Barring another unexpected setback, Adam Greenberg will finally get an official at bat in the Major Leagues. Greenberg, who was hit in the head with a pitch when he debuted with the Cubs seven years ago, has signed a one-day MLB contract with the Marlins, MLB announced (on Twitter).
Greenberg, a 31-year-old who bats left-handed, will record his first official at bat on October 2nd against the Mets. It'll be his first plate appearance since July 9th, 2005, when he was hit in the head by a pitch from Marlins pitcher Valerio De Los Santos. Greenberg agreed to donate his salary to the Sports Legacy Institute via the Marlins Foundation, according to Joe Capozzi of the Palm Beach Post.
He has an 1.000 On base percentage!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
Does anybody know how much his salary would be for one day? I assume is a pro-rated portion of MLB minimum but how much?
A little less than $3,000
If I’m the pitcher facing him, barring a playoff-qualification scenario, I’m throwing him one right down the middle so he can (hopefully) crush it. Adam’s waited too long.
He is gonna face the Mets, he will crush the pitch regardless.
Dickey’s pitching…..
The Marlins only have the Braves (already in), the Phils (pretty much eliminated), and the Mets (eliminated), so nothing will effect the playoff races.
That said, why would you insult the guy by going easy on him? The guy wants an official AB, make him earn a hit. It’d be a better compliment to him then just giving him a free shot.
Except for the fact that the Braves have openly stated how aggressively they are going after the division.
When I started reading your comment, I thought you were going to say that you would be throwing at him (and it made me feel sad inside).
I’m all for feel-good stories but this one is a joke. He hasn’t played any baseball in something like 5 years. This is just a PR stunt. He has already played in a big league game. A guy who hasn’t played in 5 years, coming off the street to face big league pitching, is going to look like a joke. Why stop here? Why not start auctioning off MLB appearances to raise money for charities? This is a dumb idea and MLB should intervene and put a stop to it.
Must not be fun to go through life with that attitude…
Aside from lacking the obvious elements of humanity and empathy, your post is factually incorrect. Greenberg was playing independent ball through last year (where he singled in an at bat vs De Los Santos), and is/was a member of Israel’s WBC squad this year. He has been very active in the community here in CT and has stayed heavily involved with baseball… both coaching and playing. If he were not worthy of a major league at bat, he wouldn’t have gotten the offer. He deserves it, plain and simple.
Maybe I’m being a total scrooge about this, but he didn’t do anything to really deserve another major league shot. It’s not like he was some hot prospect who had his career derailed by a gnarly incident. He doesn’t even have 25 ABs in AAA! Congrats for getting the gig, and glad he’s donating the salary to charity, but he’s far from deserving of it.
yea u are. his followup year in the minor collapsed.
but other than that, I dont know what #s ur looking at. But his BA past few years have been above around 260s. High OBP (.373) career. 124 SB / 29CS last 3 years. And quite capable of guaranteeing a dozen triples in a full year.
He gets on-base and can steal really well.
Not a lot of power, but if you look at him offensive-wise (minors), he is sort of a “downgraded” (no disrespect) version of would be teammate Jose Reyes
I did overlook the speed, and I saw the high K numbers without looking at walks or OBP, so thanks for pointing that out (wrote him off as a Jimmy Paredes type). I’ve read his story, and I get why it’s a feelgood story, and that’s fine. I knew I was going to get completely crushed for posting my opinion, but there are almost always two sides to every story, and I don’t feel that both sides ever get told when it comes to stories like this or something similar. It’s one of my big issues with media and the people who buy into whatever they publish without researching it. I could have picked a more brainwashed venue (Facebook, for instance) to try this out on, though, since most posters at MLBTR are pretty smart/have their own brain.
I’m not ripping on Adam Greenberg, just this situation. He hasn’t been good enough to play in the minor leagues since 2008. He wasn’t good enough through is age 27 season to even play regularly in AAA. (He has 22 career AB’s in AAA) The Cubs called him up (along with Matt Murton) because they were trying to make a point about veterans not hustling and had just sent down Corey Patterson and Jason Dubois. Felix Pie would have been called up to replace Patterson, but he was hurt, so they called up Greenberg from AA. They needed bodies.
Exactly how many professional AB’s period did Eddie Gaedel have before he stepped up to the plate for an official MLB AB??
Let the kid get his.. MLB has allowed 60YO guys like Minnie Minoso and Satchel Paige to play.. Let this one as well.
Wow.
How desperate are the Marlins for good PR?
It’s nice to see Moonlight Graham finally get his AB. No strikes looking, kid!
Maybe he can pitch the 9th inning as well?
In the wake of this story and most recently that Ben Petrick one from E:60…it’s really nice to see something like this happen.
So the team that ruined his career is giving him a 1-day contract to help his career? Sorry Miami, but it’s just a little too late to be going for good karma…
I’d rather see Anthony Molina get an AB
I’m trying to figure out how the Marlins will screw this up. I’m betting on Ozzie putting him in as a pinch hitter, but replace him when the Mets bring in a lefty.
I’m curious about what betting odds would be for him getting a hit or whatever. Would have to be extremely long odds.
how nuts would it be if he roped one over the fence? very Hollywood-esque, but man that would be cool. Good for him though
Way cool!
Whoever is pitching better not throw anything that even remotely inside or things might get ugly
It wasn’t just being hit in the head in his debut…what this article doesn’t point out is that it was the FIRST pitch, which makes all the worse.
Then it will go down as one of the strange stories in baseball history.
I think he was hit in the head as a baby.