Dale Sveum - Playing Career

Playing Career

A talented athlete, Sveum was an All-State and All-American quarterback while attending Pinole Valley High School, in addition to being a fine baseball player. Drafted by the Milwaukee Brewers in the 1st round (25th pick) of the 1982 amateur draft, he went on to play 12 seasons in MLB, hitting .236 with 69 home runs.

Sveum's best season came in 1987, when he hit 25 home runs and drove in 95 runs while batting mostly in the ninth spot in the Brewers' lineup. On April 19 (Easter Sunday), he hit a walk-off home run at County Stadium to give Milwaukee a 6–4 victory over the Texas Rangers, moving the Brewers to a 12 - 0 record on the season. The moment is perhaps the greatest of Sveum's career, and the game one of the most remembered in Brewers history. Later that year, he enjoyed the best single game of his career when, on July 17, he hit three home runs and had six RBIs, leading his team to a 12–2 thumping of the California Angels.

The following season, Sveum had a career-threatening collision with teammate Darryl Hamilton in which his leg was broken. He missed the rest of the 1988 season and all of the 1989 season. He was never the same player after the incident, and was replaced on the Milwaukee roster by Gary Sheffield.

During his career, Sveum had the distinction of playing for five separate managers who would, at some point in their careers, win a league Manager of the Year Award. These managers were Tony La Russa ('83, '88, '92, '02), under whom Sveum played in Oakland, Joe Torre ('96, '98), in New York, Lou Piniella ('95, '01, '08), in Seattle, Jim Leyland ('90, '92, '06) in Pittsburgh, and Gene Lamont ('93) in Pittsburgh.