Missouri State

BILL MUELLER
Baseball, 1990-93
Inducted February 7, 2004

Bill Mueller was a Missouri State baseball standout from 1990 to 1993 in a career spanning the MSU move from the Mid-Continent Conference to the Missouri Valley. Mueller was the Bears' third baseman two seasons before taking over at shortstop as a junior and senior for the Bears of coach Keith Guttin. Missouri State won an MCC divisional title in 1990 and reached the title game of the MCC tourney in the Bears' final year in that league. MSU had two fourth-place finishes and then came home as league runner-up in the Valley in 1993. Mueller was Valley Player of the Year as a senior when he had 18 doubles, 11 homers and batted .371 for MSU. The switch-hitting St. Louis native graduated as the MSU all-time leader in runs (234), hits (289), singles (222), total bases (398), walks (154) and stolen bases (65), and was in the top five in games, at bats, doubles, triples, on base percentage, extra-base hits, hit by pitch, sacrifice hits, assists, total chances and double plays. The Bears' MVP as a senior, Mueller earned second team all-America laurels from the American Baseball Coaches Association. An  co-captain as a junior and senior, Mueller was picked for the USA National Team and U. S. Olympic Trials in 1992. He had his major league debut with the San Francisco Giants in 1996, and spent his first six major league seasons in the National League. The recipient of an MSU Outstanding Young Alumni Award in 1999, Mueller went to Boston in 2003 and his banner season as Red Sox third baseman included 19 homers, 85 runs batted in and an American League batting championship at .326. Mueller's season included becoming the first player in major league history to hit grand slam home runs from both sides of the plate in the same game. He played on the Red Sox 2004 World Series Champions.