Ohio born Doug Mientkiewicz attended Westminster Christian School in Palmetto Bay, FL, where he was a star on a stacked baseball team that also featured future MLB superstar Alex Rodriguez.
Selected in the 12th round of the 1992 MLB Draft by the Toronto Blue Jays, Mientkiewicz decided against turning pro and attended Florida State University. After a successful run as a Seminole, the MLB Draft once again came calling as the Minnesota Twins selected him in the fifth round of the 1995 draft.
Playing seven seasons in the Twin Cities, he spent the bulk and most productive part of his career there.
In 2004, he headed to Boston in a trade deadline deal and became a part of the legendary Red Sox team that brought a World Series title back to the city for the first time since 1918. He caught the final out at first base and initially hung onto the ball but it was eventually turned over to the Baseball Hall of Fame.
The Gold Glove first baseman also spent time with the New York Mets, Kansas City Royals, New York Yankees, Pittsburgh Pirates and Los Angeles Dodgers before retiring after the 2009 season. After retiring from the game in 2009, the first baseman spent time coaching and managing in the minors, including time with the Twins, Dodgers and Tigers. He also worked as a sports analyst for some time.
Mientkiewicz is only one of five players to win both a World Series championship and an Olympic gold medal.
In this interview with SC Daily, he talks about appearing on a trading card at 11 years old, his parents’ super collection and more.
Tony Reid– You have 816 different cards. Your very first cards were produced when you played for the Fort Myers Miracle where you were actually pictured as a catcher and then there were more when you played for the New Britain Rock Cats. Your big league rookie cards were released in 1999 in a bunch of products. Do you remember the first time seeing yourself on a trading card?
Doug Mientkiewicz– It was actually when I was 11. We went to Japan as a smaller USA Team and they made cards for us, so I remember seeing that and thinking like those were it. I thought they would be the last cards ever made of me. I really enjoyed it. I had no Idea I would get to where I did as a career.
TR- That’s a record of all of the guys I’ve talked to. Did you hold on to that card?
DM- I’m sure. My mom has literally every card ever was ever produced. My dad has a friend that he’s worked with for a long time and all he does is collect cards. So whenever there was a new one that he’s never had before he makes sure that he got two of them, one for him and one for my mom.
TR–We will fast forward to 1999 when your big league cards came out. Obviously you were a veteran of cards at that point but when you first saw your big league cards what were your thoughts?
DM – I know my dad was super proud but seeing it for the first time and seeing the Topps guys come and hand the veteran guys a really nice check was always cool. It went from just getting my own cards made to people asking you to sign some, it’s like, okay, I think that starts to let you know that I’m doing this thing right and I’m getting a little bit better.
TR-I always like to ask the first time players were asked for their autograph. Maybe for you it happened at 11 years old but do you remember the first time a fan asked you to sign an item for them?
DM-This is a really funny story. I was five and my parents were from Toledo, Ohio and the Toledo Gold Diggers were a minor league hockey team in town. If you are a hockey buff you know Mike Eruzione played on that team. He scored the winning goal in the 1980 Winter Olympics against the Russians. That was the Miracle on Ice. He was my favorite player. They used to do give away that if your program was stamped you got to go on the ice and shoot a puck through like a Wendy’s sponsored covered net. They put a cover over the net and it had maybe an eight inch slot in the middle. If you made it through the hole, you got 52 free Wendy’s dinners. I was skating before I was walking. My dad had me on ice skates before I was like two or three years old. Hockey was all we knew. So I go out there. The arena was packed. It was a small arena. I was five so it looks like there are 100,000 people there. We go there every night. Long story short, they shoot from the blue line. I was five and I guess everybody started booing because they didn’t move me up. No, I’ve seen people shoot from here, you know, I can do this. Well, I shot it through the hole. They gave me 52 free Wendy’s dinners. As I was walking off the ice, I had a man and a woman ask if I would sign their program for them. So, I was five when the first person asked me for my autograph.
TR– You are breaking records with every answer. Speaking autographs and fan interactions you’ve played in some of the best cities around the country. Do you have a most memorable fan story whether it was good or bad? What’s the most memorable fan interaction you’ve ever had?
DM-Oh, I’ve had a bunch of them. From the usual on deck guys that run their mouths and just saying some stuff like I suck and that stuff. My line always back to him was ‘I might suck but you’re the idiot that paid your hard earned money to come see my sorry ass play.’ That was my interaction to try to get them smiling. I’ve had some that are pretty entertaining. I’ve hit a couple of home runs and come back after they were running their mouth and what started as ripping became fans for life. You try to interact as much you can, at least I did.
There was a quote from Derek Jeter that always stuck with me. He said ‘I played for the one kid who’s never seen me play.’ That kind of resonated with me for a long time. We have our moments where we’re not a good mood and we’re sore, cranky, didn’t sleep well, not playing well, and then you see that kid that’s sitting out there. When you are playing first base you have a lot of extra baseballs. You bring one out between innings. You get a lot of foul balls, too. You pick that one kid out who is polite and also might be a bit shy. You make sure you get him a ball. It might be their first game. They will never forget it. Tony Oliva was big on that. Make sure you hand the ball to the young kids. Hopefully you play this game long enough that they become dads and share stories and that is how your legacy lives on. That is the way we were brought up.
TR– Do you currently have any memorabilia on display from your long career?
DM-I used to. I have some stuff in my son’s room. I have Pedro’s (Martinez) jersey. I have Manny’s (Ramirez) jersey. I have my World Series jersey. There are some paintings around. I got smarter as I got older to realize that these aren’t just friends. They are going to be legends. I never thought of it that way before. My son was born in 2005, so I kind of got caught up. I got Derek (Jeter). I got (Jorge) Posada. I was playing with the Yankees, so obviously I got Mariano (Rivera), Roger Clemens, and guys like that. It’s funny that my son refers to David Ortiz as Uncle David, so he has an autograph from Uncle David. It means a ton to have an autograph but it’s also just Uncle David. He also has Uncle A.J. Pierzynski.
I have some balls from Cal Ripken and Mark Grace. Mark Grace is the first one I ever asked for. I just I heard a lot about him and I molded my game like his game. He was never the big, burly first baseman, he just woke up getting three hits a game. I always loved the way he played the game, no batting gloves and just getting after it.
TR– Is there anybody, looking back now, that you are like, man, I wish I would have stopped this guy at some point and asked for an autograph?
DM-There were plenty of times. I think of all the guys I coached and managed. Guys like Byron Buxton, Eddie Rosario and Corey Seager. Corey was my first like real protégé. Joc Peterson, too. I’ve never had Corey sign anything for me. I had a really good rapport with him in rookie ball and through A ball. You try to be the authority figure but the same token being their manager you get to kind of watch them grow and it’s like a father/son thing. There are a lot of guys I wish I would’ve done more of that stuff with that I didn’t do when I was playing.
TR–Going back to childhood, who were your guys? Whose cards were you collecting? Whose posters were on the wall?
DM-My dad was a big Pete Rose fan. I had Dwight Gooden posters on my on my wall as a kid. I remember my rookie call up year in 1998. We faced Dwight Gooden and I struck out twice. The first thing I did when I came home was rip his posters off the wall. I was a more of a Dan Marino fan more than a baseball fan.
TR–If you could go back a do a jersey swap with any player from your playing days, who would you swap with and why?
DM-I didn’t even have a jersey of mine in Minnesota because we had to give them back. I moved on to other teams and was amazed that we got to keep our jerseys! There are so many. Jim Thome is one. He became a teammate but I was always thought the world of him.
Here is a funny story. I asked Sheff (Gary Sheffield) to sign a bat for me. Two days later he sent the clubhouse guy over and he wanted me to sign one for him. I saw him at batting practice and I said I didn’t mean it to come off in a weird way but why in the world do you want one of mine? What’s wrong with you? I told him he didn’t have to do it. He said ‘No Dougie, I want one of yours.’ I was blown away. That’s Gary Sheffield. I don’t have enough jerseys. I would want to hand them out to everybody because I felt that everybody as better than me. I didn’t make enough money in my career where I had room to put up everybody’s jersey that I admired. I tried to find one thing about each guy that I wished I could emulate that. I always had a fond respect of what other guys could do that I couldn’t.
Catch Tony’s “Card Back Q&A” with Mientkiewicz in the coming days.
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