Alumni Profile: Bill Mueller

In honor of the greatest rivalry in sports, lets look at former Brave, Bill Meuller. 
Dave Roberts may have stolen the base, but former Bourne Brave Bill Mueller was the one who drove him in with a single off Mariano Rivera to send the game into extra innings, you know the rest of the story.

After playing for the Bourne Braves in 1992, he was drafted in the 15th round by the San Fransisco Giants, making his Major League debut in 1996. Mueller played third base for the Giants fairly regularly for five seasons, until he was traded to the Chicago Cubs before the 2001 season.  He returned to San Francisco in September 2002 in a trade for pitcher Jeff Verplancke. Before the 2003 season, Mueller was signed by the Boston Red Sox as a free agent. In his first year in Boston, he won the American League batting title with a .326 average. He also set career highs with 45 doubles and 19 home runs. He had never previously hit more than 10 home runs or 29 doubles in any season. He contributed nearly half of his career home runs during his three years with the Red Sox. Mueller developed a reputation for consistency throughout the major leagues. In fact, for five of his ten years in the major leagues, his batting average was between .290 and .295. His minor league numbers were very much the same, consistently between .290 and .310.
After the Red Sox he signed with the Dodgers where he only played 32 games before being forced to retire due to knee issues.

The definition of a consummate professional, Bill Mueller played the game the right way from his days on the Cape with Bourne to the final at bat some 3,000 plus miles away  in 2006 with the Dodgers.

Playing Career:

• San Francisco Giants (1996–2000)
• Chicago Cubs (2001–2002)
• San Francisco Giants (2002)
• Boston Red Sox (2003–2005)
• Los Angeles Dodgers (2006)

Career Highlights:

• Was the American League batting champion in 2003 with a batting average of .326.
•  Won the American League Silver Slugger Award for third basemen in 2003.
• On July 29, 2003 against the Texas Rangers, became the only player in major league history to hit two grand slams in a single game from opposite sides of the plate. He in fact hit three home runs in that game, and his two grand slams were in consecutive at-bats.