Will Venable

William Dion Venable (born October 29, 1982) is an American former professional baseball outfielder and current first base coach of the Chicago Cubs. He played in Major League Baseball (MLB) for the San Diego Padres, Texas Rangers and Los Angeles Dodgers. Venable is the son of former Major League outfielder Max Venable as well as the older brother of Canadian Football League safety Winston Venable.\n', ' Venable played basketball for Princeton University, as well as San Rafael High School. He was the second athlete to earn first-team All-Ivy League honors in both baseball and basketball. In the 2005 MLB Draft, the Padres selected Venable in the seventh round. He made his major league debut on August 29, 2008, against the Colorado Rockies, collecting his first hit. Although he broke into the Major Leagues as a center fielder, he played mostly right field after his second season. Venable frequently batted lead off and on several occasions came within one hit of the cycle. As of November 2013[update], he finished among the top ten in the National League in triples four times and in stolen bases twice. He has the most Major League Baseball career hits and home runs of any Princeton alumnus.\n', ' Venable was born in 1982 in Marin County, California, at a time when his father Max Venable was a Major League Baseball player for the nearby San Francisco Giants. He grew up travelling around the country with his father and also lived in Japan and the Dominican Republic. In high school, he envisioned himself as more likely to be a professional basketball player than baseball player. Prior to his freshman year, his mother, Molly, objected to him quitting baseball to focus on basketball. As both a high school sophomore and a high school junior, Venable was second-team San Francisco Bay Area All-Metro basketball player for San Rafael High School. He was the Marin County Athletic League (MCAL) most valuable player in basketball as a freshman, sophomore and junior. As a sophomore, he led his team to the MCAL League Championship. As a senior, he gave up the responsibility of being point forward.\n', '