Doug Mientkiewicz

Douglas Andrew Mientkiewicz (born June 19, 1974) is an American former professional baseball player and manager.

Upon graduation, he was drafted by the Toronto Blue Jays in the 12th round of the 1992 Major League Baseball Draft, but chose instead to play at Florida State University.

In his third season with the Seminoles, Mientkiewicz led the team with a .371 batting average, 19 home runs and 80 runs batted in.

Florida State earned their first Atlantic Coast Conference Championship, and Mientkiewicz was named ACC Atlantic I Regional Most Valuable Player.

After the season, Mientkiewicz was drafted by the Minnesota Twins in the fifth round of the 1995 Major League Baseball Draft.

He played in Major League Baseball as a first baseman from 1998 to 2009, most prominently as a member of the Minnesota Twins where he was a Gold Glove Award winner.

In 1998, he batted .323, with a .432 on-base percentage and .508 slugging percentage in 509 at-bats for the New Britain Rock Cats to earn Eastern League (Double-A) All-Star honors, and a September call-up to the Twins.

He batted .200 with two runs batted in in 25 at-bats for the Twins.

Mientkiewicz earned a roster spot with the Twins the following spring without having playing in Triple-A, and batted .229 with two home runs and 32 runs batted in sharing playing time with Ron Coomer at first base in 1999.

In LVBP he played one season with Navegantes del Magallanes in the 1999-2000 season batting for .268 with 2 homers and 10 RBI.

After a full season in the majors, Mientkiewicz spent the 2000 season with the Twins' Triple-A affiliate, the Salt Lake Buzz.

He was the Triple-A All-Star first baseman, and Pacific Coast League All-Star designated hitter.

He batted .334, with a .446 on-base percentage and a .524 slugging percentage in 485 at-bats for Salt Lake, while both scoring and driving in 96 runs.

After the Triple-A season, Mientkiewicz joined the U.S. Olympic team at the 2000 games in Sydney.

Mientkiewicz hit the go-ahead grand slam against South Korea in the semi-finals to help the U.S. capture its first-ever gold medal in baseball.

After dealing with doubts about his future as a ball player, he credits this experience for saving his career.

Following the Olympics, he spent three games with the Twins, collecting six hits in fourteen at-bats.

In 2001, Mientkiewicz was awarded the starting first base job for the Twins, and responded by batting .306 with fifteen home runs and 74 runs batted in (all career highs) while earning the American League Gold Glove award for top defensive first baseman.

His numbers dipped in 2002; however, he reached the post-season for the first time in his career, and hit two home runs in the 2002 American League Division Series against the Oakland Athletics.

The Twins battled the Chicago White Sox and Kansas City Royals for the division crown all season long in 2003.

Mientkiewicz drew the ire of the Chicago White Sox and their fans by suggesting that the All-Star Game, scheduled to be played at U.S. Cellular Field on July 15, should be moved to a different venue after a fan attacked umpire Laz Diaz during an April 15 game between the White Sox and Royals.

Chicago White Sox General Manager Kenny Williams shot back that Mientkiewicz should not worry about the game's location because he would not be there.

The fans booed Mientkiewicz the first time he and the Twins came to U.S. Cellular Field on April 25, and cheered White Sox starter Mark Buehrle for hitting Mientkiewicz with a pitch during his first at-bat.

Following a mid-September three-game sweep over the White Sox at the Hubert H. Humphrey Metrodome that gave the Twins a 3 1⁄2 game lead in the American League Central, Mientkiewicz again got himself in the crosshairs by commenting in a postgame television interview, "They're done," about his Central Division rivals.

The Twins won the division by four games over the Chicago White Sox, but were eliminated by the New York Yankees in the 2003 American League Division Series.

Mientkiewicz was also a member of the 2004 World Series winning Boston Red Sox team.

He is one of five players to win both an Olympic gold medal and a World Series championship.

After his playing career, Mientkiewicz briefly worked as a television sports analyst before serving as a minor league manager in the Los Angeles Dodgers and Detroit Tigers organizations.

Mientkiewicz attended Westminster Christian School in Palmetto Bay, Florida, where he was a teammate of Alex Rodriguez and Dan Perkins.

Mientkiewicz had a batting cage in his backyard which his high school teammates would use as they pleased.

He also played tight end while Rodriguez played quarterback on the school's football team.

As the trade deadline approached, the 2004 Boston Red Sox found themselves 8 1⁄2 games in back of the New York Yankees in the American League East, and one game in back of the Texas Rangers in the wild card race.

With infield defense proving to be their Achilles' heel, they made a four-team trade deadline deal on July 31 that landed Mientkiewicz and Montreal Expos shortstop Orlando Cabrera with the Boston Red Sox, and sent Justin Jones to the Twins.

The Red Sox also sent Nomar Garciaparra and Matt Murton to the Chicago Cubs, and the Cubs sent Francis Beltrán, Alex Gonzalez and Brendan Harris to the Expos as part of this trade.

Coincidentally, the Twins were playing a home series against the Red Sox at the time.

On July 30, 2004, Mientkiewicz went 2-4, scoring one run as a member of the Minnesota Twins.

The next day, July 31, 2004, Mientkiewicz was in the visiting dugout as a member of the Boston Red Sox, and started at first base and hit sixth in the lineup.

Mientkiewicz and Cabrera proved valuable additions to their new franchise as the Red Sox surged to within three games of the Yankees by the end of the season, and took the A.L. wild card by seven games over the Oakland A's. On August 16, Mientkiewicz made an emergency start at second base, a position he had only ever played four times in the minor leagues, and never in the majors.

Mientkiewicz went 4-for-10 in the post-season.

Mientkiewicz was elected to the Florida State University Athletics Hall of Fame in 2005.