Altoona's Alex Dickerson Named Eastern League Rookie of the Year
PORTLAND, Maine - Altoona Curve outfielder Alex Dickerson has been selected as the 2013 Eastern League Rookie of the Year, the league announced earlier today. It is the first career Rookie of the Year award for Dickerson and the second time in franchise history that a Curve player has been selected to receive the award. Curve outfielder Starling Marte was selected as the league's Rookie of the Year after his breakout 2011 campaign.
The Rookie of the Year selection caps a stellar debut season for the Curve outfielder that has seen him garner two league Player of the Week awards (both in July), a league Player of the Month award (July) and a post-season All-Star selection for the second time in his three-year career. This all comes a season after Dickerson was selected as the Player of the Year in the Florida State League while playing for the High-A Bradenton Marauders.
A native of Poway, Calif., Dickerson began the 2013 adjusting to the league before taking off as the calendar approached June. From there, the Indiana University product took the league by storm with an average of .317 since June 1. His video-game like July where he batted .413 with 10 doubles, six homers, 27 RBI and 23 RBI in 26 total games is what earned him the pair of Player of the Week nods and, eventually, the Player of the Month award.
Entering play tonight, Dickerson is hitting .284 with a team-high (and career-high) 36 doubles (second in the league), a career-high 16 homers (second on team) and a team-best 65 RBI. His .284 batting average is 10th best in the circuit while he also checks in among the league leaders in extra-base hits (55, 3rd) and slugging percentage (.488, 5th).
Dickerson was a third-round selection by the Pirates in the 2011 draft following up his junior season in Bloomington where he capped off an illustrious college career at Indiana. He was the first player in conference history to garner the Freshman-of-the-Year award and then follow it up with a Big-10 Player of the Year award the very next season before continuing to rake in his junior season before being drafted by Pittsburgh.
Altoona plays its final game of the 2013 season at 12 p.m. Monday afternoon versus Akron with gates scheduled to swing open at 11 a.m. It is the final Mirror Monday of the season and fans can get $3 Grandstand tickets with the coupon from the front page of the sports section in Monday's Altoona Mirror. Monday also serves as the final FREE Galliker's Curve Kids' Club Game for all members. After the game, kids can run around the bases.
For tickets and more information, call 877.99.CURVE, visit AltoonaCurve.com or stop by the ticket windows at Peoples Natural Gas Field.