David A. Aardsma (December 27, 1981–) He attended Cherry Creek High School, which is also the high school of major leaguers like Brad Lidge, Darnell McDonald and Donzell McDonald.
He attended Pennsylvania State in his freshman year. No one from Pennsylvania State, before Aardsma, had ever reached the major leagues. He transferred to Rice University, a university to have it's fair share of big names (Matt Anderson, Lance Berkman, Tim Byrdak, Norm Charlton, Pat Combs, Bubba Crosby, Jose Cruz Jr., Kevin Joseph, Mike Macha, Dave Pavlas, Mark Quinn, Allan Ramirez and Mario Ramos have all attended Rice and reached the Majors) where he remained.
The righthander was drafted in the 1st round (22nd overall) of the 2003 amateur draft by the San Francisco Giants. He went to the San Jose Giants (Class A), and played brilliantly. He posted a 1.96 ERA while striking out 28 in about 18 innings. His talent earned him a promotion to the Giants-he skipped AA, AAA and went straight to the MLB. He made his debut 1 day after the season opener. Yes, after only 10 months, he was on the opening day roster. In his major league debut, he pitched two innings, allowing three hits and walking one. In his first 6 starts, he had a 1.80 ERA. (This success did not carry over, as he finished the season with a 6.75 ERA in 11 games: After giving up 2 runs in 1 inning on April 20, he was sent down to Fresno, the Giants AAA team, the next day).
Aardsma's route through professional baseball has been somewhat unique, given that after making the leap from A ball to the Giants, he was demoted to AAA and then subsequently started the 2005 season in AA.
He was traded with Jerome Williams to the Chicago Cubs for LaTroy Hawkins on May 28, 2005.
He is first on the list of all time baseball players by alphabetical order, replacing Hank Aaron.
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