David Newhan

David Matthew Newhan (born September 7, 1973) is an American former professional baseball utility player who played in Major League Baseball (MLB) for five teams during eight seasons.

He batted left-handed and threw right-handed.

Newhan attended Cypress College, a junior college, in 1992.

His coach experimented by putting Newhan at first base.

To prepare him, the coach had Newhan put on catcher's gear and then hit grounders at Newhan.

Eventually, Newhan played the position the entire year.

After a season at Cypress, Newhan was recruited to play second base alongside star shortstop Nomar Garciaparra at Georgia Tech in 1993.

Head coach Jim Morris had lied to him about the position, however, and he ended up playing first base.

He therefore transferred to Pepperdine University the following year.

In 1993 and 1994, he played collegiate summer baseball in the Cape Cod Baseball League for the Yarmouth-Dennis Red Sox.

At Pepperdine, he hit .313 with 15 home runs and 71 RBIs in 103 games in 1994 and 1995.

He was All-West Coast Conference as a left fielder in 1995, after leading the league in slugging and home runs.

He graduated from Pepperdine in 1995 with a business administration degree.

Newhan was drafted by the Oakland Athletics as an outfielder in the 17th round of the 1995 amateur draft.

He was primarily considered an outfielder until his second pro season in 1996..

Newhan hit .301 that season with a .538 slugging percentage, 25 home runs, and 17 stolen bases in 117 games.

In three years in the Athletics' minor league system, Newhan never made his way higher than Oakland's Single-A team, and despite signs of improvement, was traded with Don Wengert to the San Diego Padres organization for Jorge Velandia and Doug Bochtler in November 1997.

Newhan batted .277 over two seasons with San Diego's Double-A team.

He was promoted to the Padres' Triple-A team before the 1999 season where over 98 games he batted .286 with 22 stolen bases.

Newhan made his Major League debut with the Padres in 1999.

Newhan's father is Ross Newhan, a baseball writer who received the J. G. Taylor Spink Award in 2000 from the Baseball Writers' Association of America and was honored during ceremonies at the National Baseball Hall of Fame.

He began the 2000 season as the second baseman for the Padres, but hit for a batting average of only .150 and was soon demoted to Triple-A.

While in the minors, he was traded to the Philadelphia Phillies for Desi Relaford.

The Phillies briefly kept him at Triple-A before calling him up to the major leagues.

In the off-season, Newhan was traded to his previous club, the Padres, who then traded him back to the Phillies before the 2001 season.

During the 2001 season, Newhan appeared in seven games for the Phillies before injuring his shoulder making a play in the outfield.

"I ran into a wall, and it didn't move", he said.

He had season-ending shoulder surgery to repair a torn labrum on May 25.

In October, he was released by the Phillies.

Newhan was signed by the Los Angeles Dodgers in February 2002 and released in October.

He signed with the Colorado Rockies in May 2003 and played in their minor league system, hitting .348 with a .392 on-base percentage in Triple-A.

He became a free agent after the season.

The elder Newhan spent 44 years as a sportswriter in the Los Angeles area, first for the Long Beach Press-Telegram and then for the Los Angeles Times, covering the Angels, the Dodgers, and the national baseball scene until his retirement in 2004.

David Newhan was an infielder at Esperanza High School in Anaheim, California.

At Esparanza, he was teammate on the school's baseball team with Keith McDonald.

He starred in high school, but only received scholarship offers at the Division II level.

Through 2008, his minor league batting line was .290/.369/.464, with 109 home runs in 3,331 at bats.

The Philadelphia Phillies added Newhan to their triple-A Lehigh Valley IronPigs team as a player-coach in April 2009, and he hit .275 while playing first base, second base, shortstop, third base, and the outfield.

After serving three seasons as the hitting coach for the Minor League Baseball (MiLB) Lake Elsinore Storm, Newhan was named by the Oakland Athletics to manage its MiLB affiliate, the Vermont Lake Monsters, for the 2014 season.

He is currently a MiLB infield coordinator for the Los Angeles Angels after previously serving as the assistant hitting coach for the Detroit Tigers for two seasons.