Robin Mark Ventura (born July 14, 1967) is an American former professional baseball third baseman and manager. Ventura played 16 seasons in Major League Baseball (MLB) for the Chicago White Sox, New York Mets, New York Yankees and Los Angeles Dodgers. He was also the manager for the White Sox for five seasons. The White Sox selected Ventura with the tenth overall pick in the 1988 amateur draft from Oklahoma State University (OSU). He is a six-time Rawlings Gold Glove winner, two-time MLB All-Star selection and a National College Baseball Hall of Fame inductee.
While playing college baseball for the Cowboys at OSU, Ventura was a three-time All-American who achieved a Division I-record 58-game hitting streak. In 1988, he won the Dick Howser Trophy and Golden Spikes Award and played for the gold medal-winning Olympic baseball team. In his MLB career, he hit 18 grand slams, ranking fifth all-time. In Game 5 of the 1999 National League Championship Series, Ventura hit the "Grand Slam Single" that won the game but did not actually become a home run because he was unable to complete the circuit around the base paths. Later in his playing career, cartilage and arthritis issues in his ankle hampered his abilities in the field.
After the 2011 season, the White Sox hired Ventura to be their manager. He managed the team from 2012 until 2016.
Born to parents John and Darlene Ventura on July 14, 1967, in Santa Maria, California, Ventura is of Italian and Portuguese descent. After attending Righetti High School in Orcutt, California, Ventura was a 3-time All-American at Oklahoma State University, where he played college baseball for the Oklahoma State Cowboys.
With the Cowboys, Ventura led the nation in runs (107), runs batted in (RBIs; 96) and total bases (204) in 69 games as a freshman in 1986. In 1987, he had an NCAA-record 58-game hitting streak, breaking the previous record of 47; he also led Division I in RBIs two years in a row. His hitting streak remains the Division I record, though his mark was surpassed in 2003 by Damian Costantino of Division III Salve Regina University, who had a 60-game streak.
Ventura helped OSU reach the finals of the 1987 College World Series, although they lost the championship game to a Stanford University team that included future teammate Jack McDowell. Ventura collected four hits – including a pair of doubles – in the final game and batted .364 for the series. That summer, he played for the Hyannis Mets in the Cape Cod Baseball League (CCBL), hitting .370 and led the league in runs batted in with 37. On January 19, 2002, Ventura was inducted into the CCBL Hall of Fame as a member of the class of 2001. In January 2020, Ventura returned to Oklahoma State to complete his degree and serves as a student assistant coach for the baseball team.
In 1988, Ventura earned a spot on the gold medal-winning Olympic baseball team, batting .409 during the tournament. He won both the Golden Spikes Award and the Dick Howser Trophy for outstanding collegiate play, concluding his 3-year OSU career with a .428 batting average, a .792 slugging percentage, and 302 RBI. On July 4, 2006, Ventura was inducted into the College Baseball Hall of Fame as a member of its inaugural class.
After being picked tenth in the 1988 Major League Baseball draft by the White Sox, Ventura spent much of 1989 at AA Birmingham before joining the White Sox that September. While in Birmingham, he earned a spot in the Southern League All-Star Game and was voted the league's top defensive third baseman. He was named to the 1990 Topps All-Star Rookie Roster and earned the starting third base role with the White Sox the next spring. While his 1990 rookie year was marred by an 0-for-41 slump and 25 errors, his 123 hits were the most by a White Sox rookie since Ozzie Guillén in 1985; he also led AL rookies with 150 games played. The next year he won his first Gold Glove Award for fielding excellence, set a team record for RBI at third base, and led the AL in putouts. In 1992, Ventura won another Gold Glove and earned a spot on the All-Star team.
In 1993, Ventura saw his batting average drop 20 points to .262, though both his slugging and on-base percentages rose slightly. He also collected his 500th hit that May and won his third straight Gold Glove, while becoming the first AL third baseman with three consecutive 90-RBI campaigns since Graig Nettles (1975–78). On August 4, 1993, during a game against the Texas Rangers, Ventura was hit by a pitch thrown by Nolan Ryan. Ventura charged the mound, where Ryan, 20 years Ventura's senior, placed Ventura in a headlock and punched him six times, causing a bench-clearing brawl. This brawl was voted the top baseball brawl of all time by ESPN's SportsCenter. The White Sox won the AL West that year, which resulted in Ventura's only playoff trip while in Chicago. They would lose in the ALCS to the Toronto Blue Jays.
When play resumed in 1995 following the 1994 strike, Ventura had ten errors in the first ten games. He spent some time at first base that year amid trade rumors, but ended the year with a career-high .295 average, and on September 4 hit two grand slams in one game, the eighth player in history to do so and the first since Frank Robinson in 1970. The next season, he won his fourth Gold Glove, reached new highs in fielding percentage, homers and RBIs, and set team records in career homers by a third baseman (142) and grand slams (9).
When spring training began in 1997 the White Sox were picked by many to win their division. In a spring training game at Ed Smith Stadium, Ventura slid into home plate and caught his foot in the mud, suffering a compound fracture and dislocation to his right ankle. The initial prognosis was that he would be lost for the season. However, Ventura was able to return on July 24, more than a week ahead of the most optimistic predictions. He collected the game-winning hit that night, and homered in his first at-bat the next evening. The White Sox did not make the playoffs, in part due to the "White Flag Trade". In 1998, Ventura's final season with the Sox, he won his fifth Gold Glove, but only hit .263. His homer and RBI totals were close to his career averages, but the White Sox attempted repeatedly to trade him and declined to renew his contract, with owner Jerry Reinsdorf claiming that he was "deteriorating."
Ventura departed Chicago in December 1998 when the New York Mets signed him to a four-year deal. In his first year in New York, Ventura hit .301 with 32 homers, 120 RBI and just nine errors in the field. On May 20, he became the first player ever to hit a grand slam in both games of a doubleheader. In 1999, he and fellow infielders Edgardo Alfonzo, Rey Ordóñez, and John Olerud were featured on the cover of Sports Illustrated as the "Best Infield Ever." However, Ventura injured his left knee in August; when the problem finally came to light, just before the postseason, it had worsened into a tear of the cartilage. Ventura borrowed the phrase "Mojo Risin" from The Doors' "L.A. Woman" and made it the rally cry for the Mets that year, meeting Doors lead singer Jim Morrison's widow Patricia Kennealy-Morrison when the Mets invited her to a game just before the playoffs.
Despite his injury, Ventura provided the game-winning, bases-loaded, two-out single in the eleventh inning against the Pirates on the final weekend of the regular season. After sweeping Pittsburgh, the Mets defeated the Cincinnati Reds in a play-in game to determine the National League Wild Card team. In Game 5 of the 1999 NLCS, with the Atlanta Braves up 3–2 in the fifteenth inning, a bases-loaded walk to Todd Pratt forced in the tying run and brought Ventura to the plate. Ventura hit a home run into right-center field. Pratt, however, did not see the ball leave the park and ran back to first base, hoisting Ventura into the air and lugging him off the field before he could round the bases. The hit was officially scored an RBI single, commonly referred to as the "Grand Slam Single." The Mets eventually lost the series. He won his first NL Gold Glove that fall, bringing his career total to six.