Steven Allen Finley (born March 12, 1965) is an American former center fielder in Major League Baseball who played for eight teams between 1989 and 2007, most notably the Houston Astros, San Diego Padres, and Arizona Diamondbacks; he is one of only two players, along with Matt Herges, to play for all five National League West teams.
His walk-off grand slam in an October game against the San Francisco Giants clinched the 2004 division title for the Los Angeles Dodgers.
He attended Paducah Tilghman High School and Southern Illinois University, where he earned a degree in physiology and played for the baseball team from 1984 to 1987.
He instead chose to remain at SIU, where he was a two-time All-Missouri Valley Conference performer and a third-team All-American in 1986, and was named the team's Most Valuable Player in 1987.
In a transaction considered by Orioles fans as the worst in team history according to Thom Loverro,[2] Finley was traded along with Curt Schilling and Pete Harnisch to the Houston Astros for Glenn Davis on January 10, 1991.
He had been slowed in spring training by Bell's palsy, a viral infection of a nerve in his upper neck, resulting in numbness that prevented him from closing his left eye.
He missed nearly a month after being hit by a pitch in a June 8 road game against the Montreal Expos, breaking the third metacarpal bone in his right hand.
In December 1994, he was traded by the Astros with Ken Caminiti, Andújar Cedeño, Roberto Petagine, Brian Williams, and minor leaguer Sean Fesh to the San Diego Padres for Derek Bell, Doug Brocail, Ricky Gutiérrez, Pedro A. Martinez, Phil Plantier, and Craig Shipley.
He was in the delivery room on September 1 when son Reed was born, and then headed to the ballpark and played in the 8th and 9th innings of San Diego's 6–3 win over the Philadelphia Phillies.
On August 30 of that year, Finley became the Diamondbacks' first position player to serve as a relief pitcher, during a 13–5 loss to the Giants.
[5] Finley would win the first and only World Series title of his career in 7 games against the Yankees, the same team he lost to three years prior in 1998 while with the Padres.
In July 2004, he was traded by the Diamondbacks with Brent Mayne to the Dodgers for Koyie Hill, Reggie Abercrombie, and Bill Murphy (minors).
On October 2, he hit his second career game-ending grand slam against the Giants, which capped off a seven-run ninth inning and clinched the 2004 NL West division title for the Dodgers.
At the end of the season, he was eighth in at bats (628) and plate appearances (706), and ninth in home runs (36; the third-highest total ever for a 39-year-old in the majors, behind Barry Bonds and Hank Aaron).
Finley also won his fifth Gold Glove Award and tied Pete Rose's record of playing in 162 games at the age of 39.