Menes

According to Manetho, Menes reigned 62 years and was killed by a hippopotamus. In a four-season career, Hillenbrand is a .288 hitter with 65 home runs and 309 in 577 games. A much later parallel can be found leading to the establishment of the reign of Pharaoh Khasekhemwy several hundred years later; he crushed a civil war between the followers of Set and Horus. He was traded to the Blue Jays at the end of the season. It is possible that this war was transformed over time into myth. In 2004, Hillenbrand hit a career-high .310 with 15 home runs and 80 RBI over 148 games. In this mythological unification of the two Egypts, Set was defeated and the kingdom was unified under the rule of Horus, the first king of all Egypt. He finished the season with a combined .280 batting average and career-highs in RBI (97) and home runs (20), including a three-homer game with the Diamondbacks in month of July.

In Ancient Egyptian legend, there was a battle between Horus (a patron deity of Lower Egypt) and Set (patron deity of Upper Egypt). With Mueller hitting around .380 and playing a solid third base, Hillenbrand became expendable and was sent to Arizona for pitcher Byung-Hyun Kim on May 29. Another name for Menes has various spellings: Hor Aka, Hor-Aka, and Hor Aha; Hor-Aka can be translated as "Horus of the Reeds", possibly in allusion to the legend in which Isis hid Horus in the Nile Delta among papyri and reeds. The Red Sox had signed free agent Bill Mueller, another third baseman, and many believed that Hillenbrand's lack of strike zone judgment would not be compatible with the on base percentage priorities of new Sox general manager Theo Epstein. The growing academic consensus is that Menes either refers to Narmer or, more likely, to his successor, Hor-Aha. Nevertheless, Hillenbrand entered 2003 being the subject of trade rumors. It should be noted that while there is extensive archeological evidence of there being a pharaoh named Narmer, so far there is no contemporaneous archeological evidence for a pharaoh called Menes. His play earned him the starting third baseman spot in the All-Star Game.

In either case, Menes is credited with the foundation of Memphis, which he established as the Egyptian capital. However, he retained his spot on the roster for 2002, and responded with a much better season, hitting 20 home runs with a .330 on base percentage and .459 of slugging average. Some Egyptologists hold that Narmer and Menes are in fact the same person; others hold that Menes inherited an already-unified kingdom from Narmer; still others hold that Menes completed a process of unification started either unsuccessfully or only partially successfully by Narmer. Hillenbrand played 139 games for the Sox in his rookie season, mostly at third base, but a .263 batting average failed to hide his failure to get on base adequately, nor to hit with power. However, the discovery of the Narmer Palette in the late 19th century showing the pharaoh Narmer, possibly pre-dating Menes, wielding the unified symbols of both Upper and Lower Egypt has caused some controversy. An average season at age 25 did not bode well for his chances as a prospect, but he parlayed an invitation to spring training with the Red Sox in 2001 into a spot on the big-league team for opening day. Manetho, a 3rd century BC Egyptian historian, called him Menes; the 5th century BC Greek historian Herodotus referred to him as Min; and two native-king lists of the 19th dynasty (13th century BC) call him Meni. The year 2000 saw Hillenbrand back at Trenton, now back to playing first base and third base as the injury prevented him from catching.

Ancient Egyptian legend credits a pharaoh by this name with uniting Upper and Lower Egypt into one kingdom. However, a leg injury restricted him to only 69 games. 3050 BC. This earned him a promotion in 1999 to AA Trenton Thunder of the Eastern League. 3100-3000 BC, but according to some lists, ca. In 1998, still with Michigan, he was converted to play catcher and responded with his best season in the minors, with a .349 batting average and 19 home runs. He lived ca. Despite being drafted as a shortstop, he played at first base and third base his first two years in the minors.

Menes was an Egyptian pharaoh of the First dynasty, to some authors the founder of this dynasty, to others the Second. In 1997, he was promoted to the Sarasota Red Sox of the Florida State League, and was promoted again after 57 games, finishing the season with 64 games with the Michigan Battle Cats of the Midwest League. Hillenbrand played 72 games in 1996 for the Low-A Lowell Spinners in the New York - Penn League. He attended Mesa Community College from 1994-96, before being drafted by Boston in the 10th round of the 1996 amateur draft. A native of Mesa, Arizona, Hillenbrand attended Mount View High School there, excelling in both baseball, as a shortstop, and soccer.

He bats and throws right-handed. Previously, Hillenbrand has played with the Boston Red Sox (2001-03) and Arizona Diamondbacks (2003-04). Shea Matthew Hillenbrand (born July 27, 1975) is a Major League Baseball first baseman/third baseman who plays for the Toronto Blue Jays.