Daniel David Ortmeier (born May 11, 1981) is a former

Major League Baseball Major League Baseball (MLB) is a professional baseball organization and the oldest major professional sports league in the world. MLB is composed of 30 total teams, divided equally between the National League (NL) and the American League (AL), ...

outfielder An outfielder is a person playing in one of the three defensive positions in baseball or softball, farthest from the batter. These defenders are the left fielder, the center fielder, and the right fielder. As an outfielder, their duty is to cat ...

and

first baseman A first baseman, abbreviated 1B, is the player on a baseball or softball team who fields the area nearest first base, the first of four bases a baserunner must touch in succession to score a run. The first baseman is responsible for the majori ...

. He made his major league debut on September 5, , with the

San Francisco Giants The San Francisco Giants are an American professional baseball team based in San Francisco, California. The Giants compete in Major League Baseball (MLB) as a member club of the National League (NL) West division. Founded in 1883 as the New Yor ...

High school

Ortmeier was born in

Chattanooga, Tennessee Chattanooga ( ) is a city in and the county seat of Hamilton County, Tennessee, United States. Located along the Tennessee River bordering Georgia, it also extends into Marion County on its western end. With a population of 181,099 in 2020, ...

, and played

baseball Baseball is a bat-and-ball sport played between two teams of nine players each, taking turns batting and fielding. The game occurs over the course of several plays, with each play generally beginning when a player on the fielding tea ...

Lewisville High School Lewisville High School is a public high school in Lewisville, Texas in the Dallas-Fort Worth area. The oldest of five high schools in the Lewisville Independent School District, it was opened in 1897, making it the only school in the district to ...

in Lewisville,

Texas Texas (, ; Spanish language, Spanish: ''Texas'', ''Tejas'') is a state in the South Central United States, South Central region of the United States. At 268,596 square miles (695,662 km2), and with more than 29.1 million residents in 2 ...

. He was drafted by the White Sox in the 27th round out of high school, but opted to play for Coach Clay Gould at UT Arlington. He was redrafted in the 3rd round his collegiate junior year by the SF Giants and signed. His brother, Chris, was drafted by the Cubs out of high school, but went on to pitch at Navaro and Texas Tech.

Professional career

In his Double-A campaign in 2005, he hit 20

home run In baseball, a home run (abbreviated HR) is scored when the ball is hit in such a way that the batter is able to circle the bases and reach home plate safely in one play without any errors being committed by the defensive team. A home run i ...

s with 35

stolen base In baseball, a stolen base occurs when a runner advances to a base to which they are not entitled and the official scorer rules that the advance should be credited to the action of the runner. The umpires determine whether the runner is safe or ...

s. He made his major league debut on September 5, 2005, with the Giants. Ortmeier started off with the Triple-A Fresno Grizzlies. He was called up briefly to the Giants and then returned to Triple-A. He struggled with a knee and a wrist injury, he finished the year with the Double-A

Connecticut Defenders The Connecticut Defenders were a Minor League Baseball team based in Norwich, Connecticut. The team, which played in the Eastern League, was the Double-A affiliate of the San Francisco Giants major-league club from 2003 until following the 2009 ...

. Ortmeier had knee surgery prior to the season, but was fully recovered by

spring training Spring training is the preseason in Major League Baseball (MLB), a series of practices and exhibition games preceding the start of the regular season. Spring training allows new players to try out for Schedule (workplace), roster and position spo ...

. He was assigned to the Grizzlies for the start of the 2007 season, but was called up to the Giants twice. Ortmeier switched from playing outfield to first base due to the Giants' glut of outfielders. On September 7, he hit a walk-off home run to beat the

Los Angeles Dodgers The Los Angeles Dodgers are an American professional baseball team based in Los Angeles. The Dodgers compete in Major League Baseball (MLB) as a member club of the National League (NL) West division. Established in 1883 in the city of Brooklyn ...

at AT&T Park. Ortmeier competed for the starting first base job in spring training, but lost the competition to

Rich Aurilia Richard Santo Aurilia (; born September 2, 1971) is a former Major League Baseball shortstop who played for several teams between 1995 and 2009. Amateur career Aurilia was born in Brooklyn, New York. Before being drafted by Texas, Aurilia was a ...

. At the request of the team, Ortmeier gave up switch hitting in favor of batting exclusively from the right side. In 2007, he batted .240 at the Triple-A level as a left-handed hitter. On April 9, 2008, Ortmeier batted as a right-handed hitter against a right-handed

pitcher In baseball, the pitcher is the player who throws ("pitches") the baseball from the pitcher's mound toward the catcher to begin each play, with the goal of retiring a batter, who attempts to either make contact with the pitched ball or draw ...

for the first time since and hit a game winning RBI

double A double is a look-alike or doppelgänger; one person or being that resembles another. Double, The Double or Dubble may also refer to: Film and television * Double (filmmaking), someone who substitutes for the credited actor of a character * Th ...

against Heath Bell. In August 2008, he went back to switch-hitting. On January 14, , he signed a minor league contract with the Colorado Rockies. In November 2009, Ortmeier was granted free agency.

References

External links

{{DEFAULTSORT:Ortmeier, Daniel 1981 births Living people San Francisco Giants players Baseball players from Tennessee Major League Baseball outfielders Major League Baseball first basemen Baseball players from Chattanooga, Tennessee UT Arlington Mavericks baseball players Salem-Keizer Volcanoes players San Jose Giants players Norwich Navigators players Connecticut Defenders players Fresno Grizzlies players Colorado Springs Sky Sox players