Baltimore Orioles: Conner Greene, from living out of an RV to MLB mound

Conner Greene, 26, spends a typical day during the offseason in Venice, California, sitting outside of his house on the water with his dog, Jax. He has no problem staying busy, spending his time hiking, surfing, hanging out at the beach and doing gymnastics.

“I love doing more core and stability-based activities that you can only really get through gymnastic-types of workouts. I am a nut for any sort of cardio type of workouts” Greene said.

A 2013 draft pick straight out of high school by the Toronto Blue Jays, Greene began rapidly ascending through their minor league system, later spending time in the minor league affiliates of the St. Louis Cardinals and Kansas City Royals before coming close to his first real shot at big league action.

Beginnings

Heading into the 2020 regular season as a member of the Kansas City Royals, Greene was pitching in what was then his fifth consecutive spring training without cracking the big league roster.

Leading the Royals was Mike Matheny, a manager that Greene had played under in the past as a member of the St. Louis Cardinals organization.

“I was ready to go, pitching better than I felt I ever had before. I wanted to make him (Matheny) proud”, he said. Greene’s tenure in big league camp in 2020 was brief. “I walked the first three batters I faced in my first game but was hitting triple-digits on my fastball. They pulled me out of the game, sent me down to minor league camp and didn’t bring me to the alternate site. Then COVID happened. It sucked.”

When COVID-19 was running rampant throughout all of professional sports, Minor League Baseball suffered more than almost any other league. While the Major League Baseball season was shortened to 60 games, the minor league season was canceled altogether, leaving many, many players – including Greene – out of a job for the year.

When Greene was sent packing by the Royals, he knew that living with his father in a one-bedroom apartment was no longer going to be plausible. The demotion was a huge wakeup call, as he did not expect to be heading back home so early. He had his sights set on making the big league roster. “I just got left at home”, said Greene; “I didn’t have any money, I hadn’t made it to the big leagues yet and the pay is so different. I knew I had to find a new place to live and was just really down on my luck”. So began the search to find a new living situation.

“I prayed every day. ‘God, universe, anybody, please help me’, I need a place to live”.

As if God, the universe, or anyone in between heard Conner Greene’s prayers, help came along in a place he never expected it to. His girlfriend at the time told him that her parents had an old RV rotting in their yard that had gone untouched for years. Greene reached out to her parents, longtime close family friends of his, and got it … for free. Fix it up, change the battery, change the tires and he was golden. “Just had to continue working out, throwing weighted balls at a pad up against the RV and wait for the phone to ring.”

Overnight parking quickly became an issue for Greene. “It was so beautiful, so peaceful. Getting to park the RV in different places and see all the sights, it was an incredible journey. The cops didn’t like me parking the RV overnight in public settings, I needed to find land to park on.” Enter Geraldine Gilliland.

Geraldine Gilliland

Geraldine Gilliland, a well known Los Angeles-area chef, author and restaurant owner happened to be the very person that Greene adopted his dog, Jax, from a few months beforehand. Greene, feeling down on his luck, reached out to Gilliland, who he knew had landed in Malibu, and asked if he could maybe work out a deal with her. Turns out, there was a deal to be made.

“She needed help on her land running Chiquita’s Friends so I call her and say ‘Geraldine, I’m a pro baseball player looking to get my feet under me. Can I trade work for rent on your land?”, says Greene. He continued, “She was an absolute angel about it. She told me she supports me and my career and that she would definitely help me out and do the deal.”

Chiquita’s Friends is an organization that Gilliland has run since its inception in 2011. Gilliland’s mission is to rescue, provide sanctuary for, and adopt out to suitable homes senior dogs, dogs with special needs, or neglected canines.

Gilliland was thrilled to hear from Greene and thrilled for the opportunity to see Jax again. Jax, a sweet dog affectionately labeled as a “Tijuana Terrier,” mixed with a little bit of everything, Gilliland took him in when she saw him starving and alone in the streets of Tecate, Mexico. After nursing the dog back to health, Greene came calling and adopted him instantly.

“When Conner called, he instantly became a part of our family”, Gilliland said when we chatted over the phone, “He’s a wonderful person who I always knew would do well. He would take dogs to the vet, feed them, clean them, clean the land for me and do anything and everything I needed. Everyone who has ever met him has fallen in love with him.”