Garrett Nicholas Wittels (born May 11, 1990) is an American professional

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 ...

infielder An infielder is a baseball player stationed at one of four defensive "infield" positions on the baseball field. Standard arrangement of positions In a game of baseball, two teams of nine players take turns playing offensive and defensive roles. ...

who played for the

St. Louis Cardinals The St. Louis Cardinals are an American professional baseball team based in St. Louis. The Cardinals compete in Major League Baseball (MLB) as a member club of the National League (NL) Central division. Since the 2006 season, the Cardinals hav ...

organization, and is a free agent. Wittels played college baseball for the

Florida International University Florida International University (FIU) is a public university, public research university with its main campus in Miami-Dade County. Founded in 1965, the school opened its doors to students in 1972. FIU has grown to become the third-largest uni ...

Golden Panthers The FIU Panthers (also known as Florida INT Panthers) are the athletic teams representing Florida International University, an American public university located in Westchester, Florida. The Panthers currently compete in National Collegiate Athl ...

Miami, Florida Miami ( ), officially the City of Miami, known as "the 305", "The Magic City", and "Gateway to the Americas", is a East Coast of the United States, coastal metropolis and the County seat, county seat of Miami-Dade County, Florida, Miami-Dade C ...

. He finished the 2010 season with a 56-game

hitting streak In baseball, a hitting streak is the number of consecutive official games in which a player appears and gets at least one base hit. According to the Official Baseball Rules, such a streak is not necessarily ended when a player has at least 1 plate ...

, two hits shy of the Division I record. He also set the FIU season record for hits. He was nominated for the

Best Male College Athlete ESPY Award The ESPY Award for Best College Athlete, Men's Sports, known before 2021 as the Best Male College Athlete ESPY Award, is an annual award honoring the achievements of a male individual from the world of collegiate sports. It was first presented as ...

for his 2010 performance, won

Sun Belt Conference The Sun Belt Conference (SBC) is a collegiate athletic conference that has been affiliated with the NCAA's Division I since 1976. Originally a non-football conference, the Sun Belt began sponsoring football in 2001. Its football teams participa ...

Player of the Year honors, and was named a

NCBWA The National Collegiate Baseball Writers Association (NCBWA) is an association of baseball writers, broadcasters, and publicists in the United States. It was founded in 1962. The NCBWA compiles a preseason ranking of the top 35 teams in the nati ...

and

Louisville Slugger Louisville ( , , ) is the largest city in the Commonwealth of Kentucky and the 28th most-populous city in the United States. Louisville is the historical seat and, since 2003, the nominal seat of Jefferson County, on the Indiana border. ...

/TPX Preseason All-American prior to the 2011 season. He played minor league baseball in 2011 and 2012, with the AAA

Memphis Redbirds The Memphis Redbirds are a Minor League Baseball team of the International League and the Triple-A affiliate of the St. Louis Cardinals. They are located in Memphis, Tennessee, and are named for their Major League Baseball affiliate. The Redbir ...

of the

Pacific Coast League The Pacific Coast League (PCL) is a Minor League Baseball league that operates in the Western United States. Along with the International League, it is one of two leagues playing at the Triple-A (baseball), Triple-A level, which is one grade bel ...

being the highest-level team he played for.

Personal life

His parents are Lishka Wittels (a member of the Jewish-Cuban community, and a descendant of

Turkish Jews The history of the Jews in Turkey ( tr, Türkiye Yahudileri or ; he, יהודים טורקים, Yehudim Turkim; lad, Djudios Turkos) covers the 2400 years that Jews have lived in what is now Turkey. There have been Jewish communities in An ...

) and Michael Wittels, an orthopedic surgeon, and he has three siblings. He is from

Bay Harbor Islands, Florida Bay Harbor Islands is a town in Miami-Dade County, Florida, Miami-Dade County, Florida, United States. The population was 5,922 at the 2020 census. It is separated from the mainland by Biscayne Bay. History Bay Harbor Islands was founded by Shepar ...

and is Jewish. When he was eight years old, his father put a batting cage in their home's backyard. He attended

Jewish day school A Jewish day school is a modern Jewish educational institution that is designed to provide children of Jewish parents with both a Jewish and a secular education in one school on a full-time basis. The term "day school" is used to differentiate s ...

until middle school.

High school

Wittels attended

Dr. Michael Krop High School Dr. Michael M. Krop Senior High School is a secondary school located at 1410 County Line Road in Ives Estates, an unincorporated area of north Miami-Dade County (Miami address), Florida, US. However, it serves the city of Aventura, northern fri ...

. There, he was ''Miami Herald'' Third Team All-Miami Dade in 2006 and 2007, and Second Team All-Miami Dade in 2008. As a senior, he batted .420, with six home runs and 29 RBIs.

College, and hitting streak

Wittels played college baseball for the

. He was an infielder, playing mainly shortstop but also third base and second base, and a relief pitcher. Wittels finished the 2010 season, his sophomore year, with a 56-game

; the same number of games as

Joe DiMaggio Joseph Paul DiMaggio (November 25, 1914 – March 8, 1999), nicknamed "Joltin' Joe", "The Yankee Clipper" and "Joe D.", was an American baseball center fielder who played his entire 13-year career in Major League Baseball for the New York Yank ...

had in his major-league-record 1941 streak. He finished two hits shy of

Robin Ventura Robin Mark Ventura (born July 14, 1967) is an American former professional baseball third baseman and manager. Ventura played 16 seasons in Major League Baseball (MLB) for the Chicago White Sox, New York Mets, New York Yankees and Los Angeles Do ...

's 58-game streak in 1987 (then, as a sophomore with

Oklahoma State University Oklahoma (; Choctaw: ; chr, ᎣᎧᎳᎰᎹ, ''Okalahoma'' ) is a state in the South Central region of the United States, bordered by Texas on the south and west, Kansas on the north, Missouri on the northeast, Arkansas on the east, New ...

), the Division I record. During the streak, he wore the same items of clothing for each game (though he washed them), and did not cut his hair. He chewed the same brand of

Bubblicious Bubblicious is a brand of bubble gum originally produced by the American Chicle Division of Warner-Lambert. The brand is now part of Cadbury Adams, a division of Mondelez International. It was launched in 1977, in response to the tremendous sale ...

Watermelon bubble gum every game. Before each game he got down on one knee in the outfield to say the ''

shema ''Shema Yisrael'' (''Shema Israel'' or ''Sh'ma Yisrael''; he , שְׁמַע יִשְׂרָאֵל ''Šəmaʿ Yīsrāʾēl'', "Hear, O Israel") is a Jewish prayer (known as the Shema) that serves as a centerpiece of the morning and evening Jewis ...

'', a Jewish prayer. Wittels was nominated for the

for his 2010 performance, won

Player of the Year honors, was named to the All-

Sun Belt Conference baseball tournament The Sun Belt Conference baseball tournament is the conference championship tournament in baseball for the Sun Belt Conference. The winner of the tournament receives the conference's automatic bid to the NCAA Division I Baseball Championship, NCAA ...

Team, and led FIU to a Sun Belt Conference Baseball Tournament championship. U.S. Congressman

Lincoln Díaz-Balart Lincoln Rafael Díaz-Balart (born Lincoln Rafael Díaz-Balart y Caballero; August 13, 1954) is a Cuban-American attorney and politician. He was the U.S. representative for from 1993 to 2011. He is a member of the Republican Party. He previously ...

of Florida honored him with laudatory mention in the

United States House of Representatives The United States House of Representatives, often referred to as the House of Representatives, the U.S. House, or simply the House, is the Lower house, lower chamber of the United States Congress, with the United States Senate, Senate being ...

. ''

Sports Illustrated ''Sports Illustrated'' (''SI'') is an American sports magazine first published in August 1954. Founded by Stuart Scheftel, it was the first magazine with circulation over one million to win the National Magazine Award for General Excellence twic ...

'' writer Joe Lemire called him: "Arguably the most famous player in Div. 1 baseball". He batted a league-leading .412, setting the FIU season record with a league-leading 100 hits, and leading the team in doubles (21; third in the league) and RBIs (60). He wore number 10. Prior to the 2011 season, Wittels was named a

/TPX Preseason All-American (third base, first team), as well as an All-American by PING! Baseball (utility, first team), the

National Collegiate Baseball Writers Association The National Collegiate Baseball Writers Association (NCBWA) is an association of baseball writers, broadcasters, and publicists in the United States. It was founded in 1962. The NCBWA compiles a preseason ranking of the top 35 teams in the nati ...

(NCBWA) (second base, second team),

American Baseball Coaches Association The American Baseball Coaches Association (ABCA) is the world's largest amateur baseball coaching organization. It was founded in 1945 as the American Association of College Baseball Coaches. Now, the ABCA is composed of over 13,000 baseball coac ...

(ABCA)/

Rawlings Rawlings may refer to: *Rawlings (company), a U.S. sports equipment company *Rawlings, Maryland, an unincorporated community in Allegany County, Maryland *Rawlings (surname) Rawlings is an English-language surname. Notable people with the name in ...

(utility, second team), and ''

Baseball America ''Baseball America'' is a sports enterprise that covers baseball at every level, including MLB, with a particular focus on up-and-coming players in the MiLB, college, high school, and international leagues. It is currently published in the form o ...

'' (second base, third team). Under

NCAA The National Collegiate Athletic Association (NCAA) is a nonprofit organization that regulates student athletics among about 1,100 schools in the United States, Canada, and Puerto Rico. It also organizes the athletic programs of colleges an ...

rules, his streak would have continued had he kept it going into the 2011 season. The streak ended when Wittels went 0 for 4 in the 2011 season opener. Of all major league and NCAA Division 1 hitters, only Ventura and DiMaggio have ever had as long a hitting streak. In 2011, Wittels batted .345. He finished his FIU career hitting .352 with 7 home runs and 116 RBIs over the course of three seasons.

False rape accusation

On December 27, 2010, Wittels and two friends were falsely accused of raping a 17-year-old girl at the

Nassau, Bahamas Nassau ( ) is the capital and largest city of the Bahamas. With a population of 274,400 as of 2016, or just over 70% of the entire population of the Bahamas, Nassau is commonly defined as a primate city, dwarfing all other towns in the country. ...

' Atlantis Resort and Casino. Florida International University said in February 2011 that it would not suspend him on the basis of the pending rape charge. The charges were dropped by the Bahamian attorney general on June 20, 2011, after evidence pointed to an elaborate plot by the father of one of the girls to extort money from the Atlantis. The ''Huffington Post'' reported that security camera footage did not support the women's version of events. Wittels' attorney said the accusations stemmed from an apparent attempt to extort money from the Atlantis resort.

Professional career

After his junior year of college, he signed with the Cardinals on July 2, 2011, and began playing for the

Batavia Muckdogs The Batavia Muckdogs are a collegiate summer baseball team in the Perfect Game Collegiate Baseball League (PGCBL). They are located in Batavia, a city in Genesee County, New York, United States. Their home field is Dwyer Stadium in the city of Ba ...

of the

New York–Penn League The New York–Penn League (NYPL) was a Minor League Baseball league that operated in the northeastern United States from 1939 to 2020. Classified as a Class A Short Season league, its season started in June, after major-league teams signed th ...

. With them, Wittels finished the 2011 season hitting .262 with 8 doubles, a triple, and 13 RBIs, and had a 14-game hitting streak (tied for 6th-longest in the league). In 2012, Wittels played for the

(NYPL; A-),

Quad Cities River Bandits The Quad Cities River Bandits are a Minor League Baseball team of the Midwest League and the High-A affiliate of the Kansas City Royals. Their home games are played at Modern Woodmen Park (formerly John O'Donnell Stadium) in Davenport, Iowa, one ...

(

Midwest League The Midwest League is a Minor League Baseball league established in 1947 and based in the Midwestern United States. A Class A league for most of its history, the league was promoted to High-A as part of Major League Baseball's 2021 reorganizat ...

; A),

Springfield Cardinals The Springfield Cardinals are a Minor League Baseball team based in Springfield, Missouri. They compete as a member of the Texas League's North Division. The Cardinals began play in 2005. The team is owned by the 11-time Major League Baseball ...

(

Texas League The Texas League is a Minor League Baseball league which has operated in the South Central United States since 1902. It is classified as a Double-A league. Despite the league's name, only its five South Division teams are actually based in the ...

; AA), and

(

; AAA), batting a combined .243. The Cardinals released him on October 9, 2012, re-signed him the following February.Another five Cards minor leaguers released
''Scout.com''

References

External links

Bio at FIUSports.com
{{DEFAULTSORT:Wittels, Garrett 1990 births Living people American people of Cuban-Jewish descent American people of Turkish-Jewish descent Baseball infielders Baseball players from Miami-Dade County, Florida Batavia Muckdogs players Jewish American baseball players FIU Panthers baseball players Memphis Redbirds players People from Bay Harbor Islands, Florida Quad Cities River Bandits players Springfield Cardinals players 21st-century American Jews