Mike Greenwell, known as 'The Gator,' spent his entire Major League Baseball career with the Boston Red Sox, playing for the historic team from 1985 to 1996. Sadly, he died earlier this week after being diagnosed with medullary thyroid cancer in the summer.
Representing the No. 39, he played as a left-fielder for the Red Sox, ending his 12 seasons at the famed organization with a .303 batting average, 130 home runs, and 726 runs batted in. The two-time All-Star was also awarded the Silver Slugger Award in 1988. He was nearly named A.L.'s Most Valuable Player in 1988 aswell, losing out only to Jose Canseco.
Greenwell's remarkable career earned him a place in the Red Sox Hall of Fame, where he was officially inducted in 2008. While most will be familiar with his many years in the MLB, it's a lesser-known fact that he also tried to become a professional NASCAR driver after his baseball career came to an end.
Greenwell puts down the glove and picks up the steering wheel
However, the transition from baseball to stock car racing was far from easy for the former Red Sox player. He began his journey by racing late models, and he actually won a track championship at New Smyrna in 2000.
In 2006, the 42-year-old 'rookie' finally made his national-level debut, entering the seventh round of the NASCAR Truck Series season, driving the No. 08 Chevrolet for Bobby Dotter's Green Light Racing team.
He started 20th in the 36-truck field, which was set by owner's points. The race was quite the wreckfest with a total of 18 cautions, and he couldn't escape trouble.
100 laps into the race, he had fallen a lap down and was side-by-side with third-place Erin Crocker on a restart. This was back when NASCAR still had single-file restarts, and put vehicles that had fallen off the lead lap to the inside of the race leaders.
Greenwell slipped up, spinning her out and triggering a yellow flag. He already had a bit of tape on the left-side door from some earlier contact back in the pack, and now he had some right-front fender damage as well. Crocker didn't know who was piloting the No. 08, and asked her team over the radio as she was upset about the incident.
He fell back to 34th by the halfway point of the wild race, and about 20 laps later, he was involved in another yellow. He spun on his own at the exit of Turn 4 while trying to hold the bottom and stay out of the way of the lead lap trucks. That was the tenth caution of the chaotic event, but thankfully, the field avoided him.
He fell two laps down as the race progressed, but the amount of yellows helped him to eventually fight his way back onto the lead lap. He was awarded back-to-back free passes for being the top-running driver off the lead lap, which came with the 13th and 14th cautions of the race.
He remained on the same lap as the leaders for the rest of the race after that, finishing 26th as Ron Hornaday Jr. captured the checkered flag.
Greenwell's second and final appearance in the NASCAR Truck Series came a few months later in the 14th race of the year at another short track -- Memphis Motorsports Park. He started 35th, and unfortunately was the cause of the very first caution of the race. Just six laps into the event, he went for a single-truck spin on the backstretch.
The truck did not sustain any significant damage and he was able to continue, completing 198 of 200 laps. He ended the night two laps down in 33rd in what turned out to be the end of his NASCAR experiment.
He officially gave up racing in 2010 at the age of 47, and while his career as a NASCAR driver didn't pan out the way he had hoped, Greenwell had already cemented himself as a legend in Boston.
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