Bill Mueller
William Richard Mueller ( ; born March 17, 1971) is an American retired professional baseball third baseman who played in Major League Baseball (MLB). Mueller's MLB playing career was spent with the San Francisco Giants (1996–2000, 2002), Chicago Cubs (2001–2002), Boston Red Sox (2003–2005), and Los Angeles Dodgers (2006). He is currently the hitting coach at Arizona State. Many of Mueller's accolades came during the 2003 season, when he won the American League batting title and a Silver Slugger Award. A switch hitter, he became the only player in major league history to hit one grand slam from  both sides of the plate in the same game on July 29, 2003. Mueller was the starting third baseman for the Red Sox' 2004 World Series championship team that beat the St. Louis Cardinals. Since his playing career, he has served in MLB as a front office assistant and hitting coach. Playing career. Mueller was born in Maryland Heights, Missouri, and attended De Smet Jesuit High School. He attended Southwest Missouri State University, was a four-year starter for the Bears baseball team, and in 2004 inducted into the school's athletics hall of fame. He was named the MVC  Player of the Year in 1993, and inducted into their hall of fame in 2020. In 1992, Mueller played collegiate summer baseball in the Cape Cod Baseball League for the Bourne Braves. He was drafted by the San Francisco Giants in the 15th round of the 1993 MLB draft. Mueller made his professional debut with the Giants low A team, the Everett Giants, in 1993 and quickly rose through the Giants farm system, with stops in San Jose, Shreveport, and Phoenix before making his major league debut with the Giants as a pinch hitter on April 18, 1996, against the  Chicago Cubs. He got his first career hit the following day, also as a pinch hitter, against Terry Adams. Mueller played third base for the Giants fairly regularly for five seasons, until he was traded to the Chicago Cubs before the 2001 season for pitcher Tim Worrell. (Given that Mueller had by then settled into the Bay Area year-round, the Giants, out of respect for Mueller, delayed the trade several days so that Mueller could attend the Cal-Stanford football game one last time as a local star.) He returned to San Francisco in September 2002 in a trade  for minor league pitcher Jeff Verplancke. Before the 2003 season, Mueller was signed by the Boston Red Sox as a free agent. In his first year in Boston, he won the American League batting title with a .326 average. He also set career highs with 45 doubles and 19 home runs. Before 2003, he had never hit more than 10 home runs or 29 doubles in any season. He contributed nearly half of his career home runs during his three years with the Red Sox. Mueller developed a reputation for consistency throughout the major leagues. For five of his ten  years in the major leagues, his batting average was between .290 and .295. His minor league numbers were very much the same, consistently between .290 and .310. Mueller joined the Los Angeles Dodgers for the 2006 season and was reunited with former Boston teammate Nomar Garciaparra, but played only 32 games before undergoing his third knee surgery, which would prove to be career-ending. Doctors ruled out all known procedures to repair the deteriorating condition in his right knee. In 1216 games over 11 seasons, Mueller posted a .291 batting average (1229-for-4223) with 663 runs, 265 doubles, 22 triples , 85 home runs, 493 RBI, 543 bases on balls, .373 on-base percentage and .425 slugging percentage. He finished his career with a .958 fielding percentage playing at third and second base. In 36 postseason games, he hit .234 (34-for-145) with 14 runs, 8 doubles, 1 home run, 4 RBI and 13 walks. Coaching career. On November 17, 2006, the Dodgers announced that Mueller was retiring as a baseball player, and had been hired as a special assistant to the general manager. On June 15, 2007, Mueller was named Los Angeles Dodgers interim hitting coach when Eddie Murray was  fired. After a month on the job, manager Grady Little announced that the Dodgers would be removing the "interim" tag and that Mueller would remain the teams's hitting coach through the end of the season. After the season, it was announced that Mueller would be giving up his role as hitting coach to return to a front office position. Mueller served as a special assistant to General Manager Ned Colletti through the 2012 season, when he left that position to become a full-time scout. On November 22, 2013, Mueller was named hitting coach of the Chicago Cubs under  new manager Rick Renteria. On October 7, 2014, he subsequently resigned that position, a week after his assistant, Mike Brumley, was dismissed by the Cubs. On November 17, 2014, Cardinals GM John Mozeliak announced "We have an upcoming deal with Billy Mueller." on the hiring of a Cardinals new assistant hitting coach. Mueller was named the first-base coach after third-base coach Jose Oquendo was placed on medical leave of absence on March 27, 2016. After being named assistant hitting coach for the 2017 season, he missed part of the first half after taking a personal leave of absence , but returned on June 27. Mueller was fired by the Cardinals along with manager Mike Matheny on July 14, 2018. On January 17, 2022, Mueller was hired by the Washington Nationals as part of the team's player development staff. Personal life. Mueller became an evangelical Christian in 2000.