Mike Greenwell, a former left fielder for the Boston Red Sox and an heir to a long line of Hall of Famers who played the caroms off Fenway Park’s towering Green Monster, becoming a two-time All-Star and a 1988 runner-up for the American League Most Valuable Player Award, died on Thursday in Boston. He was 62.
His death, in a hospital, followed treatment for medullary thyroid cancer, according to a statement by officials in Lee County, Fla., on the state’s west coast, where Greenwell had served as a county commissioner since 2022.
A Florida native known as the Gator, Greenwell hunted alligators in the offseason and fastballs during the regular season, channeling a sweet left-handed stroke and wall-crashing intensity in the outfield into a steady, at times spectacular, 12-year career in Boston.
Greenwell inherited the franchise’s storied left field position in 1987 from the slugger Jim Rice, a former M.V.P. winner like Ted Williams and Carl Yastrzemski, who had patrolled the same ground. Greenwell nearly became Boston’s fourth left fielder to earn that distinction the next year.
It was a career year for him. Greenwell batted .325 with 39 doubles, eight triples, 22 home runs and 119 runs batted in, along the way winning a spot on the American League All-Star team.
Coming out of the All Star break, he helped fuel a Red Sox streak remembered as Morgan Magic, in honor of the team’s new manager, Joe Morgan, as the team won 19 out of 20 games on their way to capturing the American League East Division title.
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The post Mike Greenwell, All-Star Outfielder for the Red Sox, Dies at 62 appeared first on New York Times.
