Hensley Meulens | |||
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Meulens in 2011
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San Francisco Giants – No. 31 | |||
Outfielder/Hitting coach | |||
Born: Willemstad, Curaçao |
June 23, 1967 |||
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MLB debut | |||
August 23, 1989, for the New York Yankees | |||
Last MLB appearance | |||
May 14, 1998, for the Arizona Diamondbacks | |||
MLB statistics | |||
Batting average | .220 | ||
Home runs | 15 | ||
Runs batted in | 53 | ||
Teams | |||
Career highlights and awards | |||
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Hensley Filemon Acasio "Bam Bam" Meulens (Papiamento pronunciation: [ˈhɛnsli ˈmʏiləns]; born June 23, 1967) is a retired Dutch professional baseball player and current hitting coach for the San Francisco Giants. A native of Curaçao, he played from 1989 to 2000 in Major League Baseball, Nippon Professional Baseball, and the Korea Baseball Organization. He was the first Curaçaoan to play in both Major League Baseball and the Dominican Professional Baseball League He speaks five languages: English, Spanish, Dutch, Papiamento and Japanese.
Hitting home runs left-handed while playing softball as a teenager earned Meulens the nickname "Bam Bam" when his friends compared his power to the Flintstones cartoon character.
Over the course of his career, Meulens would become the first to play for all four of the major Caribbean winter leagues.
Hensley Meulens was signed by the Yankees as an undrafted free agent in 1985. After struggling in his first professional season in 1986 with the Gulf Coast Yankees, Meulens made a splash in 1987 with Single-A Prince William, hitting .300 with 28 HR and 103 RBI, also being named to the Carolina League All-Star team. His hitting cooled somewhat in 1988 & 1989 as he split time between the Double-A Albany-Colonie Yankees of the Eastern League and the Triple-A Columbus Clippers of the International League.