Doug Mientkiewicz

Doug Mientkiewicz was a first baseman who helped the US won gold at the 2000 Sydney Olympics. Mientkiewicz was chosen in the 12th round of the 1992 Major League Baseball (MLB) Draft but chose to play in college at Florida State. He would eventually be elected to the Florida State University Athletics Hall of Fame in 2005. He was drafted in his senior year by the Minnesota Twins in the fifth round of the 1995 MLB Draft.

Mientkiewicz played in the minors for a few years but came up to the bigs in 1998 for a cup of coffee with the Twins. He played most of the 1999 season with the Twins but was back in Triple-A in 2000, which enabled him to play on the Olympic team.

Mientkiewicz played in MLB from 2001-04 with the Twins and was then traded to the Boston Red Sox, helping them break the Curse of the Bambino by winning the 2004 World Series. He played through the 2009 season with single seasons with the New York Mets (2005), Kansas City Royals (2006), New York Yankees (2007), Pittsburgh Pirates (2008), and the Los Angeles Dodgers (2009). He was a Gold Glove Award winner in 2001.

After he retired Mientkiewicz worked as an analyst for CBS Sports in 2010. He became a baseball coach, first with the Dodgers as a rookie league hitting coach in 2012. He then spent several years managing in the minor leagues, first with the Class-A Fort Myers Miracle, then the AA Chattanooga Lookouts, and the Triple-A Toledo Mud Hens.