Shawn Green

Shawn David Green

• Bats Left, Throws Left
• Height 6' 4", Weight 190 lb.
• High School Tustin High School
• Debut September 28, 1993
• Final Game September 29, 2007
• Born November 10, 1972 in Des Plaines, IL USA

BR page

Biographical Information

Compared to John Olerud early in his career, Shawn Green hit .306 in the 1994-95 Venezuelan Winter League. His 1994 regular minor league season was even more impressive - he won the International League batting championship by hitting .344, all the while ranking third in runs, hits and on-base percentage. He was voted a Triple-A All-Star that year, as well as the league's best batting prospect and also the league's most exciting player.

Green had hit .486 with a tourney-best 17 hits for the US in the 1990 World Junior Championship; he scored 14 runs and stole 8 bases in 9 games while making the All-Tournament team.

In 2000, Green drove in 99 runs, which tied the Los Angeles Dodgers record for most RBI by a left-handed hitter. He also knocked 44 doubles that year, which was the second highest total in Dodger history.

On May 23, 2002, Green hit four home runs in one game against the Milwaukee Brewers, which tied a major league record. On that same day, he also set the record for most total bases in a game - 19 - after going 6 for 6, with a single and double to complement his four home runs (one of which was the 200th of his career). He was the only player in the Retrosheet era (since 1954) to have a game with at least 6 runs and 6 RBI. Green was the last National League player to get six hits in one game, and the only one to do it in the 2000s. He hit 9 total home runs in a five-game span to set a major league record, and another by hitting 7 home runs in 3 games. In 2003, no doubt because of what he did the season before, he was elected to the Jewish Sports Hall of Fame. That year, he also set a new team record with 49 doubles in a season, the most since the team's move to Los Angeles in 1958. That record would hold for exactly 20 years, as it was topped by Freddie Freeman in 2023.

Hailed by Tom Glavine as, "one of those rare, special hitters...[who] can hurt you with power, but doesn't [...] swing at a lot of bad pitches," Green was traded to the New York Mets in August, 2006, where he became Glavine's teammate.

He became eligible for election to the Hall of Fame in 2013 but received only two votes and was dropped from the ballot.

Notable Achievements

• 1995 Topps All-Star Rookie Team
• 2-time All-Star (1999 & 2002)
• AL Gold Glove Winner (1999)
• AL Silver Slugger Award Winner (1999)
• NL Total Bases Leader (1999)
• AL Doubles Leader (1999)
• 20-Home Run Seasons: 7 (1998-2002, 2004 & 2005)
• 30-Home Run Seasons: 4 (1998, 1999, 2001 & 2002)
• 40-Home Run Seasons: 3 (1999, 2001 & 2002)
• 100 RBI Seasons: 4 (1998, 1999, 2001 & 2002)
• 100 Runs Scored Seasons: 4 (1998, 1999, 2001 & 2002)

Further Reading

• Shawn Green and Gordon McAlpine: The Way of Baseball: Finding Stillness at 95 mph, Simon & Schuster, New York, NY, 2011. ISBN 1439191190

Related Sites

• Shawn Green at the SABR Bio Project
• Box score for Shawn Green's four-home run game