Eric Hardgrave (born October 5, 1960) is an American former professional baseball player who was an All-American college baseball player at

Stanford University Stanford University, officially Leland Stanford Junior University, is a private research university in Stanford, California. The campus occupies , among the largest in the United States, and enrolls over 17,000 students. Stanford is consider ...

. He is currently a managing partner of the Silicon Valleybased venture capital firm, Acuity Ventures.

High school and college

Hardgrave played first base for Bullard High School in Fresno, California. He was selected with the 59th pick of the 1979 Major League Baseball Draft by the Cleveland Indians. Hardgrave did not sign with the Indians, opting to attend

, where he played for four seasons with the Cardinal. In his senior year of 1983, Hardgrave had a .360 batting average, hit 24 home runs, and batted in 81 runs, leading the Cardinal to its second straight College World Series appearance for the first time in history. That year, Hardgrave was named a first team All-American and the

Pac-10 The Pac-12 Conference is a collegiate List of NCAA conferences, athletic conference, that operates in the Western United States, participating in 24 sports at the NCAA Division I level. Its College football, football teams compete in the NCAA D ...

player of the year. He graduated with a degree in Economics from Stanford, and in 2005, was named to the

Stanford Athletic Hall of Fame The Stanford Cardinal are the athletic teams that represent Stanford University. As of June, 2022, Stanford's program has won 131 NCAA team championships. Stanford has won at least one NCAA team championship each academic year for 46 consecutive ...

Professional baseball

Hardgrave was drafted by the San Diego Padres with the 142nd pick of the

1983 Major League Baseball Draft First round selections The following are the first round picks in the 1983 Major League Baseball draft. ''*'' Did not sign Compensation picks Other notable players *Bill Swift, 2nd round, 29th overall by the Minnesota Twins, but did not ...

, and played for the team's minor league affiliates in Spokane, Reno, and Beaumont. He played for the affiliates of the

Milwaukee Brewers The Milwaukee Brewers are an American professional baseball team based in Milwaukee. They compete in Major League Baseball (MLB) as a member club of the National League (NL) National League Central, Central division. The Brewers are named for t ...

and

Detroit Tigers The Detroit Tigers are an American professional baseball team based in Detroit. The Tigers compete in Major League Baseball (MLB) as a member of the American League (AL) Central division. One of the AL's eight charter franchises, the club was f ...

before retiring from baseball in 1988.

Venture capitalist

Hardgrave co-founded Sand Hill Capital in the 1990s, and is currently a managing partner at the venture capital fund Acuity Ventures.

References

External links

{{DEFAULTSORT:Hardgrave, Eric Stanford Cardinal baseball players 1960 births Living people American venture capitalists Baseball players from Fresno, California All-American college baseball players