Mark C. Teixeira - Class of 2019 Inductee
Channel: Georgia Sports Hall of Fame
Date: 2019-03-06

Mark Teixeira grew up in Severna Park, Maryland and attended Mount Saint Joseph High School in Baltimore, Maryland, where he played infield on the school’s varsity baseball team. Teixeira represented his high school as a member on the USA Today All-USA high school baseball team in 1998. Teixeira was initially chosen in the ninth round of the 1998 MLB draft by the Boston Red Sox. He instead chose to play collegiately at the Georgia Institute of Technology. 

While playing for the Yellow Jackets, he won the Dick Howser Award as the top collegiate baseball player in the nation with a .427 batting average, 18 home runs, 104 runs scored, a .772 slugging percentage, and a .547 on-base percentage during the 2000 season. He was also honored as the Atlantic Coast Conference’s Baseball Player of the Year. 

Teixeira re-entered the MLB Draft in 2001 and was selected by the Texas Rangers as the fifth overall pick. After signing his first major league contract, Teixeira set up a scholarship at his former high school in honor of his friend Nick Liberatore who had been killed in a car accident at the age of 16. He spent one season in the minors before making his debut with Rangers in 2003. in 2005, Teixeira’s outstanding playing earned him the Silver Slugger Award as the best-hitting first baseman in the American League as well a Golden Glove. He was also named to his first of three All-Star Games in 2005 and became one of five players in MLB history to hit 100 home runs in his first three seasons.

Teixeira left the Rangers in 2007 and joined the Atlanta Braves. In 54 games, he batted .317 with 17 home runs and 56 RBI. He then had a brief stint with the Los Angeles Angels of Anaheim, before signing with the New York Yankees where he played for the rest of his career. In his first season with the Yankees, Teixeira led the AL in both home runs with 39, and RBI with 122. During the 2009 postseason, he hit a walk-off home run in Game 2 of the ALDS. The Yankees would go on to win the World Series. Teixeira was again awarded a Silver Slugger and Golden Glove Award.

Teixeira continued his superb playing until his retirement in 2016. During the course of his career, he amassed a .268 batting average, 409 home runs, 1298 RBI, three All-Star Game selections, 5 Golden Gloves, 3 Silver Sluggers, and a World Series championship. Teixeira is a board member of the Greenwich International Film Festival, the Emerald Corridor Foundation, and DREAM which is a foundation that provides inner-city kids the opportunity to play, learn, and grow.