656 in 1997) easily made "Goose" the most important player in the lineup. It's no coincidence that his MVP years of '92 and '96 came in seasons in which AWA captured league championships. Oh, there was that occasional boot of an easy ground ball, and his strikeouts always seemed to come with the bases loaded, but Bruce was still THE MAN when it came to sparking this team to victory. "Goose" only knew one way to play the game -- HARD -- and that style of play would lead to injuries throughout his AWA career. He was daring and exciting on the basepaths, and not wanting to adopt that "station-to-station" baserunning style that so many of his mates applied in their twilight years, Bruce finally called it a career after the '97 season. His position was a huge hole to fill, and there was just no replacing a shortstop of his caliber. |
