Michael Timothy Pagliarulo, a.k.a. "Pags" (born March 15, 1960), is an American former professional

baseball Baseball is a bat-and-ball games, bat-and-ball sport played between two team sport, teams of nine players each, taking turns batting (baseball), batting and Fielding (baseball), fielding. The game occurs over the course of several Pitch ...

third baseman A third baseman, abbreviated 3B, is the player in baseball or softball whose responsibility is to defend the area nearest to third base — the third of four bases a baserunner must touch in succession to score a run. In the Baseball scorekeep ...

and later the hitting coach of the

Miami Marlins The Miami Marlins are an American professional baseball team based in Miami. The Marlins compete in Major League Baseball (MLB) as a member club of the National League (baseball), National League (NL) National League East, East Division. The ...

. He played in

Major League Baseball Major League Baseball (MLB) is a professional baseball league composed of 30 teams, divided equally between the National League (baseball), National League (NL) and the American League (AL), with 29 in the United States and 1 in Canada. MLB i ...

for the

New York Yankees The New York Yankees are an American professional baseball team based in the Boroughs of New York City, New York City borough of the Bronx. The Yankees compete in Major League Baseball (MLB) as a member club of the American League (AL) Am ...

San Diego Padres The San Diego Padres are an American professional baseball team based in San Diego. The Padres compete in Major League Baseball (MLB) as a member club of the National League (baseball), National League (NL) National League West, West Division. ...

Minnesota Twins The Minnesota Twins are an American professional baseball team based in Minneapolis. The Twins compete in Major League Baseball (MLB) as a member club of the American League (AL) American League Central, Central Division. The team is named afte ...

Baltimore Orioles The Baltimore Orioles (also known as the O's) are an American professional baseball team based in Baltimore. The Orioles compete in Major League Baseball (MLB) as a member club of the American League (AL) East Division. As one of the America ...

, and Texas Rangers, and in

Nippon Professional Baseball is a professional baseball league and the highest level of baseball in Japan. Locally, it is often called , meaning simply ''Professional Baseball''; outside of Japan, NPB is often referred to as "Japanese baseball". The roots of the league ...

for the

Seibu Lions The are a professional baseball team in Japan's Pacific League based north of Tokyo in Tokorozawa, Saitama Prefecture. Before 1979, they were based in Fukuoka, Fukuoka Prefecture, in Kyushu. The team is owned by a subsidiary of Seibu Railway, ...

Playing career

Pagliarulo graduated from Medford High School in Massachusetts in 1978 and played

college baseball College baseball is baseball that is played by Student athlete, student-athletes at institutions of higher education. In the United States, college baseball is sanctioned mainly by the National Collegiate Athletic Association (NCAA); in Japan, ...

at the

University of Miami The University of Miami (UM, UMiami, Miami, U of M, and The U) is a private university, private research university in Coral Gables, Florida, United States. , the university enrolled 19,852 students in two colleges and ten schools across over ...

for the

Miami Hurricanes The Miami Hurricanes, known informally as The U, UM, or The 'Canes, are the intercollegiate sports teams that represent the University of Miami in Coral Gables, Florida. The Hurricanes compete in NCAA Division I, Division I of the National Coll ...

. In 1980, he played

collegiate summer baseball Collegiate summer baseball leagues are amateur baseball leagues in the United States and Canada featuring players who have attended at least one year of college and have at least one year of athletic eligibility remaining. Generally, they operat ...

with the

Chatham A's The Chatham Anglers, more commonly referred to as the Chatham A's and formerly the Chatham Athletics, are a collegiate summer baseball team based in Chatham, Massachusetts. The team is a member of the Cape Cod Baseball League (CCBL) and plays in ...

of the

Cape Cod Baseball League The Cape Cod Baseball League (CCBL or Cape League) is a collegiate summer baseball wooden bat league located on Cape Cod in the U.S. state of Massachusetts. One of the nation's premier collegiate summer leagues, the league boasts over 1,000 forme ...

. He was drafted by the

in sixth round of the

1981 Major League Baseball draft The 1981 Major League Baseball draft took place in June 1981. The draft saw the Seattle Mariners select Mike Moore (baseball), Mike Moore first overall. First round selections The following are the first round picks in the 1981 Major League Ba ...

. Pagliarulo joined the parent club on July 1, 1984, and spent just over five years with the Yankees before going to the

in 1989. Although not a high average hitter, Pagliarulo was a long ball specialist as he belted 19 in 1985, 28 in 1986 and a career high of 32 in 1987 with outstanding defensive skills to go along. That promptly drew comparisons with former great Yankee third baseman Graig Nettles. But Pagliarulo never quite lived up to expectation, as he never came close to those numbers again. After hitting 15 homeruns in 1988 and 4 in 1989 in 74 games, he was traded to the San Diego Padres. After a year and a half in San Diego, Pagliarulo moved back to the

American League The American League of Professional Baseball Clubs, known simply as the American League (AL), is the younger of two sports leagues, leagues constituting Major League Baseball (MLB) in the United States and Canada. It developed from the Western L ...

when he joined the

just before the start of the 1991 season. It was with Minnesota that Pagliarulo won his only

World Series The World Series is the annual championship series of Major League Baseball (MLB). It has been contested since between the champion teams of the American League (AL) and the National League (NL). The winning team, determined through a best- ...

championship as the starting third baseman in 1991. Pagliarulo remained with Minnesota for the following 1992 season and part of the 1993 season. He was acquired by the Orioles on August 15, 1993, in a transaction that was completed the following day when Erik Schullstrom was sent to the Twins. At the time, the Orioles needed depth at third base with Leo Gómez on the

disabled list In Major League Baseball (MLB), the injured list (IL) is a method for teams to remove their injured players from the roster in order to summon healthy players. Before the 2019 Major League Baseball season, 2019 season, it was known as the disabl ...

but had been unsuccessful in its pursuit of the

Cincinnati Reds The Cincinnati Reds are an American professional baseball team based in Cincinnati. The Reds compete in Major League Baseball (MLB) as a member club of the National League (baseball), National League (NL) National League Central, Central Divisi ...

' Chris Sabo. Pagliarulo was out of Major League Baseball in 1994, playing for the NPB

Pacific League The , or , or the , due to sponsorship reasons, is one of the two professional baseball leagues constituting Nippon Professional Baseball in Japan. The winner of the league championship competes against the winner in the Central League for the a ...

, where he was a teammate of current Lions manager Tsutomu Ito. The team clinched the Pacific League with a 76-52-2 record (games are limited to 12 innings, except in the Japan Series, which was 15 in 1994). In the

Japan Series The Japan Series ( , officially the Japan Championship Series, ), also the Nippon Series, is the annual championship series in Nippon Professional Baseball, the top baseball league in Japan. It is a best-of-seven series between the winning cl ...

, Pagliarulo's Seibu team faced the

Yomiuri Giants The are a Japanese professional baseball team competing in Nippon Professional Baseball's Central League. Based in Bunkyo, Tokyo, they are one of two professional baseball teams based in Tokyo, the other being the Tokyo Yakult Swallows. They h ...

, featuring his 1991 Twins teammate

Dan Gladden Clinton Daniel Gladden III (born July 7, 1957) is an American former professional baseball player and current radio broadcaster. An outfielder, he played in Major League Baseball (MLB) for the San Francisco Giants (1983–1986), Minnesota Twins ( ...

in a side story where either player could win another championship. The Giants, featuring 20-year old

Hideki Matsui , nicknamed "Godzilla", is a Japanese former professional baseball outfielder and designated hitter. He played in Major League Baseball (MLB) for the New York Yankees, Los Angeles Angels of Anaheim, Oakland Athletics, Tampa Bay Rays, and in Nipp ...

(who in

2009 2009 was designated as the International Year of Astronomy by the United Nations to coincide with the 400th anniversary of Galileo Galilei's first known astronomical studies with a telescope and the publication of Astronomia Nova by Joha ...

also won championships on both sides of the Pacific Ocean), won the Fall Classic, 4-2. At the age of 35, Pagliarulo resumed his career when he signed with the Texas Rangers, where he finished his career before retiring after the 1995 season.

Coaching career

Before the 1998 season, Pagliarulo turned down multiple minor league contracts and big league coaching job offers in order to stay with his family in Massachusetts and coach at Winchester High School. From 2013–13, Pagilarulo served as the hitting coach for Triple-A

Indianapolis Indians The Indianapolis Indians are a Minor League Baseball team of the International League (IL) and the Triple-A (baseball), Triple-A affiliate of the Pittsburgh Pirates. They are located in Indianapolis, Indiana, and play their home games at Victory ...

. In 2016, the

hired Pagliarulo as their

hitting coach In baseball, a number of coaches assist in the smooth functioning of a team. They are assistants to the manager, who determines the starting lineup and batting order, decides how to substitute players during the game, and makes strategy decisi ...

. Pagilarulo was fired from that position in April 2019.

Personal life

Mike married his high school sweetheart and best friend Karen in 1983. They have two kids, Michael and Erica. His son, Michael, was a member of the 2009

Ivy League The Ivy League is an American collegiate List of NCAA conferences, athletic conference of eight Private university, private Research university, research universities in the Northeastern United States. It participates in the National Collegia ...

champion Dartmouth Big Green baseball team.Mike Pagliarulo Bio
Official Web Site of Dartmouth Varsity Athletics His daughter, Erica, was the leading scorer for the Rollins College Women’s Lacrosse team’s most successful season in program history.

References

External links

Mike Pagliarulo
at Baseball Almanac : {{DEFAULTSORT:Pagliarulo, Mike 1960 births Living people American people of Italian descent American expatriate baseball players in Japan Baltimore Orioles players Chatham Anglers players Columbus Clippers players Fort Myers Miracle players Greensboro Hornets players Los Angeles Angels scouts Major League Baseball hitting coaches Major League Baseball third basemen Miami Marlins coaches Miami Hurricanes baseball players Minnesota Twins players Nashville Sounds players New York Yankees players Nippon Professional Baseball infielders Oneonta Yankees players Sportspeople from Winchester, Massachusetts San Diego Padres players Seibu Lions players Baseball players from Middlesex County, Massachusetts Sportspeople from Medford, Massachusetts Texas Rangers players Baseball coaches from Massachusetts High school baseball coaches in the United States 20th-century American sportsmen