He was captain and MVP in 1991 and as a catcher he formed a battery with future major leaguers John Olerud and Aaron Sele.

The Boston Red Sox selected Hatteberg in the 1991 MLB draft with a sandwich pick between the first and second rounds as compensation from Kansas City Royals for the signing of Type A free agent Mike Boddicker.

In Hatteberg's last season with the Red Sox, he ruptured a nerve in his elbow and tore a joint capsule, requiring surgery.

[5][6] Hatteberg's conversion from catcher to first baseman by the Athletics in 2002 is the subject of a chapter in the Michael Lewis book Moneyball.

[7] A fictionalized version of Hatteberg (played by Chris Pratt) is a key character in the 2011 film Moneyball.

A career highlight for Hatteberg came that season on September 4; entering that day, the A's had won 19 straight games to tie the American League record.

With their next game, against the Kansas City Royals, tied at 11 after the A's had blown an 11–0 lead, Hatteberg pinch-hit with one out and the bases empty in the bottom of the ninth inning.

[11] On August 8, 2006, he recorded his 1,000th career hit against Jason Marquis of the St. Louis Cardinals at Great American Ball Park in Cincinnati.

[13] Pinch-hitting was relatively new to Hatteberg, who admitted that it was a role he was not particularly comfortable in even though he had hit his historic September 4, 2002, 20-game winning-streak clinching walk-off homer for Oakland as a pinch-hitter.

On May 27, 2008, he was designated for assignment by the Reds to make room on the roster for top prospect Jay Bruce and officially released by the club on June 4.

[15] In the 2012 and 2013 seasons, Hatteberg substituted for Ray Fosse as the Oakland A's color commentator on TV broadcasts for a number of games.