Mike Pazik

Michael Joseph Pazik

• Bats Left, Throws Left
• Height 6' 2", Weight 195 lb.
• School College of the Holy Cross
• High School Lynn English High School
• Debut May 11, 1975
• Final Game April 22, 1977
• Born January 26, 1950 in Lynn, MA USA

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Biography

As of 2019, Mike Pazik is the last player from Holy Cross to play major league baseball. 77 players from that college have played MLB, but none in the last 40 years. Mike played for the Minnesota Twins from 1975 to 1977.

He was a year older than Bert Blyleven and four years younger than Rod Carew.

Mike was picked in the secondary phase of 1971 amateur draft and was in the New York Yankees organization from 1971 through part of 1974. He went 13-8 for the Syracuse Chiefs in 1973 and in 1974, split between Syracuse and the Tacoma Twins, again went 13-8. In 1976, with Tacoma, he went 14-5.

Pazik's big-league career ended when he was badly injured in a car wreck in April 1977. He was the passenger in a Volkswagen van driven by teammate Don Carrithers. They were coming off Interstate 494 in Bloomington, MN when a young Ohio woman mistakenly got on the freeway via the exit ramp. In the collision, Pazik suffered two broken bones in each leg.

Pazik was out for the remainder of 1977. He managed to return in 1978 and finished his playing career in 1979. He managed the 1980 Glens Falls White Sox and 1984 Stockton Mudville Nine. He was pitching coach of the Edmonton Trappers in 1981, Appleton Foxes in 1982, and Charlotte Knights in 1988. He was pitching coach of the Chicago White Sox from 1995 to 1998.