Boras’s Secret Book on Mark Teixeira

November 6, 2008

You know how Scott Boras puts together those big fat books promoting his free agent clients – the ones he fills with gaudy stats and then hands them out to GMs? Well, I managed to get my hands on the book about Mark Teixeira. So exciting because I covet the guy for the Yankees almost as much as I covet CC.

But this one is more like a sweet little biography, giving us a glimpse of Mark’s personal side. Nothing at all about his offense.

Or his defense.

Nothing about the millions he’s worth to some team. This story focuses on the man, the person, the human being behind the hype. Warning: It’s so heartwarming it might make you cry.

It all begins with Mark Charles Teixeira’s birth in Annapolis, MD. The date? April 11th, 1980.

Yes, for those who follow astrology, that means he’s Aries, the Ram – a good thing to be for a ballplayer.

Mark, it turns out, is of Portuguese ancestry, which explains his interesting and hard-to-pronounce last name. Here are some Portuguese people. Can you spot the resemblance?

Neither can I, but maybe he’ll grow into his looks.

His mom, a schoolteacher named Margie, and his aerospace company executive dad, “Tex,” wanted their son to make it in professional baseball so badly that they gave him a bat when he was only a small child.

As a teenager, Mark played varsity baseball at Mount Saint Joseph High in Baltimore, a Catholic prep school where he learned how to respect his elders (and future managers).

He went on to play for Georgia Tech, home of the Yellow Jackets.

While it’s understandable that he rooted for the Orioles growing up, the player he totally worshipped was none other than our own Donnie.

You already know how Mark played for the Rangers, was traded to the Braves in ’07 and landed with the Angels last year. But did you know that he married a woman named Georgia Leigh Williams (cute that her name is the same as his university, isn’t it?) and that they have a son, Jack, and a daughter, Addison? They live in perfect harmony here.

Mark is such a quality person that, early on in his career, he established a charitable foundation to provide scholarships to Dallas/Forth Worth students.

When he’s not playing baseball and spending time with his family, Mark enjoys his two favorite hobbies.

Golf, of course. And hunting.

The book doesn’t say whether Mark kills deer or ducks or pheasants, but the main thing is he doesn’t strike me as someone who would stuff his animals and hang them over the fireplace.

Finally, Mark explains in the book that he has always wanted to live in New York and play for the Yankees. He says that he loves the pinstripes and can’t wait to trade his Angels cap for this one.

Oops. I meant this one.

Written by mlblogsjaneheller Posted in Dailies Tagged with Angels, Baltimore, Boston, Don Mattingly, Mark Teixeira, Orioles, Scott Boras, Yankees