Andre Ethier

Andre Ethier was born on April 10, 1982, in Phoenix. Ethier attended St. Mary's High School (Phoenix, Arizona). He is one of seven children born to Byron Ethier and Priscilla Ethier. He has three brothers – Adam, Devon and Steven, and three sisters – Catherine, Belinda and Shaye. His father Byron comes from a mixed background of French Canadian and Cherokee cultures and his mother Priscilla is Mexican American.

Ethier re-enrolled at ASU in the fall of 2001 and played there until the end of his junior year in 2003 with an ASU career batting average of .371, 113 runs, 27 doubles, 7 triples, 14 home runs and 118 runs batted in. His collegiate career ended in the midst of a 23-game hitting streak. He was a two-time Pacific-10 Conference All-Star in 2002–03.

Ethier was drafted by the Oakland Athletics in the 37th round of the 2001 amateur draft. Opting to attend ASU instead, he was drafted in the second round of the 2003 amateur draft, again by the Oakland Athletics. He signed with the Athletics on July 1, 2003.

Oakland assigned him to the Single-A Vancouver Canadians and later to the Kane County Cougars for the 2003 season. His minor-league career continued in 2004 with the Modesto Athletics, where he hit .313, and in 2005 with the Midland RockHounds Double-A team, where he hit .319 with 18 homers and was selected as the Texas League Most Valuable Player, Oakland Athletics Minor League Player of the Year, Texas League All-Star Outfielder and Texas League All-Star Game MVP. He also played four games in 2005 with the Sacramento River Cats Triple-A team. [1]

On December 13, 2005, Ethier was traded by the Oakland Athletics to the Los Angeles Dodgers for Milton Bradley and Antonio Perez.

Ethier hit a double and drew a walk in his Major League Baseball debut with the Los Angeles Dodgers on May 2, 2006, against the Arizona Diamondbacks in his home state of Arizona and hit his first home run the next night, against Dewon Brazelton of the San Diego Padres.

While attending Arizona State University (ASU), Andre met Maggie Germaine, a former ASU gymnast. She set school records while at ASU with a total of nine perfect 10.0 scores. The couple married in 2006 and have three sons and a daughter. On October 17–18, 2014, Andre and his wife were honored as the first husband-wife inductees in the Arizona State Sports Hall of Fame.

In 2009, Ethier hit .272 with a career-best 31 home runs and 106 RBI. For this performance, Ethier won a Silver Slugger Award and finished sixth in National League MVP voting. Ethier was a key contributor for the Dodgers that season, with six walk off hits (including four walk off home runs), the most by any player in the Major Leagues since 1974. His four walk-off home runs tied the Major League record for most in a season. On June 26, 2009, Ethier hit three home runs in a game against the Seattle Mariners, driving in a career-high six runs.

Ethier transferred to Chandler-Gilbert Community College after playing with Arizona State University in the fall of 2000. The coaching staff at ASU told him that they thought he did not have Division I talent, and that he would do better to play junior college ball. At CGCC, Ethier batted .468 and accumulated 94 hits, 32 of which were doubles. He was named team MVP. During the summer of 2001, he played with the Keene Swamp Bats in the New England Collegiate Baseball League. In 2010, Ethier was inducted into the NECBL Hall of Fame.

Ethier became the subject of some controversy in the second half of the season. Los Angeles Times columnist TJ Simers wrote an article that quoted Ethier as saying his production was down in 2011 because of a knee injury that he had been battling all season, and implying that the Dodgers were forcing him to play despite his injury. Manager Don Mattingly said he was "blindsided" by the story, and responded that he would never make a player play hurt. After a meeting with Mattingly and GM Ned Colletti, Ethier backed off on his comments and said it was his choice to play hurt.

After the September 7 game, Ethier decided to shut down for the season in order to consult doctors on the problems with his knee, with the hope of getting healthy in time for spring training. Ethier appeared in 135 games with the Dodgers in 2011, hitting .291 with 11 home runs and 62 RBIs.

Ethier won a Gold Glove Award on November 1, 2011. Clayton Kershaw and Matt Kemp also won Gold Gloves, giving the Dodgers three Gold Glove winners in one year for the first time in franchise history.

He played in 149 games in 2012, hitting .284 with 20 homers and 89 RBI.

After being a corner outfielder for his entire career, Ethier was moved to center field for the first time in the Majors in 2013 because of injuries to Matt Kemp. On September 2, Ethier became the first player in Dodger history to record seven seasons with 30 or more doubles. His season though took a quick step back after getting injured. Beginning September 13, Ethier wore a walking boot for a sore foot that caused him to miss several games at the end of the season and limited him in the playoffs. For the entire season he played 142 games and hit .272 with 12 homers, 33 doubles, and 52 RBIs.

On November 26, 2017, Ethier announced he would retire. Hours later, he reversed the original announcement, and remained unsigned. On July 25, 2018, Ethier officially announced his retirement and the Dodgers announced that he would have a retirement ceremony on August 3 prior to the game against the Houston Astros.