Vinnie Malzahn is the assistant coach of the Irish National Team – which one Gold Medal in Zurich in 2017 during the European Championship. He is also the GM of the Hardball Training Center in Elmsford, NY. Prior to that, he had a standout career at St. Thomas Aquinas, where he was inducted into their Hall of Fame in 2016.
I had a chance to speak with him and here’s what he had to say..
Who are some players you tried emulating when you were younger?
Ken Griffey Jr and Derek Jeter. Loved watching those guys for different reasons…Jr because I was a lefty and tried to make my swing as smooth and effortless as his and Jeter because of how much he respected the game and how hard he played every single time he stepped on the field.
Do you come from an athletic family?
My dad was a 3 sport athlete in HS and played football at Wagner. My sister was also a 3 sports athlete in HS and played Volleyball and Softball in College.
Since I can remember, I’ve had a bat in my hand. My love for the game stems from many moments over time but I loved watching my dad play growing up. He played in the MSBL and can remember traveling to all sorts of tournaments with him and just thinking how great that was. They played on some old minor league fields and he always brought me on the field before the games to have a catch and we always talked about me playing in MLB stadiums one day during those brief moments playing catch before his games.
Can you explain your experience with the college recruiting process and why you chose St. Thomas Aquinas?
I remember it just being a confusing time for me. I knew I was a good player but wasn’t getting many offers at the time. There wasn’t many showcases or travel teams back then and the video on made was on vhs and only had five of those made up and had to figure out which five schools I would send those too. (STAC wasn’t one of the five). I ended up going to a couple of camps at Penn State and UConn where there were a bunch of schools at both places. I ended up getting a lot of offers from attending those camps even one from coach Penders at UConn. At that time I still hadn’t heard from STAC and didn’t event know the school existed to be honest. I later went on a visit to Concordia as I had some friends already attending that school. Received the biggest offer to date from Coach Greiner. I was fully committed to go there but hasn’t signed my Letter of Intent yet. Unbeknownst to me, Coach Greiner has reached out to coach muscat from STAC avout be knowing coach muscat was in need of a first baseman. My high school coach, Tim Leonard then was in communication with Coach muscat and gave him my high school schedule. Coach muscat came to one game in which I was intentionally walked 4 times and then finally saw one pitch in extra innings which I hit for a double. He then had me stay after the game to watch me hit bp I was given an amazing offer From coach muscat and he also discussed that I would be given the opportunity to start right away and he felt there would be no doubt of me becoming the ECC Rookie of the Year. Coach muscat was the only coach that truly saw my potentially and I felt extremely confident in my choice to play for him.
What was the most thrilling moment of your playing career?
Wow, there are a lot of them but The one that sticks out the most to me is the 2008 team I played on when we found out we were the regular season champions. It was such a great feeling and that entire team was so close and everyone knew their role and got the job done every day.
You finished your career with the most home runs in program history – is that something you consciously tried to do or was it a product of your approach at the plate?
That record was broken in 2018 but I wasn’t shooting for that at all. My approach was to always drive the ball up the middle and/or to drive in runs. I always just wanted to be on time at the plate and was constantly thinking about as well as studying pitchers as much as possible. I would watch them warmup pregame as well as watch them in between each inning. You could always elimate at least one pitch from watching them warm up depending on what they had a feel for on any given day I would say I was always a power hitter. I hit about 20 HRs in high school as well.
How do you get involved with the Irish National Team?
I got involved original run about 2013/2014 by purchasing some baseball Ireland apparel which lead to donations to their field in Ashbourne. After that myself and Bill Sullivan meet with John Fitzgerald from the Baseball United Foundation to see how we could help Baseball Ireland more. At that time, Baseball United was donating equipment to Ireland so we gathered as much as we could to send to Ireland for all the youth to get more involved with their camps and clinics over there. We also helped in Baseball United’s player exchange program where we would bring a llayee from Ireland to train here in the states. After all of that, John Fitzgerald presenter the idea of an U18 team made up of players from Ireland and players from the states who have their Irish Citizenship. We started that process in 2016 and went on to win the B Pool championship in 2017 which qualified us for the A Pool in 2018. We did well and remain in the A Pool which is this summer in Italy.
Can you tell us about the quality of the competition and what the experience is like for athletes?
We were in the A Pool in 2018 and these teams in Europe are very good. The A pool had the Netherlands, Italy, Spain, Germany, France, and more. There were about 12-15 MLB scouts in attendance at most games. We lost a tough 10-9 game vs Italy to advance to the medal round. To give a comparison to this audience would be that the majority of the A Pool teams are compatible to D1 college teams.
It’s an amazing experience for these players to go and play against all these other countries to experience how others approach the game. Each country has their own style of play which is amazing to see for them.
