Willie Paul Bloomquist (; born November 27, 1977) is an American

baseball Baseball is a bat-and-ball sport played between two teams of nine players each, taking turns batting and fielding. The game occurs over the course of several plays, with each play generally beginning when a player on the fielding tea ...

coach Coach may refer to: Guidance/instruction * Coach (sport), a director of athletes' training and activities * Coaching, the practice of guiding an individual through a process ** Acting coach, a teacher who trains performers Transportation * Co ...

and former

utility player In sports, a utility player is one who can play several positions competently. Sports in which the term is often used include association football, American football, baseball, rugby union, rugby league, softball, ice hockey, and water polo. The ...

, who is the current head baseball coach of the

Arizona State Sun Devils The Arizona State Sun Devils are the athletic teams that represent Arizona State University. ASU has nine men's and eleven women's varsity teams competing at the National Collegiate Athletic Association (NCAA) Division I level as a member o ...

. He played

college baseball College baseball is baseball that is played on the intercollegiate level at institutions of higher education. In comparison to football and basketball, college competition in the United States plays a smaller role in developing professional pl ...

at Arizona State for coach Pat Murphy from 1997 to 1999 and 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) for 14 seasons from 2002 to 2015. In 2021, he returned to his alma mater, Arizona State. The

Seattle Mariners The Seattle Mariners are an American professional baseball team based in Seattle. They compete in Major League Baseball (MLB) as a member club of the American League (AL) American League West, West division. The team joined the American League ...

selected Bloomquist in the third round of the 1999 MLB draft. He played 14 years primarily an

outfielder An outfielder is a person playing in one of the three defensive positions in baseball or softball, farthest from the batter. These defenders are the left fielder, the center fielder, and the right fielder. As an outfielder, their duty is to cat ...

and

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 who ...

, with Seattle from 2002 to 2008, the

Kansas City Royals The Kansas City Royals are an American professional baseball team based in Kansas City, Missouri. The Royals compete in Major League Baseball (MLB) as a member club of the American League (AL) Central division. The team was founded as an expans ...

from 2009 to 2010, the

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

in 2010, the

Arizona Diamondbacks The Arizona Diamondbacks (colloquially known as the D-backs) are an American professional baseball team based in Phoenix. The Diamondbacks compete in Major League Baseball (MLB) as a member club of the National League (NL) West division. The f ...

from 2011 to 2013 before returning to Seattle from 2014 to 2015.

Early baseball career

High school

Bloomquist was All-State and all-league MVP in baseball at

South Kitsap High School South Kitsap High School is a public high school in the South Kitsap School District and is located at 425 Mitchell Ave Port Orchard, Washington. In 2018, the school had the largest student population in the state. History and facilities South K ...

Port Orchard, Washington Port Orchard is a city in and the county seat of Kitsap County, Washington, United States. It is located due west of West Seattle and is connected to Seattle and Vashon Island via the Washington State Ferries run to Southworth. It is named ...

and was an eighth round pick in 1996 MLB draft. He was a high school teammate with former MLB player

Jason Ellison Jason Jerome Ellison (born April 4, 1978) is a former Major League Baseball outfielder. He attended Lewis-Clark State in Lewiston, Idaho, and made his major league debut on May 9, . As of the season, he was an area scout for the Los Angeles An ...

. He also played quarterback for South Kitsap. In his junior season, the team won the state AAA football championship

College

He chose to accept a scholarship to

Arizona State University Arizona State University (Arizona State or ASU) is a public research university in the Phoenix metropolitan area. Founded in 1885 by the 13th Arizona Territorial Legislature, ASU is one of the largest public universities by enrollment in the ...

. In 1998, Bloomquist tied a

College World Series The College World Series (CWS), officially the NCAA Men's College World Series (MCWS), is an annual baseball tournament held in June in Omaha, Nebraska. The MCWS is the culmination of the National Collegiate Athletic Association (NCAA) Divisi ...

single-game record with five hits in a game with Long Beach State. He was honored as

Pac-10 The Pac-12 Conference is a collegiate List of NCAA conferences, athletic conference, that operates in the Western United States, participating in 24 sports at the NCAA Division I level. Its College football, football teams compete in the NCAA D ...

Player of the Year in 1999 and was named first-team All-American by ''

Baseball America ''Baseball America'' is a sports enterprise that covers baseball at every level, including MLB, with a particular focus on up-and-coming players in the MiLB, college, high school, and international leagues. It is currently published in the form o ...

''. He finished his college career with a .394 (256/649) average over three seasons and was named ASU On Deck Circle Most Valuable Player.

Professional career

Seattle Mariners

Bloomquist was drafted out of

by the

in the eighth round (237th overall) of the 1996 MLB draft, but was not signed. He was drafted again by the Mariners out of

in the third round (95th overall) of the 1999 MLB draft and signed. The Mariners signed Bloomquist to a contract extension through the season worth $1,875,000, in 2006. On June 15, , he hit an

inside-the-park home run In baseball, an inside-the-park home run is a play where a batter hits a home run without hitting the ball out of the field of play. It is also known as an "inside-the-parker", "in-the-park home run", or "in-the-park homer". Discussion To score a ...

Minute Maid Park Minute Maid Park is a retractable roof stadium in Houston, Texas, United States. It opened in 2000 as the home ballpark of Major League Baseball's Houston Astros. It has a seating capacity of 41,168, which includes 5,197 club seats and 63 ...

. On June 26, 2007, Bloomquist hit a lead-off home run in the second inning—on what was his 1,000th career at-bat.

Kansas City Royals

On January 9, 2009, Bloomquist signed a two-year deal with the

. He played in 197 games with the Royals over parts of 2 seasons, hitting .265.

Cincinnati Reds

On September 13, 2010, Bloomquist was traded to the

for a player to be named later, or cash. In 11 games with the Reds, he hit .333.

Arizona Diamondbacks

On January 18, 2011, Bloomquist signed a one-year contract with the

. He hit .266 in 97 games with the Diamondbacks in 2011 and re-signed with the team after the season.

Second stint with Mariners

On December 5, 2013, Bloomquist signed a two-year deal to return to the Seattle Mariners. On July 2, 2015, Bloomquist was designated for assignment, and shortstop Chris Taylor called up from the Triple-A

Tacoma Rainiers The Tacoma Rainiers are a Minor League Baseball team of the Pacific Coast League (PCL) and the Triple-A affiliate of the Seattle Mariners. They are located in Tacoma, Washington, and play their home games at Cheney Stadium, which opened in 1960 ...

to take his roster spot. On March 11, 2016, Bloomquist announced his retirement on

Twitter Twitter is an online social media and social networking service owned and operated by American company Twitter, Inc., on which users post and interact with 280-character-long messages known as "tweets". Registered users can post, like, and ...

Coaching career

On June 11, 2021, Bloomquist was named the new head coach of the

baseball team.

Head coaching record

Personal life

Bloomquist is married and has four daughters, Natalie, Ava, Layla and Sydney. He is

Roman Catholic Roman or Romans most often refers to: *Rome, the capital city of Italy *Ancient Rome, Roman civilization from 8th century BC to 5th century AD *Roman people, the people of ancient Rome *'' Epistle to the Romans'', shortened to ''Romans'', a lette ...

.Importance of Catholicism Hits Home for Diamondbacks Player
National Catholic Register. April 24, 2012

References

External links

Baseball Prospectus (statistics)
* {{DEFAULTSORT:Bloomquist, Willie 1977 births Living people All-American college baseball players American people of Swedish descent Arizona Diamondbacks players Arizona League Diamondbacks players Arizona State Sun Devils baseball coaches Arizona State Sun Devils baseball players Baseball players from Washington (state) Catholics from Washington (state) Cincinnati Reds players Everett AquaSox players Kansas City Royals players Lancaster JetHawks players Major League Baseball infielders Major League Baseball outfielders People from Bremerton, Washington Reno Aces players San Antonio Missions players Seattle Mariners players Tacoma Rainiers players World Baseball Classic players of the United States 2013 World Baseball Classic players