Michael Paul Benjamin (born November 22, 1965) is an

American American(s) may refer to: * American, something of, from, or related to the United States of America, commonly known as the "United States" or "America" ** Americans, citizens and nationals of the United States of America ** American ancestry, pe ...

former

professional baseball Professional baseball is organized baseball in which players are selected for their talents and are paid to play for a specific team or club system. It is played in leagues and associated farm teams throughout the world. Modern professional ...

infielder who played in

Major League Baseball Major League Baseball (MLB) is a professional baseball organization and the oldest major professional sports league in the world. MLB is composed of 30 total teams, divided equally between the National League (NL) and the American League (AL), ...

(MLB) from to and . Before entering professional baseball, Benjamin played at

Cerritos College Cerritos College is a public community college in Norwalk, California. It offers degrees and certificates in 87 areas of study in nine divisions. History The college was founded in 1955. It was named after Rancho Los Cerritos, a local ra ...

and Arizona State University, where he was an All-American in his senior season. A

utility infielder In baseball, a utility player is a player who typically does not have the offensive abilities to justify a regular starting role on the team but is capable of playing more than one defensive position. These players are able to give the various s ...

in the major leagues, he played

shortstop Shortstop, abbreviated SS, is the baseball or softball fielding position between second and third base, which is considered to be among the most demanding defensive positions. Historically the position was assigned to defensive specialists wh ...

in 375 of his 818 career games. His longest stint was with the

San Francisco Giants The San Francisco Giants are an American professional baseball team based in San Francisco, California. The Giants compete in Major League Baseball (MLB) as a member club of the National League (NL) West division. Founded in 1883 as the New Y ...

from 1989 to 1995.

Early life

A 1983 graduate of

Bellflower High School Bellflower High School is a six-year public high school located in Bellflower, California, as part of the Bellflower Unified School District (BUSD). Demographics and class size As of 2009, Bellflower had 136 regular educations teachers and 123 c ...

in California, he played college baseball at

and was drafted by the Minnesota Twins in 1985 but continued his college baseball career at Arizona State University instead of pursuing professional baseball. In 1987, his senior season at Arizona State, he had a .309

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 ...

, 14

home run In baseball, a home run (abbreviated HR) is scored when the ball is hit in such a way that the batter is able to circle the bases and reach home plate safely in one play without any errors being committed by the defensive team. A home run i ...

s (HR), and 45

runs batted in A run batted in (RBI; plural RBIs ) is a statistic in baseball and softball that credits a batter for making a play that allows a run to be scored (except in certain situations such as when an error is made on the play). For example, if the ba ...

(RBI). That year he was one of four Arizona State players (including catcher

Tim Spehr Timothy Joseph Spehr (born July 2, 1966) is an American former professional baseball player. He played in Major League Baseball as a catcher for the Kansas City Royals (1991, 1997 and 1998–99), Montreal Expos (1993–96), Atlanta Braves (1997) ...

) named to the All-Pac-10 Conference Southern Division team by the ''Arizona Daily Star'' and to the Division I All-America Team by ''Baseball America''.

Playing career

Benjamin was a third-round draft pick of the San Francisco Giants in June 1987, and by April 1989 he was playing for the Giants' Triple-A affiliate, the

Phoenix Firebirds The Phoenix Firebirds were a Minor League Baseball team that played in Phoenix, Arizona, from 1958 to 1959, and from 1966 to 1997. Before 1986, the team was known as the Phoenix Giants. The franchise was a member of the Triple-A Pacific Coast Le ...

. He was said to be playing sensationally at shortstop but experiencing lower back pain. Benjamin made his major league debut with the Giants on July 7, 1989, and he played with the team through 1995, never appearing in more than 68 games in a season. On June 14, 1995, he tied a Giants single-game record with six hits. This was part of a stretch in which he tied the major league record for most hits in two consecutive games with ten, set a major league record for most hits in three consecutive games with 14, and tied another record for most hits in four consecutive games with 15. In October 1995, Benjamin was traded to the Philadelphia Phillies in exchange for pitcher

Jeff Juden Jeffrey Daniel Juden (born January 19, 1971) is an American former professional baseball pitcher. He played in Major League Baseball for the Houston Astros, Philadelphia Phillies, San Francisco Giants, Montreal Expos, Cleveland Indians, Milwauke ...

and a minor league player. After one season there, he was granted free agency. He signed one-year contracts with the Boston Red Sox in 1997 and 1998. With the 1998 Red Sox, Benjamin appeared in a career-high 124 games and hit for a career-high .272 batting average. He ended his career with the Pittsburgh Pirates, playing there from 1999 to 2002 and missing the 2001 season due to injury.

Later life

In 2003, Benjamin coached his son's Little League team from Arizona to the

Little League World Series The Little League World Series is an annual baseball tournament for children—typically boys—aged 10 to 12 years old, held in the Eastern United States. Originally called the National Little League Tournament, it was later renamed for the Wor ...

in Williamsport, Pennsylvania. From 2016–2017, he served as the manager for the

Kane County Cougars The Kane County Cougars are an independent professional baseball team located in Geneva, Illinois and are members of the American Association of Professional Baseball, an official Partner League of Major League Baseball (MLB). They play thei ...

. He was the manager for the Missoula Osprey of the Pioneer League in 2017–2018, and he became the team's bench coach in 2019.

References

External links

Mike Benjamin
at SABR (Baseball BioProject)
Mike Benjamin
at Baseball Almanac {{DEFAULTSORT:Benjamin, Mike 1965 births Living people People from Euclid, Ohio Arizona State Sun Devils baseball players Major League Baseball infielders San Francisco Giants players Philadelphia Phillies players Boston Red Sox players Cerritos Falcons baseball players Pittsburgh Pirates players Baseball players from Cuyahoga County, Ohio Fresno Giants players Phoenix Firebirds players Shreveport Captains players San Jose Giants players Clearwater Phillies players Scranton/Wilkes-Barre Red Barons players Pawtucket Red Sox players Minor league baseball managers All-American college baseball players Alaska Goldpanners of Fairbanks players

Early life

Playing career

Later life

See also

References

External links