IN THE SPOTLIGHT In the Spotlight: Mike Green By John-Paul Hezel Hoya Staff Writer
Charles Nailen/The Hoya
Sport: Baseball
Position: Designated Hitter/Infield
Hometown: McLean, Va.
High School: Landon
School/Year: COL ’02
Major: Government
Minor: English
Nicknames: Greeny, T.T. Boy, Mel
High School Highlights: Team captain . Team Most Valuable Player . All-County Team selection . Team finished second in the Independent Athletic Conference all four years.
Georgetown Highlights: Team captain . Started season on a 14-game hitting streak . Three-game sweep of Connecticut last year . Big East Academic All-Star.
Favorite Class at Georgetown: Father Schall’s Elements of Political Theory. He really pushes you to be more than just a student. He tries to make you become more of a whole person. At the same time, he teaches what education is all about. And he could remember all of the students’ names.
Three magazines on your coffee table: Baseball America, Newsweek and Maxim
Three movies you could watch a 1,000 times each: Braveheart, Dumb and Dumber and Tommy Boy
Top Three Fantasy Baseball Picks: Nomar Garciaparra, Pedro artinez (if he’s healthy) and Vladimir Guerrero
Three books on your ideal book shelf: Catcher in the Rye, The Great Gatsby and Aristotle’s Nichomachean Ethics, probably my favorite book of all time. I thought that book taught me more about everyday life than any other book I’ve ever read. It tells you basically how to handle yourself in every type of situation.
Song that pumps you up: “Wish You Were Here” by Incubus
Favorite Place in Georgetown: Champs
Worst fear on the field: Losing the respect of my teammates.
Preferred mode of transportation: I’ve always wanted to own a helicopter.
One thing you want to do before you graduate: Swim the Potomac. A guy on the baseball team, Pat Salvitti, did it last year. That’s why I want to do it.
Favorite restaurant: Sugar’s, especially for the Sugar’s Special.
Best part about the baseball team: Definitely the guys. We’re a really close-knit group of guys who all have one common goal. On teams I’ve played on in the past that hasn’t been the case. Here, everyone’s focused and driven toward one goal, which is to make the Big East playoffs. It’s really great to say a group of guys working that hard together.
Describe the time commitment to play on the baseball team: We drive 30 minutes to the field, then during rush hour it’s an hour back. We lift at 6 a.m. in the morning and we play double headers on Saturday and Sunday, so we don’t go out during the weekends. We’re at the field from 8 in the morning to 8 at night on Saturdays and from 8 in the morning to 3 in the afternoon on Sundays.
Does it bother you that the baseball team doesn’t get as much coverage as other sports? Absolutely. I think we definitely deserve more for the amount of time we put in and the amount of effort we put in. Actually, I think that the coverage is getting much better than it has been in the past. I think people are starting to give the baseball team more respect than my freshman year. People used to say that you practice all this time and you’re not very good. Now, people I don’t even know come up to me and say that they respect us.
How far do you think the team is from reaching the Big East playoffs? I think we can do it this year. There are no teams in the Big East, maybe outside of Rutgers, who are totally dominant. We really believe that this year we can do it.
What do you miss most about playing on campus? The field on campus was once of the best fields in the country. Incredible place for baseball, a great atmosphere. Every single team that came onto our field said that we had the best field they played on and that they really enjoyed playing there. We took a lot of pride in that field. It was a big part of us, feeling like you are part of the university.
Three people, dead or alive, you would invite to dinner and what would you serve? Ted Williams, Abraham Lincoln and Plato. I’d serve chicken madness, no hots.
Favorite quote: “Good things happen to good people.”
Craziest thing you’ve ever done: It happened over winter break. One of my best friends from high school called me up and said, `Do you want to drive to Key West tomorrow?’ I said, `Let’s do it.’ He picks me up five hours later and we drive 24 hours straight to Key West with no money. We end up spending zero dollars, staying at random places, going out to bars every single night and getting plane tickets back. We didn’t spend a dollar.
How did you not spend any money? My friend had friends down there who hooked us up with places to stay for the whole week. Then, we were at a bar one night and we met a girl who was a hostess at a hotel, and she had an extra room and asked if we wanted to stay there. No problem! So we stayed there for two nights. His friends were bartenders, so we got free drinks all night long. And my friend had frequent flyer miles that we used to get plane tickets back. One of the coolest experiences I’ve had.
Type of person you dislike the most: Someone who makes excuses.
Type of person that you like the most: People who takes pride in what they do. People who respect themselves.
Word you would use to describe yourself: Loyal.
Word your mother would use to describe you: Just a very nice guy.
What is under your bed right now? My secret stash of hair gel.
