JockBio Vital Stats
  • Chicago White Sox
• Pitcher • #56
  • Height: 6' 2"
• Weight: 220 • Born: 3/23/79
  • Mark’s 2007 no-hitter was the first one for a White Sox pitcher at home since Joel Horlen 40 years earlier.
  • In 2006, Mark became the first pitcher in team history to make 30-plus starts in six straight seasons.
  • Mark led the A.L. with 10 pickoffs in 2006. Opponents stole just four bases in 11 attempts against him.
  • During the 1999 Junior College playoffs, Mark faced Albert Pujols of Maple Woods College. Pujols drove a two-run homer the other way, but Jefferson won the game.
  • Mark was issued number 56 when he was a non-roster invitee to spring training in 2000. He decided to keep the number. He had worn 39 in high school and college, because it was Todd Worrell's number.
  • Mark was named Southern League Pitcher of the Year in 2000.
  • Mark would have been the hands-down pick for Rookie of the Year in 2001, but he had pitched one and a third too many innings for Chicago the year before.
  • Mark would have won 20 games in 2002, but a two-out error in his final start cost him the decision.
  • Mark learned how good Hideki Matsui was before any other pitcher in the American League. During a post-season tour of Japan in 2002, Matsui lined a ball off his pitching shoulder.
  • In a 2004 game against the Indians, Mark pitched a two-hitter with two double plays, facing the minimum 27 batters.
  • In 2004, Mark became the first White Sox pitcher to lead the league in innings pitched since Wilbur Wood.
  • Mark's streak of 49 straight six-inning starts, which ended in 2005, was the longest since Steve Carlton's 69 from 1979 to 1982.
  • In 2005, Mark accused the Texas Rangers of stealing his signs and flashing his pitches on the scoreboard.
  • Mark says if there's one old-timer he could watch in person, it would be Babe Ruth.
  • Mark was an excellent soccer player. He made All-State as a senior in high school.
  • Mark's favorite movie is The Shawshank Redemption.
  • In 2005, Mark became engaged to Jamie Streck. An avid hunter, he proposed to her in a tree stand. The two had gone to the same high school, but Mark says that he was small and always getting stuffed into lockers, so she probably didn't notice him.
  • Mark's high school coach claims he was cut as a freshman and sophomore by new assistant coaches.
  • Mark's nickname is “Chinstrap.”





Hideki Matsui, 2003 New York Post


Steve Carlton, 1979 Hostess


Wilbur Wood, 1968 Topps


 

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