Boston Red Sox Star Mike Greenwell Dies At 62
It is a tough day in Boston. A cloud hangs over Fenway, and it has nothing to do with the New England weather. Mike Greenwell, the man they called “The Gator,” has passed away at 62 after a hard-fought battle with thyroid cancer. For those of us who grew up watching him patrol that monstrous green wall in left field, this one stings.
Greenwell wasn’t just a ballplayer; he was a personality, a firecracker, and a guy who embodied the grit of those Red Sox teams of the late ’80s and early ’90s. He played his entire 12-year career in Boston, a rarity even back then. He was a two-time All-Star, a Silver Slugger winner, and the guy who almost snatched the MVP trophy right out of Jose Canseco’s hands in 1988. That season was pure magic. Greenwell hit a staggering .325 with 22 homers and 119 RBI. He even hit for the cycle that September. He was, in every sense of the word, a dude.
Greenwell Was More Than a Ballplayer
But to really get Greenwell, you have to go beyond the box score. This is the guy who earned his nickname, “The Gator,” by catching an actual alligator during spring training, taping its mouth shut, and sticking it in a teammate’s locker. You can’t make this stuff up. It is a level of old-school pranksterism that you just don’t see anymore. He was fearless, both with reptiles and at the plate, standing closer to the dish than anyone dared. As former teammate Marty Barrett put it, “He was always laughing… I loved playing alongside him.”
After hanging up his spikes, Greenwell didn’t just fade away. He traded his bat for a steering wheel, diving headfirst into auto racing and even making a couple of starts in NASCAR’s Truck Series. When he was done with that, he went home to Florida and served his community as a Lee County commissioner. He never forgot where he came from.
The news of his passing on Thursday morning, confirmed by his wife Tracy in a heartbreaking social media post, has sent ripples through the baseball world. “With a heavy heart, I lost my best friend today,” she wrote. “It was Mike’s time to be an angel.”
Former teammates are remembering him not just for the player he was, but for the man he was. “He was a great teammate and an even better person,” said Pitcher Bob Stanley. Dwight Evans added, “You always wanted to be around him… He was a gamer in every sense of the word.”
For a generation of fans, Greenwell was a constant, a fixture in left field who played with a passion that was impossible to ignore. He was inducted into the Red Sox Hall of Fame in 2008, a well-deserved honor for a player who gave his all to the city and the team.
Mike Greenwell was more than just his .303 lifetime average or his 130 home runs. He was a character, a competitor, and a Red Sox legend. He’ll be deeply missed.
