Mike Greewell, who took over the Boston Red Sox iconic left-field position from Jim Rice â and whose first three Major League hits were all home runs â has died at age 62, according to a social media post by the government of Lee County, Florida.
Since 2022, Greenwell served as a county commissioner there. Greenwell was a native of Fort Myers, Florida, which is in Lee County and has also been the site of the Red Sox’ spring training facility since 1993.
Born on July 18, 1963, in Louisville, Kentucky, Greenwell moved with his family â including four brothers and two sisters â to Fort Myers when he was five years old. The city was then the spring training home of the Kansas City Royals, and Greenwell’s love of baseball burgeoned when he would visit their camp, idolizing the Royals’ third-baseman George Brett.
Also a star quarterback on his high school football team, Greenwell received a scholarship offer from the University of Miami, but chose instead to sign with the Red Sox and start his pro baseball career with their minor-league affiliate in Elmira, New York.
Played on 4 Red Sox Playoff Teams
Greenwell retired from baseball in 1996, after a 12-year MLB career spent entirely with the Red Sox, who drafted him in the third round in 1982 out of North Fort Myers High School.
He played on Red Sox playoff teams four times, including in the 1986 World Series when Boston lost in crushing fashion to the New York Mets after leading 5-3 in the top of the 10th inning of what would have been a decisive Game Six.
After retiring from baseball, Greenwell returned to Fort Myers where he started a series of business ventures, including a construction company, a restaurant, and an amusement park he named “Mike Greenwell’s Bat-A-Ball & Family Fun Park.”
When he sold the park in 2019, the new owners renamed it “Gator Mike’s Family Fun Park,” in homage to Greenwell’s nickname, “Gator,” which he acquired because he once wrestled alligators.
In Boston at Time of Death
In 2022 Greenwell was appointed to the Lee County Board of County Commissioners by Florida governor Ron DeSantis and later won election to the board. In 2024 he served as chair of the commissioners board.
But in August, Greenwell announced that he had been diagnosed with medullary thyroid cancer, the rarest type of thyroid cancer which in 25 percent of all cases is linked to an inherited, genetic condition, according to the Cleveland Clinic.
According to a statement by Greenwell’s wife, Tracy Greenwell, the 2008 Red Sox Hall of Fame inductee was in a Boston hospital when he died at 10:30 a.m. on Thursday.
Inherited Iconic Boston Left Field Spot
Though he never played on a World Series-winning team, Greenwell was an important member of several memorable editions of the Red Sox. In 1988, Boston came back from 10 games behind the New York Yankees on June 13 to win the American League East in an era when there were no wild card playoff entries and only two divisions per league.
The Red Sox came out of the All-Star break that year winning 19 of 20 games to put themselves into a tie with Detroit Tigers atop the division by August 3.
Greenwell posted a .325 batting average with 22 home runs that season, earning his first of two All-Star selections and placing second (behind the Oakland A’s Jose Canseco) in AL MVP voting.
He saw action in teh 1985 and 1986 seasons â including one hit in five at-bats in the ’86 postseason â but Greenwell’s official rookie season came in 1987 when he batted .328 with 19 home runs and finished fourth in AL Rookie of the Year balloting (Oakland’s Mark McGwire won the award).
Greewell was also a member of the Red Sox division-winning teams in 1990 and 1995.
Greenwell took over most of the Red Sox’ left field duties from Ricein 1988, making him only the fourth regular Boston left fielder since Ted Williams took over the position in 1940, followed by Carl Yastrzemski in 1961 and Rice in 1975.
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