Shawn Green

Green was born in Des Plaines, Illinois, and is Jewish. His family moved to New Jersey when he was one year old, then to San Jose, California, and finally to Tustin, California, when he was 12 years old. His father, Ira, played basketball at DePaul University for the Blue Demons during the 1960s, graduating in 1966, and his mother is the former Judy Schneider. and the most prominent one with the New York Mets since Art Shamsky played right field for the 1969 World Series champion Mets. Of Jewish major leaguers, only Hank Greenberg, with 331 home runs and 1,276 RBIs, has more major league home runs and RBIs than Green. Green opted to miss games on Yom Kippur, even when his team was in the middle of a playoff race. While Green is often likened to Hank Greenberg, Green's grandfather in fact shortened the family name from Greenberg to Green, for "business reasons". Green retired on February 28, 2008. Green has a residence in the Orange County, California, city of Irvine. In 2002, he married Lindsay Bear in a mixed Jewish and Christian ceremony. They have two daughters. ==High school==

He attended Tustin High School in Tustin, California, where he tied the California Interscholastic Federation record with 147 hits during his high school career. He was a first team selection to the 1991 USA Today All-USA high school team, while ranking third in his class academically. ==College and the baseball draft==

In , Green won a baseball scholarship to Stanford University, where he became a brother of the Delta Tau Delta International Fraternity. Green was drafted by the Toronto Blue Jays as their first round pick (16th overall) in the 1991 amateur draft. The Blue Jays drafted him using a compensation pick from the San Francisco Giants, to whom they had lost Bud Black via free agency. ==Minor league career==

In , Green played for the Dunedin Blue Jays of the Florida State League, and was selected to the league's all-star team. Green spent most of and in the minors, where he compiled impressive numbers. In 1994, he hit .344—winning the International League batting title—while ranking third in runs, hits, and on-base percentage and hitting thirteen home runs with 61 RBIs for Toronto's AAA affiliate, the Syracuse Chiefs. He was an International League all-star, was voted the International League Rookie of the Year, and was also voted the International League's Best Batting Prospect, Best Outfield Arm, and Most Exciting Player in Baseball America's Tools of the Trade poll. In addition, he won the R. Howard Webster Award as the Chief's MVP, and was the Blue Jays' Minor League Player of the Year. Green then hit .306 in the 1994– Venezuelan Winter League. ==Major league career==

Toronto Blue Jays (1993–1999) Green made his Major League debut on September 28 as the second-youngest player in the Major Leagues. He hit .329 in late innings of close games. He also made a second notable decision on September 26, donating his day's pay of $75,000 ($ in 2025) to a charity for survivors of the New York 9/11 terrorist attacks. Green started off slowly in , but turned things around with a record-setting power display. On May 23, the turning point of his season, he had one of the best single game performances ever. He hit a Major League record-tying four home runs and a record-tying five extra-base hits (he hit a double in addition to the home runs) against the Milwaukee Brewers, and had 19 total bases, breaking Joe Adcock's 1954 Major League record by one, while matching the major league record of six runs scored in one game. This record has since been matched by Nick Kurtz in 2025. No other major league player had six hits, five runs, and as many as four extra-base hits in a game again until Ian Kinsler of the Texas Rangers in 2009. He hit a fifth home run during the following game to tie the Major League two-game home run record (five), and then hit two more the game after to break the Major League three-game record (seven). Green also broke the NL record with nine home runs in that calendar week. He was voted to the All-Star team, and finished the season with a .285 average, .385 On-base percentage (a career best), 42 home runs (third in the league), 114 RBIs (fourth in the league), 114 runs (fourth in the league), 93 walks (a career best), 22 intentional walks (fifth in the league), and 20 stolen bases. His home run against the Mets on April 11 was the ninth-longest in the NL for the year, and only two longer home runs were hit in the AL. He also had another bright point—he struck out only 15.5% of the time, his best career year through 2006. He faded as the season progressed, dropping 65 points—and batting .240—after the All Star break. After the season ended, Green was 18th of all active players in doubles (and younger than all those ahead of him), and in the top thirty of all active players in home runs, runs, total bases, and extra base hits. He was also in the top 100 of all players ever lifetime in home runs. 2006 marked only the second post-season appearance of Green's career. In the 2006 playoffs, Green tied for the team lead with three doubles, and hit .313, second best on the team (as the Mets hit only .250). The report came amid retirement rumors. Green commented on them, saying: "There's been no decision on the future at all as far as I'm concerned. I'm planning on playing and seeing how things go...." In the fifth inning of the May 25, 2007, game against the Florida Marlins, Green suffered a chip fracture of the first metatarsal bone in his right foot when he fouled a ball off of it. Green at the time of the injury was batting .314, tenth-best in the NL, and .341 against right-handers, with five home runs, 22 RBIs, twelve doubles, and four stolen bases. On May 29, Green was placed on the 15-day disabled list; his first time on the DL in his career. The bone was expected to fully heal in six weeks, but he was activated well before then; on June 11 he was back in the lineup, though the bone was not completely healed, and went 2–for–4 with a run batted in and a stolen base. On June 24, Green started at first base for the first time since 2006, when he was a member of the Diamondbacks. Retirement After the 2007 season, Green became a free agent. He chose to retire before the start of the 2008 season as he wanted to be with his family. Green confirmed his retirement on February 28, 2008. Among all-time Jewish major league baseball players—through 2010—he was second in career home runs and RBIs (behind Hank Greenberg), and tenth in batting average (behind Morrie Arnovich). Fielding In 1998, Green had 14 assists and five double plays from the outfield. Most of Green's innings in the field were in right field, where he was awarded a Gold Glove Award in 1999. Green received two votes (0.4%) and was eliminated from future BBWAA voting. ==Team Israel==

Green played and coached for the Israeli national baseball team in the 2013 World Baseball Classic qualifier in September 2012. He was eligible to play for Israel because he is Jewish. Under the Classic's rules, non-Israeli citizens of Jewish heritage can play for the country. Israel lost to Spain in extra innings in the Pool Finals, missing out on a spot in the tournament. During the first game of the tournament Green was the designated hitter and batted fifth, going 2-for-5 with a run scored and a strike out. Green did not play in the second game. During the third and final game, Green went 1-for-4 with a run batted in while leaving seven men on base. ==Non-baseball career==

in 2011 to promote his book, The Way of Baseball Green made a cameo appearance on the series premiere of the hit show Numb3rs (2005), while he was an active Los Angeles Dodgers player, in the film The Core (2003) and on The Nick Cannon Show (2002). He founded Greenfly in 2014, a software company developing technology for sports and entertainment organizations and used by the Los Angeles Dodgers. In 2011, Green, with co-author Gordon McAlpine, published The Way of Baseball, a memoir of his spiritual development through his baseball career. ==Charitable work==

Green assists several charities, including the Juvenile Diabetes Research Foundation, Special Olympics, Parkinsons Foundation, and the United Jewish Federation. He donated $250,000 of his salary each year to the Dodgers' Dream Foundation ($1.5 million over siix years), supporting the development of 4 Dodger Dream Fields throughout LA and the purchase of books for local elementary schools and youth community programs. He also served as Spokesman for the Jewish Federation of Greater Los Angeles to promote literacy. In 2007, Green pledged to donate $180—or 10 times chai—to the UJA-Federation of New York for every RBI. This was also matched by the New York Mets and Steiner Sports Collectibles. Chai, which means life in Hebrew, has a numerological value of 18 and the Jewish community often gives gifts in multiples of 18 as a result. ==Honors and awards==

• Honored at the Baseball Assistance Team's annual Going to Bat for BAT fundraising dinner as the recipient of the Bart Giamatti Award for his off-the-field involvement in the community in 2000. • Named Baseball Man of the Year at the Cedars-Sinai Sports Spectacular on June 29, 2003, an event that helped raise money for the hospital's genetic defects unit. • Named a 2003 inductee into the Arizona Fall League Hall of Fame. • Presented the Hank Greenberg Sportsmanship Award by the American Jewish Historical Society in 2004. • Inducted into the Orange County Jewish Sports Hall of Fame at the Merage Jewish Community Center in Irvine, California. • Inducted into the Jewish Sports Hall of Fame Northern California. • Inducted into the Southern California Jewish Sports Hall of Fame (2001). • Inducted into the National Jewish Sports Hall of Fame (2005). • Inducted into the International Jewish Sports Hall of Fame (2014). ==Miscellaneous==

• Green's walkup songs were "Be Yourself" by Audioslave and "Song 2" by Blur. • Threw his batting gloves to children each time he hit a home run in his home ballpark. • Has two bats in the National Baseball Hall of Fame—1: the bat he used on May 23, 2002, to hit four homers against the Milwaukee Brewers, and 2: the bat he used to hit a grand slam on May 21, 2000, one of a record six grand slams hit on that day. • Shawn Green was also a playable character in Backyard Baseball 2001, Backyard Baseball 2003, and Backyard Baseball 2005, representing the Dodgers. ==See also==