Andre Ethier life and biography

Los Angeles is a city known for its swinging nightlife. When the sun goes down and the stadium lights come up, no one swings sweeter than Andre Ethier. The lanky right fielder has the entire Hollywood package—good looks, chiseled physique and a flair for the dramatic that has made him the toast of the town. The Dodgers were a baseball afterthought in Tinseltown before Andre crashed the lineup in 2006. They have been glittering pennant contenders ever since.

GROWING UP

Andre Everett Ethier was born April 10, 1982, in Phoenix, Arizona. One of seven children born to Byron and Priscilla Ethier, Andre has three brothers—Steven, Devon and Adam—and three sisters—Catherine, Belinda and Shaye.

All of the Ethier boys played baseball, with their dad serving as coach. Byron had been a college infielder in the 1970s. He looed two seasons for Gary Ward at Yavapai Junior College and winning a national championship.

Andre was a left-hander who tore the cover off the ball in Little League. Byron, a righty, was concerned that his son wasn’t seeing enough left-handed pitching as a boy, so he taught himself how to throw as a southpaw. By the time Andre entered high school, Byron could put a little heat on his pitches and even break off a decent curve.

Andre played for St. Mary’s High School in Phoenix. During the summer, he joioned a travel team called the Firebirds. After earning a starting spot on both squads as a freshman, Andre began to excel against top competition. The Firebirds won three state championships with Andre in the lineup.

For coach Keith Merkel’s St. Mary’s Knights, Andre earned three letters as an outfielder. He won his first as a sophomore in 1998. As a senior in 2000, Andre hit better than .500 and was First Team All-Region and Second Team All-State.

By this point, Andre knew he wanted to be a big leaguer. He had gotten a taste of life as pro as a kid. His dad got a job as a batboy with the Phoenix Firebirds, the Triple-A affiliate of the San Francisco Gianst in the early 1990s. Among the players Andre met was pitcher Salomon Torres. Fourteen years later they would face each other in the majors, when Torres was winding up his career with the Pittsburgh Pirates.

Andre’s first substantial step toward the big leagues was a scholarship to Arizona State. He had always dreamed of playing for the Sun Devils. When they offered a full-ride, he accepted right away. After enrolling at ASU in the fall of 2000, Andre decided to transfer to nearby Chandler-Gilbert Community College to get his academics under control and continue to develop as a player. CGCC had an excellent baseball team, and Andre was its top player. He batted .468 in 2001, with 32 doubles. He was named all-conference and earned honorable mention as a JC All-American.

In 2002, Andre returned to Arizona State and suited up for coach Pat Murphy. The Sun Devils went 37–21 and finished third in the Pac-10. Andre was a huge part of that success. He knocked in four runs in his first game for ASU and, despite missing several weeks with a sore thumb, he batted .363 and tied for second on the team with 50 RBIs in 48 games. Early in the season, an interesting battle developed at shortstop, as freshman Dustin Pedroia unseated sophomore Ian Kinsler. Kinsler eventually transferred. With Andre and Pedroia in the lineup, the Sun Devils finished second in the regionals of the NCAA Tournament.

Healthy for the entire 2003 season, Andre tore it up for ASU. He batted .377 with 75 runs, 68 RBIs and 26 extra-base hits. The Sun Devils won 54 games and finished second in the conference. They lasted until the Super Regionals in the NCAA tournament. ASU ended the year at #7 in the national rankings.

Splitting his time between center and right, Andre led the team in outfield assists. His finest moment came in the bottom of the ninth inning of a game against Stanford. He blasted a two-out, three-run homer to complete a seven-run comeback by Arizona State. Dramatic homers would soon become Andre’s calling card.

ON THE RISE

Andre was selected in the second round of the June draft by the Oakland A’s. His high on-base percentage caught the eye of the Oakland brass, who preached this skill above all otherS throughout their system. Andre signed for a $580,000 bonus and began his pro career with the Vancouver Canadians of the Northwest League. He batted .390 and earned a promotion after only 10 games to Kane County of the Class-A Midwest League. He played in 40 games for the Cougars, who won their league pennant. Among Andre’s teammates on the club were Joe Blanton, Nelson Cruz and John Baker.

Andre played the 2004 season with Class-A Modesto. He spent most of the year in center field and finished among the California League’s Top 10 hitters with a .313 average. A stress fracture in his back cut short Andre’s season. He was fully recovered by 2005 and earned a spot with Von Hayes’s Midland RockHounds of the Class-AA Texas League.

It was a breakout season for Andre, who was joined by future big-league stars Daric Barton and Dallas Braden. They led the RockHounds to the league championship. Andre finished third in the batting race with a .319 average, adding 18 homers and 88 RBIs. His 104 runs topped the circuit. Andre also got into four games with Oakland’s Triple-A club in Sacramento.

After the season, Andre was named Texas League Player of the Year, as well as the top player in the Oakland farm system. With a major-league roster spot possibly around the corner for Andre, the team sent him to the Arizona Fall League. He continued to perform well, leading the AFL with a .495 on-base percentage and 21 RBIs in 23 games. He led his “hometown” team, the Phoenix Desert Dogs, to the league title.

It didn’t take long for the phone of Oakland GM Billy Beane to start ringing. The Dodgers offered Milton Bradley. The troubled outfielder had worn out his welcome in Los Angeles, calling Jeff Kent a racist during a long, losing summer and then immediately suffering a season-ending injury. The Dodgers threw in Antonio Perez, a utility infielder who hit .300 much of the year. The A’s made the deal.

In addition to a new team, Andre also had a new spouse. He married his girlfriend Maggie Germaine before spring training in 2006. They had their first child, Dreson, during the 2008 season.

Andre was ticketed to Triple-A Las Vegas in the spring, but he was recalled when Ricky Ledee went on the DL in early May. Andre made his major-league debut with dozens of friends and family in the stands against the Arizona Diamondbacks. He doubled off of Luis Vizcaino for his first hit.

Andre kept hitting and kept playing. From mid-May until the end of August, he batted close to .350. He more than held his own in left field and was being touted as a Rookie of the Year candidate, along with teammate Russell Martin. Then he hit the wall in early September. The Dodgers eventually benched him for veteran Marlon Anderson, which actually helped preserve his average of .308—third-best among that year’s rookies.

The Dodgers won the Wild Card in the first season for manager Grady Little and GM Ned Colletti. Besides the excellent trade for Andre, Colletti also signed free agents Rafael Furcal and Nomar Garciaparra, who both had big years. He picked up veteran Greg Maddux before the deadline as well.

Colletti’s best move was signing Japanese veteran Takashi Saito in the spring. When Eric Gagne’s season ended early, Saito stepped in and notched 24 saves. In the playoffs, the Dodgers fell in three straight to the New York Mets. Andre spent the series on the bench, logging a single at-bat.

Andre got his bat going in spring training in 2007 to win back his starting spot. After a lukewarm start, he caught fire in June and stayed hot most of the summer. Andre was in the starting lineup most days, and when he wasn’t, he was one of the NL’s most destructive pinch-hitters. He went yard twice coming off the bench in clutch situations, including a three-run, ninth-inning blast at Wrigley Field to highlight a Dodger comeback. Andre completed the year with a .284 average, with 32 doubles, 13 homers and 64 RBIs.

The Dodgers had an exciting mix of young players and veteran stars in ’07. During the first half of the season, they looked like a good bet to win the National League West. The second half was another story. The team’s emerging stars, now including Matt Kemp and James Loney, could not balance the ill effects of an injury-plagued starting staff, an overworked bullpen and a season-killing injury to Furcal. The Dodgersfaded down the stretch and finished 82–80, in fourth place.

MAKING HIS MARK

At this point, the only major concern about Andre as a big leaguer was how hard he took his failures. Like any young player, he was prone to getting himself out and giving away at-bats. However, he would still be steaming about a second-inning strikeout when he came up again in the fourth inning. Some wondered whether the competitive fire that elevated Andre to the majors would eventually burn him out.

In 2008, Joe Torre was hired to manage the Dodgers, and Don Mattingly—a second-place finisher for the manager’s job in the Bronx—decided to join Torre in Los Angeles as batting instructor. Andre couldn’t have picked a better tutor.

He had a huge year, leading the Dodgers with 20 homers and .305 average. Andre also tied Kemp for the club lead with 38 doubles. He hit nearly half his home runs after Manny Ramirez joined the team in July. After an up-and-down first half, the Dodgers kicked it into high gear in the final two months to win a weak NL West.

In the Division Series, the Dodgers dominated the Cubs, sweeping them in three games. It was a different story against Philadelphia in the NLCS. The Dodgers had leads in the first four games, but could manage only a single victory. The Phillies finished them off in Game 5 on a second strong outing by Cole Hamels. Andre was a non-factor in both series, collecting a mere six hits in the eight games.

Andre blossomed into one of baseball’s most exciting stars in 2009. He set an NL record with four walk-off homers, clubbing 31 in all. Twenty-two of those came at Dodger Stadium—the most ever by anyone in a season there. Eighteen either tied games or gave Los Angeles the lead. Andre hit ’em in bunches. He had six multi-homer games, including a three-homer outburst against the Seattle Mariners.

Andre also topped the century mark in RBIs, with 103, and batted .274. With his 42 doubles, he became one of only four Dodgers in team history to reach the 30-homer/40-double club. The others were Babe Herman, Eric Karros and Raul Mondesi.

After a surprising sweep of the St. Louis Cardinals in the Division Series, the Dodgers met the Phillies again in the NLCS. Andre went into the series with great confidence. He had homered in the final two games of the Division Series, and back in June, he had beaten the Phils in back-to-back games with walk-off hits—a 9th-inning double and a 12th-inning homer.

The championship series was a different story. Once again, the Phillies were better. The Dodgers’ only win came in Game 2, when Andre worked out a bases-loaded walk in the eighth inning to plate the deciding run in a 2–1 victory. He gave his teammates hope when he homered in the top of the first inning of Game 5, but the Phillies responded with a three-run blast in the bottom half by Jayson Werth. Philly went on to win 10–4.

Though disappointed for the second straight postseason, Andre at least could view his own performance with pride. He batted over .300, with three homers and six RBIs in eight games. His slugging average was over .800.

The Dodgers have the young personnel needed to sustain a climb toward the pennant, though they are likely to meet the powerhouse Phillies somewhere along the way. The team’s veterans are focused and hungry, and their young stars are brimming with talent and confidence. With the adjustments that must be made during a long season, it seems inevitable that some key pieces may have to be swapped to fill pressing needs. Andre is unlikely to be part of any such discussions. Any questions as to his future in Los Angeles were answered over the winter with a two-year $15 million deal. Dodger fans couldn’t be happier to have their leading man wrapped up for the foreseeable future.

ANDRE THE PLAYER

Andre’s lovely swing was honed slowly, over many years. Unlike most major leaguers, he was not a superstar from the time he could walk. The power stroke was developed with help from his dad and subsequent coaches. His timing, quickness and strength didn’t completely click until he was a pro.

As a rookie, Andre had no trouble hitting lefties. But the majors being what they are, southpaws managed to find a few flaws in his approach. Atthe moment, the better lefties are able to gain the upper hand. Knowing Andre, that won’t continue much longer. He is a diligent worker in the batting cage and unafraid to let pitches get deep into the hitting zone before pulling the trigger.

Is Andre’s attitude a plus or a minus? The jury may still be out on that question. Joe Torre says Andre reminds him of a young Paul O’Neill—full of anger at himself. O’Neill became a .300 hitter only after taming that intensity. Former Dodger Randy Wolf disagrees. He says harsh self-critique is what makes Andre a giant.

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