Hunter Pence

**Hunter Pence** is a Major League Baseball right fielder for the Texas Rangers. He previously played for the Houston Astros, Philadelphia Phillies, and San Francisco Giants. Pence stands 6 feet 4 inches tall and weighs 220 pounds. He makes a guest appearance in the *Fuller House* episode A Giant Leap.

## Professional career

Pence made his major league debut as the Houston Astros center fielder on April 28, 2007, versus the Milwaukee Brewers and got his first major league hit and scored his first run. Pence's first home run in the majors was a grand slam, against the St. Louis Cardinals on May 5. Pence hit a dramatic walk-off home run against José Mesa of the Philadelphia Phillies in the bottom of the 13th inning at Minute Maid Park on July 3 in a 5–4 win. It was Mesa's only pitch of the game. Pence was named National League co-Player of the Week for May 14–20, after recording a 1.091 slugging percentage and .625 on-base percentage with 2 home runs and 5 RBIs.

On July 23, general manager Tim Purpura announced that Pence would be out with a small chipped bone fracture in his right wrist. On August 21, Pence was activated from the disabled list. At that point, despite having missed a month he was 4th among NL rookies in at bats.[citation needed] Pence led NL rookies in triples (9), and was 2nd to Ryan Braun in batting average (.322), on-base percentage (.360), slugging percentage (.539), and OPS (.899).

Pence was a unanimous selection to the 2007 Topps Major League Rookie All-Star Team. The selection was the result of the 49th annual Topps balloting of Major League managers. Pence (15 points) came in third, and lost out to Braun (128 points) in the vote for the 2007 NL Sporting News Rookie of the Year Award by 488 major league players and 30 managers. He also lost out to Braun in the competition for the 2007 Baseball America Rookie of the Year Award, in the vote for the 2007 Players Choice NL Most Outstanding Rookie by their fellow major league players, and in the Baseball Prospectus 2007 Internet Baseball NL Rookie of the Year Award, with 16 first place votes, versus 666 for Braun.

In 2011 the Astros traded Pence to the Philadelphia Phillies where he helped the team make it to the post season. In 2012 the Phillies traded him to the Giants during their struggles, & later that year he would win his first World Series Ring. In 2014 Hunter would once again help the Giants win another World Series once in. In 2019 he became a free agent and now currently plays for the Texas Rangers after making the club out of spring training.

## Personal Life

During the 2013 season, Pence kept to a strict Paleolithic diet. There have been conflicting reports since about his retention of this diet.

Also in 2013 he was diagnosed with Scheuermann's disease, a spinal disorder that usually develops in adolescence. It was not discovered in Pence until his physical before signing a five-year $90 million contract with the San Francisco Giants in September.

On December 3, 2015, Pence announced his engagement to Alexis Cozombolidis who's a YouTuber with a channel called Let's Get Lexi, to whom he proposed at Walt Disney World. They married on November 26, 2016.

Pence appeared as himself in an episode of the television sitcom Fuller House in 2016. Pence appeared as a guest on an episode of Bill Nye Saves the World in 2017.

Pence is the San Francisco host for Big League Impact, an eight-city fantasy football network created and led by longtime St. Louis Cardinals pitcher Adam Wainwright. In 2015, the organization raised more than $1 million total for various charitable organizations.