ST. LOUIS – Former Missouri State baseball All-American Bill Mueller will be part of the Missouri Valley Conference's 2020 Hall of Fame induction class, the league office announced Tuesday. Mueller and five additional Valley greats will be honored by the conference during its annual induction ceremony in St. Louis on Friday, March 6, 2020.

Mueller was a four-year starter in baseball at Missouri State and was the Missouri Valley Conference Player of the Year in 1993 after hitting .371. That year he also received first-team All-MVC honors and ABCA all-region and second-team All-America recognition.

In his collegiate career, Mueller led Missouri State in hits, batting average, runs scored and stolen bases three times and paced the Bears in at-bats and triples twice. He graduated as Missouri State's single-season record holder for runs, hits, singles and walks and had career marks for runs (234), hits (289), total bases (398), walks (154) and stolen bases (65), and his career .376 average still represents a Missouri State record for a four-year career.

He was selected to play for the USA National Team and participated in the U.S. Olympic Trials in 1991 and after his collegiate career he was drafted and signed by the San Francisco Giants in 1993, he made his Major League debut in 1996. Mueller played with the Giants through the 2000 season, was traded to the Chicago Cubs in 2001, traded to San Francisco late in the 2002 season, and signed as a free agent with Boston Red Sox in 2003 and led the American League in hitting that year.

Through his first six full Major League seasons, he had a career batting average of .286, and on July 29, 2003 in Texas, he became the first player in Major League history to hit grand slam home runs from both sides of the plate
in the same game. In 2004, he was a starter for the World Series champion Boston Red Sox.

Mueller received a Missouri State University Outstanding Young Alumni Award in 2000 and was Inducted into the Missouri State Athletics Hall of Fame in 2004.

After finishing his on-field career, Mueller worked as a coach and assistant general manager for the Chicago Cubs and Los Angeles Dodgers, before assuming roles as assistant hitting coach and first base coach with the St. Louis Cardinals.

In addition to Mueller, the 23rd MVC Hall of Fame class features a two-sport (baseball/football) student-athlete in Mike Prior (Illinois State); a four-time NCAA track & field pole vault champion in Kylie Hutson (Indiana State); coaching legends Richard "Itchy" Jones (Southern Illinois baseball) and Phog Allen (Kansas basketball) and basketball star Larry Humes (Evansville). The league will conduct its annual Hall of Fame ceremony as part the State Farm Missouri Valley Conference Men's Basketball Championship next March 5-8. The March 6 festivities will begin with an 8:00 a.m. breakfast, followed by the induction ceremony at 8:30 a.m.

Tickets to the 2020 Hall of Fame event – scheduled to be held at Stifel Theatre (formerly known as the Peabody Opera House), which is adjacent to Enterprise Center (formerly known as Scottrade Center) – can be obtained by calling the league office at (314) 444-4300. Tickets are available on a first-come, first-served basis.