Mike Neill
Michael Robert Neill (born April 27, 1970) is an American former Major League Baseball and Olympic baseball player.
| Mike Neill | |||||||||||||||||||||
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| Outfielder | |||||||||||||||||||||
| Born: April 27, 1970 Martinsville, Virginia | |||||||||||||||||||||
Batted: Left Threw: Left | |||||||||||||||||||||
| MLB debut | |||||||||||||||||||||
| July 27, 1998, for the Oakland Athletics | |||||||||||||||||||||
| Last MLB appearance | |||||||||||||||||||||
| August 1, 1998, for the Oakland Athletics | |||||||||||||||||||||
| MLB statistics | |||||||||||||||||||||
| Batting average | .267 | ||||||||||||||||||||
| Home runs | 0 | ||||||||||||||||||||
| Runs batted in | 0 | ||||||||||||||||||||
| Teams | |||||||||||||||||||||
Medals
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Career
His baseball career included a stint with the Oakland Athletics and ended with the Olympic Gold Medal team in the 2000 games in Sydney, Australia. He was named Delaware Athlete of the Year in 2000. At Villanova University he compiled a .417 career batting average, led the Wildcats to the 1989 and 1991 Big East Conference crowns and was named 1991 Big East Player of the Year. He established team records: 232 hits, 53 doubles and 379 total bases and several single season records.
Neill won two Minor League batting championships and had a .307 batting average over 11 years. He was selected to 4 All-Star teams and was a key player in the Vancouver Canadians' 1999 AAA World Series victory.
He was called up by the Oakland Athletics in 1998 but was sidelined with an injury. Neill led the 2000 USA Olympics team to a 4–0 win over Cuba in the gold medal game with a 1st-inning home run and a dramatic sliding catch in the 9th inning. His walk off homer against Japan won the team's 1st round Olympic contest. During the 1999 Pan American Games he had the game-winning hit to clinch the Olympic berth for his USA team.
References
- Career statistics and player information from Baseball Reference
- Baseball Almanac
- Evans, Hilary; Gjerde, Arild; Heijmans, Jeroen; Mallon, Bill; et al. "Mike Neill". Olympics at Sports-Reference.com. Sports Reference LLC. Archived from the original on 2020-04-18.
