Stephen Paul Lombardozzi Sr. (born April 26, 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 ...

player who was a

second baseman In baseball and softball, second baseman, abbreviated 2B, is a fielding position in the Infielder, infield, between Baseball field#Second base, second and Baseball field#First base, first base. The second baseman often possesses quick hands and f ...

for the

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 ...

and

Houston Astros The Houston Astros are an American professional baseball team based in Houston. The Astros compete in Major League Baseball (MLB) as a member club of the American League (AL) American League West, West Division. They are one of two major leag ...

for six

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 ...

seasons. As part of the Twins' world championship team in 1987, Lombardozzi hit .412 during the World Series and hit a home run in Game 1.

Early life

Lombardozzi was born in

Malden, Massachusetts Malden is a city in Middlesex County, Massachusetts, Middlesex County, Massachusetts, United States. At the time of the 2020 United States census, 2020 U.S. Census, the population was 66,263 people. History Malden is a hilly woodland area no ...

. He received an

athletic scholarship An athletic scholarship is a form of scholarship to attend a college or university or a private school, private high school awarded to an individual based predominantly on their ability to play in a sport. Athletic scholarships are common in the U ...

to attend the

University of Florida The University of Florida (Florida or UF) is a public university, public land-grant university, land-grant research university in Gainesville, Florida, United States. It is a senior member of the State University System of Florida and a preem ...

in Gainesville, Florida, where he played for coach Jay Bergman's

Florida Gators baseball The Florida Gators baseball team represents the University of Florida in the sport of baseball. Florida competes in Division I (NCAA), Division I of the National Collegiate Athletics Association (NCAA), and the of the Southeastern Conference ...

team in 1980 and 1981, after attending Gulf Coast Community College in Panama City, Florida, where he played for Coach Bill Frazier in 1978 and 1979. In 1978, 1979, and 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

Falmouth Commodores The Falmouth Commodores are a collegiate summer baseball team based in Falmouth, Massachusetts. The team is a member of the Cape Cod Baseball League (CCBL) and plays in the league's West Division. The Commodores play their home games at Arnie All ...

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 ...

and was named a league all-star in 1980. In 1981, he received first team

All-Southeastern Conference The All-SEC football team is an annual Southeastern Conference (SEC) honor bestowed on the best players in the conference following every college football season. Seasons

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(SEC) and SEC All-Tournament honors.

Playing career

The Minnesota Twins selected Lombardozzi in the ninth round of the

1981 MLB 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 ...

after which he was assigned to the

Elizabethton Twins The Elizabethton Twins were a Minor League Baseball team of the Appalachian League and a Rookie-level affiliate of the Minnesota Twins. They were located in Elizabethton, Tennessee, and were named for their Major League Baseball, major league aff ...

in the rookie-level

Appalachian League The Appalachian League is a Collegiate summer baseball, collegiate summer baseball league that operates in the Appalachian regions of Tennessee, Virginia, West Virginia, and North Carolina. Designed for rising freshmen and sophomores using wooden ...

where he hit .321 with 6 home runs and 38 RBI in 65 games. The following years, he made steady progress through the Twins' organization spending 1982 at class-A Visalia, 1983 at AA

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, and 1984 at AAA

Toledo Toledo most commonly refers to: * Toledo, Spain, a city in Spain * Province of Toledo, Spain * Toledo, Ohio, a city in the United States Toledo may also refer to: Places Belize * Toledo District * Toledo Settlement Bolivia * Toledo, Or ...

. After returning to Toledo in 1985, he made his major league debut with the Twins on July 12 and split the rest of the season between the majors and AAA. Lombardozzi went north with the Twins following spring training in 1986 and became the starting second baseman for the team for the next three seasons. In 1987, Lombardozzi was on the team when they won the

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- ...

against the

St. Louis Cardinals The St. Louis Cardinals are an American professional baseball team based in St. Louis. The Cardinals compete in Major League Baseball (MLB) as a member club of the National League (baseball), National League (NL) National League Central, Centra ...

. He led all hitters in that World Series with a .412

batting average Batting average is a statistic in cricket, baseball, and softball that measures the performance of batters. The development of the baseball statistic was influenced by the cricket statistic. Cricket In cricket, a player's batting average is ...

. He also held the record for the longest last name of any player to hit a postseason home run, hitting a Game 1, two-run home run off Cardinal

Bob Forsch Robert Herbert Forsch (January 13, 1950 – November 3, 2011) was an American professional baseball player who spent most of his sixteen years in Major League Baseball (MLB) with the St. Louis Cardinals (1974–1988) before finishing his pl ...

, until it was broken by Doug Mientkiewicz of the Minnesota Twins in 2002. Lombardozzi also knocked in the winning run in Game 6 as his RBI single broke up a 5th Inning 5–5 tie that eventually lead to an 11-6 Twins' victory. Despite his World Series heroics and gold glove-caliber fielding (his .991 fielding percentage was tops among American League second basemen in 1986), Lombardozzi was never able to hit above .238 for the Twins (after hitting .275 in the minors and .370 during his 1985 major league debut season) and hit only .209 with 3 home runs and 27 RBI in 1989. Following both the 1987 and 1988 seasons, the Twins, looking to add some more offense at the position, traded first for Cardinal Tommy Herr and then

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

second baseman

Wally Backman Walter Wayne Backman (born September 22, 1959) is an American former Major League Baseball second baseman. He is best known for his time with the New York Mets from – and was a member of their 1986 World Series-winning team. He was also the f ...

. Being the odd man out, Lombardozzi split time at second in 1988 and finally was traded to the Houston Astros at the end of spring training in 1989 (for career minor league outfielder Roman Cedeno). However, Lombardozzi was never able to either supplant Bill Doran at second or stay with the big club and spent 1989 and 1990 shuttling between Houston and the minors. After playing his last game in Houston on 11 April 1990 he was released by the Astros on May 28. After being signed by the

Detroit Tigers The Detroit Tigers are an American professional baseball team based in Detroit. The Tigers compete in Major League Baseball (MLB) as a member club of the American League (AL) American League Central, Central Division. One of the AL's eight chart ...

on June 9, Lombardozzi was designated to AAA

where he spent the rest of the season. Lobardozzi was then released and he decided to retire at age 30.

Retirement

After his playing days ended, Lombardozzi moved to his home in

Columbia, Maryland Columbia is a planned community in Howard County, Maryland, United States, consisting of 10 self-contained villages. With a population of 104,681 at the 2020 United States census, 2020 census, it is the second-most-populous community in Maryland ...

and focused on his family. He ran a small business, coached youth baseball, and spent time with his two children. After being away from the game for 18 years, Lombardozzi was hired by the Pittsburgh Pirates in December 2009 to be their minor league fielding coordinator, taking the place of Carlos García, who was hired as the Pirates' first base/infield coach. His son, Steve Lombardozzi Jr., formerly played professionally for the

Washington Nationals The Washington Nationals are an American professional baseball team based in Washington, D.C. The Nationals compete in Major League Baseball (MLB) as a member club of the National League (NL) East Division. They play their home games at Na ...

organization and then the Long Island Ducks of the Atlantic League.

References

External links

Baseball Almanac
{{DEFAULTSORT:Lombardozzi, Steve 1960 births Living people American people of Italian descent Columbus Mudcats players Elizabethton Twins players Florida Gators baseball players Houston Astros players Major League Baseball second basemen Minnesota Twins players Orlando Twins players Sportspeople from Malden, Massachusetts Baseball players from Middlesex County, Massachusetts Toledo Mud Hens players Tucson Toros players Visalia Oaks players Falmouth Commodores players 20th-century American sportsmen

Early life

Playing career

Retirement

See also

References

External links