A farewell to Andre Ethier — Mr. Clutch
by Cary Osborne
The 2005 Dodgers were 71–91 — only the second time in Los Angeles Dodgers history that the team had lost at least 90 games.
But hope was on the horizon.
The Dodger farm system was one of the best in baseball and ready to ripen for Major League picking. Players like Matt Kemp, Russell Martin, Chad Billingsley, James Loney and Jonathan Broxton made up a group that was tabbed to change the fortune of the franchise.
One more piece would help.
The Dodgers were looking to deal enigmatic veteran outfielder Milton Bradley, and the only team that showed interest was the Oakland A’s. There was only one player the Dodgers targeted in a return — Andre Ethier.
Ethier was the A’s second-round pick in 2003 out of Arizona State. He was the Double-A Texas League Player of the Year in 2005. Al Lammachia — an 84-year-old scout for the Dodgers who lived in Texas, saw a lot of Ethier that year. Then Dodger general manager Ned Colletti, just weeks into the job, brought Ethier’s name up to Lammachia as a possible return for Bradley.
“Al Lammachia was adamant that (Ethier) was the guy,” Colletti recalls.
On Dec. 13, 2005, the Dodgers acquired Ethier from the A’s for Bradley and infielder Antonio Perez.
What the Dodgers acquired that day would end up being a foundational piece of one of baseball’s most winningest franchises for the next decade plus and one of the greatest hitters in Los Angeles Dodgers history.
The Dodgers announced Ethier’s retirement on July 25 and will hold a retirement ceremony before the game Aug. 3 for the outfielder, who spent his entire 12-year Major League career with the Dodgers, tonight at Dodger Stadium, ending a historic career.
Ethier played in eight postseasons with the Dodgers, appearing in a franchise record 51 playoff games. He ranks in the top 10 in nearly every category in Los Angeles Dodgers history, including third in doubles (303), fourth in extra-base hits (499), sixth in total bases (2,224), seventh in hits (1,367) and tied for eighth in home runs (162). He is the LA Dodgers all-time leader in being hit by a pitch (58).
Ethier made his Major League debut on May 2, 2006 in his hometown of Phoenix against the Arizona Diamondbacks and his first hit, a foreshadowing of what was to come, was a seventh-inning double off Luis Vizcaino. From 2007 to 2013, Ethier had seven straight seasons with 30 or more doubles. He is the only player in franchise history to have at least 30 two-baggers in seven seasons.
It was 2009 when Ethier truly became a Dodger hero. He hit four walk-off homer runs and had six walk-off hits. Included in that incredible bunch was a walk-off, three-run homer on Aug. 6, 2009, at Dodger Stadium with the Dodgers down 4–2 to Atlanta at the time. The homer came off Braves closer Rafael Soriano, who had a 1.80 ERA in 49 games that season with opponents hitting .157 against him.
“I don’t know if I had ever seen that before,” Colletti says of the Ethier’s ability to deliver in the clutch that season. “He was somebody who hunted that moment in the game.”
Ethier collected a career-best 31 homers and 106 RBI that season and batted .272/.361/.508. He finished sixth in the National League MVP voting and won a Silver Slugger award.
He made All-Star teams his next two seasons and in 2011, a year the outfielder also won a Gold Glove Award, Ethier had a 30-game hitting streak — one game short of Willie Davis’ franchise record set in 1969. It’s one of 56, ironically, hitting streaks of at least 30 games in Major League history. There have been only three this decade (Dan Uggla, 2011 and Freddie Freeman, 2016).
After a down year in 2014 in which he OPsed .691, Ethier had a stellar return to form with an .852 OPS in 2015.
But 2016 and 2017 were nearly lost seasons. A tibia fracture and lumbar disc herniation limited him to 64 plate appearances. Both injuries occurred in Spring Training, and each time Ethier returned to play in September and earned his way onto the postseason roster.
Despite the injuries, he was an influential figure in the Dodger clubhouse, serving as a mentor to young players, notably Cody Bellinger, who said Ethier took him under his wing and gave him tough love.
“As his career evolved, he became more and more of a veteran presence,” Colletti says. “Last year and the year before when I was doing TV at the ballpark, I’d talk to different people about the team. Especially last year, people raved about how he undertook a leadership role. A Bellinger, a Corey Seager, a Joc Pederson — different players who were trying to find their way. And I think that is a great attribute to have and a great way to give back to your organization for the blessings of your career.”
Throughout his career, Ethier has been a hero in the community as well. Helping the homeless and underprivileged was a passion of Ethier’s. He frequently aided people at Los Angeles’ Union Rescue Mission, including grilling Dodger Dogs for the homeless. His donations to the Los Angeles Dodgers Foundation helped revitalize the mission’s learning center. It was thus renamed The Maggie and Andre Ethier Learning Center for him and his wife.
His contributions also supported four-year scholarships for three current Jackie Robinson Foundation/Ethier Family Scholars attending college at Arizona State University and the University of Arizona.
There were school visits and hospital visits and the time he took a group of children holiday shopping.
Now that Ethier has announced his retirement, there was a moment that serves as a perfect ending. Ethier helped turn the Dodgers into a winning franchise again. But the Dodgers still hadn’t reached a World Series in 29 years as of 2017.
In Game 3 of the National League Championship Series at Wrigley Field, with the Dodgers leading the series 2–0 but down 1–0 in the game in the top of the second inning, Ethier hit a momentum- killing home run. The Dodgers went on to win the game 6–1, later win the series in five and reach the World Series, where the club’s final hit in Game 7 fittingly came from Ethier on a pinch-hit RBI single.
“Very, very happy for him, and the game honors you,” Roberts said. “A guy like Andre, who has done it the right way for such a long time and repeatedly said he just wanted to be a part of this and to prepare every single day like he’s going to play, when that opportunity presented itself, he was ready. For him to come through and perform and pick us up the way he did is no surprise. It’s just a credit to his professionalism.”
