The Texas Rangers announced today that former outfielder Rusty Greer
will be inducted as the newest member of the Texas Rangers Baseball Hall of Fame. Greer currently is the head coach of the Texas Collegiate League’s Colleyville LoneStars.
Greer spent his entire major league playing career with the Rangers, from 1994-2003. He posted a career .305 (1,166-3,829) batting average, seventh highest in club history and his career .317 (591-1863) average at Rangers Ballpark in
Arlington is second highest all-time among players with 500 or more at-bats behind Ivan Rodriguez’s .331.
Greer will be inducted into the Texas Rangers Baseball Hall of Fame during the Idearc Media Texas Rangers Alumni Legacy Hall of Fame Weekend in an on-field ceremony prior to the Rangers vs. Devil Rays game on Saturday, August 11. He will become the 10th member of the Texas Rangers Baseball Hall of Fame, joining the inaugural class of 2003: Charlie Hough, Johnny Oates, Nolan Ryan and Jim Sundberg, the class of 2004: Buddy
Bell , Ferguson Jenkins and Tom Vandergriff, and the class of 2005: Mark Holtz and John Wetteland.
Greer was selected in Idearc Media Hall of Fame fan voting conducted at Rangers Ballpark in
Arlington and on texasrangers.com during April and May. Players from three different decades were included on the ballot and fans were able to vote for one from each decade, up to three players total, as the finalists for the Hall of Fame Class of 2007. Fan votes were tabulated and submitted to a committee comprised of Texas Rangers Baseball Hall of Famers and alumni, and the Texas Rangers Baseball Club determined the final selection.
Selected by Texas in the 10th round (279th overall pick) of the 1990 First-Year Player Draft out of the
University of
Montevallo (
Ala. ), Greer was inducted to the Texas Baseball Hall of Fame in 2003. On the Rangers’ all-time lists, Greer ranks second in on-base percentage (.387), fourth in doubles (258) and slugging percentage (.453), fifth in RBI (614), runs (643), extra base hits (402), triples (25) and total bases (1,831), sixth in multi-hit games (332), seventh in games (1,027) and eighth in at-bats (3,829).
Greer batted .300 in four consecutive seasons from 1996-99, one of five players in Rangers history with four or more qualifying years at .300 (Ivan Rodriguez-5 and Juan Gonzalez, Al Oliver and Michael Young-4). He drove in the game-winning run in the Rangers last at-bat 17 times from 1995-2000.
During his years as a player, Greer and his family were actively involved with the Texas Rangers Baseball Foundation and several non-profit organizations. In 2002, he received the Jim Sundberg Community Achievement Award and the Rangers Roberto Clemente Award. The Greer's continue to represent the Rangers in the community by serving as a member of the Board of Directors for the Texas Rangers Baseball Foundation an as part of the Rangers Alumni Legacy Partnership. Greer has been on a personal service contract with the Rangers for the last two years and this season was named Head Coach of the Colleyville LoneStars, one of the nine teams in the Texas Collegiate League.
In his first stint as a head coach, Greer leads a group of college baseball’s finest. Greer coaches top college talent from around the nation as players from some of the following schools are represented on his squad: Arkansas, Baylor, Cal State Fullerton, Dallas Baptist, Georgia Tech, Kansas State, Oklahoma, Texas, and
Wichita
State . As of June 21st, the LoneStars are tied for third in the Tris Speaker division with a 4-6 record.