Inside ex-MLB player Garrett Atkins' former $4.5 million Laguna Hills mansion containing cascading waterfall and championship tennis court

Former Colorado Rockies legend Garrett Atkins once owned a pristine mansion, a work of art, in the Laguna Hills. He sold it for a whopping $4.5 million in 2015. The right-handed slugger retired in 2010 while playing for the Baltimore Orioles. Atkins loved his Laguna Hills mansion and always spoke highly of it.

Exterior of the Laguna Hills mansion: a championship tennis court (L) and a swimming pool (R)

The 7,418-square-foot home is on 2.2 acres in the Nellie Gail equestrian neighborhood and features a soft contemporary interior in European style. It features a regulation tennis court and a Jacuzzi with a waterfall that feeds into the pool.

Interior of the Laguna Hills: a washroom (L) and a mansion hall (R)

Open to a large area featuring a bar and fireplace is the kitchen. The mansion's amenities are a first-floor office, library and home theatre. It also houses a basketball court, a sizable veranda and a roomy loggia outside featuring a flat-screen TV and a fireplace.

Exterior of the Laguna Hills mansion

Atkins played baseball for a while with the Baltimore Orioles and the Colorado Rockies before retiring in 1997. He attended University Hill School in Irvine. The listed agents were Shawn Halan and Carole Meikle of HOM Sotheby's International Realty. Halan was the seller's representative as well.

Interiors of the Laguna Hills mansion

Garrett Atkins was a decent ballplayer during his playing days in the big leagues

Garrett Atkins was drafted by the Colorado Rockies in the first round of the 2000 MLB draft. He made it to the big leagues in 2003 and became a regular by 2005. He enjoyed four excellent seasons with the Rox through 2008, fell off the team's radar in 2009 and was out of the game by the end of 2010.

Atkins was fourth in the MLB Rookie of the Year voting in 2005 and crushed a season-long .329/.409/.556 for the Rox in 2006. It earned him a 15th-place MVP finish and fourth place in the NL batting race. He then hammered another 25 home runs and 35 doubles for the playoff club in 2007.

"Garrett Atkins hit one home run as an Oriole" - LockedOnOrioles

In 2010, at 30, he played for the Baltimore Orioles, where he slashed .214/.276/.286 in 44 games before leaving baseball on July 6 of the same year. After making an impression on the Pittsburgh Pirates during spring training in 2011, he was released on March 21 and never participated in a professional baseball game again.