Captain Clutch: Andre Ethier

Andre Everett Ethier was born on April 10th, 1982, in Phoenix, Arizona. He is one of seven children. He has three brothers, Adam, Devon and Steven, and three sisters, Catherine, Belinda, and Shaye. His father, Byron, has Cherokee and French-Canadian ancestry. His mother, Pricilla, is Mexican American.

His father played ball under Gary Ward at Yavapai Junior College and was part of the JC National title winning team. His grandfather, Pierre, Pete, Ethier, played professional baseball at the minor league level reaching AAA. One of his brothers, Devin, also played baseball and was drafted by the Dodgers in the 32nd round in 2010.

After playing with ASU in the fall of 2000, Andre transferred to Chandler-Gilbert Community College. The coaches at ASU told him they did not think he had division one talent and he would be better off playing at a JC. He hit .468 and had 94 hits, 32 of those were doubles. He then played for the Keene Swamp Bats of the New England Collegiate Baseball League.

In the fall of 2001, Andre re-enrolled at ASU and played there until the end of his junior year in 2003. His collegiate career ended with a 23-game hitting streak, a .371 BA, 113 runs, 27 doubles, 7 triples, 14 homers and 118 runs driven in. He was a 2-time PAC-10 All-Star in 02 and 03. He was good friends with teammates, Ian Kinsler and Dustin Pedroia.

Ethier had been drafted by the Oakland A’s in the 37th round of the 2001 draft. He opted to return to ASU and then in 2003, he was drafted by the A’s in the second round. This time he signed. He advanced up the ladder quickly and by 2005 he was at AA Midland. He played 4 games for their AAA affiliate. On December 13, 2005, he was traded to the Dodgers for Milton Bradley and Antonio Perez.

Some might have felt at the time that the A’s fleeced LA. Sending an AA outfielder for a proven MLB talent, Bradley, and Perez, who had just had a very decent first full season in the majors hitting .297 and leading the Dodgers with 11 steals. He was a versatile infielder who played 3rd, 2nd and SS. But Bradley was a mercurial personality who had pretty much worn out his welcome in LA. He had several on-field incidents including throwing a bottle of water at a fan who had thrown it at him.

In 2005, he was playing well but then strained his ACL and that put him out for the year. Ned Colletti decided enough was enough, and he was packaged with Perez. For the record, Perez was out of the big leagues after an awful showing with the A’s in 2006. Bradley bounced around for a couple of seasons, but still had problems. In the meantime, Ethier settled in as a regular for the Dodgers.

He debuted in Dodger blue on May 2, 2006. He had a double and a walk. The next night, he got his first career HR off of Dewon Brazelton of the Padres. On May 19th he had a breakout performance going 5-5 and raising his BA from .222 to .317. He remained hot and was named MLB player of the week for the week ending July 9th. His BA peaked at .354 and he remained a top candidate for the ROY award, but a later slump dropped his BA to .308 and he finished 5th in the voting. That award went to Hanley Ramirez of the Marlins.

Andre entered the 2007 season fully expecting to split outfield time with Matt Kemp and Luis Gonzalez. But because of an injury to Kemp, he saw a lot of playing time. After starting slowly, he gradually got his BA up to .284 for the season with 13 long balls and 64 driven in.

In 2008, he beat out Juan Pierre for the starting LF job. But at the deadline, LA traded for Manny Ramirez and Andre moved to his more natural position in RF. With Manny playing left, Kemp in CF, the team made it to the NLCS before losing to the Phillies. Andre did not hit well in either series.

2009 would be one of those years. Ramirez would become a non-factor after resigning with the Dodgers. On May 7th, Manny, who started the season off hot, was suspended 50 games for violating MLB’s Joint Drug Prevention program. Did not matter. Ethier picked up the slack. And during the course of the season he would pick up the nickname, Captain Clutch. Ethier had six walk off hits in 2009. Four of which were homers. The first time since 1974 anyone had six walk off hits. The four homers set a MLB record. He would hit .274 for the year with 31 homers and 106 RBI’s. The only time in his career he would reach those numbers. He played a lot better in the playoffs, but after defeating St. Louis in the NLDS they lost to Philly again in the NLCS.

Andre started off great in 2010. But on May 15 he broke his pinky and was placed on the 15-day DL. He did make the All-Star team with more than 2.7 million votes. But a slump at the end dropped his BA to .292. He had 23 homers and 82 driven in.

In 2011, Andre started off red hot. He set an April record for the longest hitting streak at 23 games, breaking the record set by Joe Torre. The streak would reach 30, second most in LA Dodger history to Willie Davis. He was a final vote candidate for the All-Star game but lost out to Shane Victorino. When Victorino could not play, Ethier was added to the All-Star roster. There was some controversy surrounding Ethier in the second half when he told TJ Simers of the Times that his production was down due to a knee problem that had been bothering him all year.

Dodger manager, Don Mattingly, was blindsided by the report and said he would never make a player play injured. After a meeting with Colletti and Mattingly, Ethier backed off of his claim and said it was his choice to play hurt. After a game on September 7th, Ethier shut it down for the rest of the season so he could get his knee right before spring training. For the year he hit .291/11/62. He earned a Gold Glove that season, as did Clayton Kershaw and Matt Kemp. Giving the Dodgers three Gold Glove winners for the first time in team history.

On June 12th, 2012, the Dodgers signed Ethier to a five-year, 85-million-dollar contract extension. Later on, many would say that this was not a good deal for the Dodgers. Of course, you cannot see into the future and predict the injuries that might happen. Ethier had a decent year, hitting .284/20/89.

Andre became the only Dodger in history to have 30 or more doubles in seven seasons in 13. But the injurie bug hit him again in September. He wore a walking boot for a sore foot that had been bothering him for a while. It limited his at bats in the NLDS and in the NLCS he was not effective at all. The season line was.272/12/52.

In 2014, after playing RF for most of his career, he was again moved to CF for the second straight year. This time, not due to Kemp’s injury, but due to his defensive troubles. But when the Dodgers called up phenom Yasiel Puig to patrol center, Kemp was moved to right and Andre to the bench. Colletti said he felt Andre had the makeup to be a bench player and contribute when he needed. Andre received high praise for the way he handled the demotion, even though he was one of the highest paid players on the team. He did this without creating any problems and the Times noted that he remained completely professional unlike some other Dodger players who complained openly when their playing time was reduced. Hello Matt Kemp. Andre appeared in only 130 games, his lowest total since his rookie year hitting .249/4/42.

New ownership had taken over from McCourt in 2012. Things were slowly changing in the organization. A new president of baseball operations, Andrew Freidman, had taken over in Oct of 2014. Injuries to Puig and Carl Crawford early in 2015 forced Ethier into an everyday role. Andre responded and played well. He hit 2 go-ahead homers on August 2nd, including a walk-off in the 10th inning to give the Dodgers their first sweep of the Angels since 2006. It was his seventh walk off homer and his 14th walk off hit. Putting him right behind Dusty Baker, 16, all time. He hit .250 in the playoffs against the Mets. His final line was .294/14/54. Unfortunately, it would be his final full season as a Dodger. Injuries in 16 and 17 limited him to 16 and then 22 games respectively.

Andre would get 15 at bats in the 17 playoffs. He would go 4-14 with a homer and 2 runs batted in. He was 2-5 in the World Series against the Astros. All of those PH appearances. He was a free agent after the 17 season. But when no one signed him, he decided to retire in July of 2018. The Dodgers announced an official retirement ceremony on August 3rd before a game with Houston. Ethier’s final line was .285/162/687 in 12 years, all with the Dodgers, in the majors. Captain Clutch was just that many times for the Dodgers and he was one of my personal favorites.

Andre and his wife, the former, Maggie Germaine, an ASU gymnast who scored 9 perfect 10’s, and ASU record, live with their three children in the Arcadia neighborhood of Phoenix. They were the first husband-wife inductees into the ASU Hall of Fame.