Bill Haselman

William Joseph Haselman (born May 25, 1966) is an American professional baseball coach and former player.

A first-round selection in the 1987 MLB draft, he played for the Texas Rangers, Seattle Mariners, Boston Red Sox and Detroit Tigers.

He previously was the bullpen coach and first base coach for the Red Sox and the third base coach for the Los Angeles Angels.

He has also served as a manager in Minor League Baseball.

Haselman was born in Long Branch, New Jersey, and graduated from Saratoga High School in Saratoga, California.

At Saratoga, he played high school football in addition to baseball.

He committed to play college football at the University of Nevada, Reno, but backed out in order to attend the University of California, Los Angeles (UCLA).

There, he played for the UCLA Bruins baseball team as an understudy to Todd Zeile.

He also played briefly for the UCLA Bruins football team—while some sources state he was a backup for starting quarterback Troy Aikman, Haselman has stated this is incorrect, as during his half-season with the team, the starting quarterback was David Norrie.

Haselman was drafted as the 23rd pick of the first round of the 1987 Major League Baseball draft by the Texas Rangers.

He began his professional career that year for the Gastonia Rangers of the South Atlantic League.

In 1988, he was promoted to the Port Charlotte Rangers of the Class A-Advanced Florida State League, where he hit .245 in 122 games.

Haselman spent 1989 and 1990 with the Double-A Tulsa Drillers of the Texas League.

He played as a catcher in Major League Baseball (MLB) for 13 seasons between 1990 and 2003.

He was a September call-up with the Rangers in 1990 and made his MLB debut at the age of 24 as a pinch hitter on September 3, 1990, against the Cleveland Indians.

He recorded his first hit, also as a pinch hitter, off Joe Klink of the Oakland Athletics on September 27.

In 14 games, he had two hits in 13 at bats.

Haselman returned to the minors and spent 1991 and the first part of 1992 with the Oklahoma City 89ers of the Triple-A American Association.

On May 29, 1992, Haselman was selected off waivers by the Seattle Mariners, who assigned him to the Calgary Cannons of the Pacific Coast League, where he hit .255 in 88 games with 19 home runs and 53 runs batted in (RBI).

He also appeared in eight games for the Mariners in September and had five hits in 19 at bats.

Haselman spent most of 1993 as the Mariners back-up catcher and hit his first home run on May 8 off of Jim Deshaies of the Minnesota Twins.

On June 6, 1993, Haselman was hit by a pitch thrown by Baltimore Orioles pitcher Mike Mussina, leading to him charging the mound and igniting a bench-clearing brawl.

In parts of three seasons with Seattle, he appeared in 104 games and hit .234 with 6 home runs and 24 RBI.

Haselman signed as a free agent with the Boston Red Sox on November 7, 1994, and played with the Red Sox through the 1997 season as a backup catcher.

Haselman's most dramatic offensive performance came in a game at Fenway Park against the Toronto Blue Jays on June 27, 1995.

Haselman shattered his bat, sending a Woody Williams' offering sailing over the Green Monster to give the Red Sox their first walk-off win of their 1995 American League East division-winning campaign.

Haselman's only postseason appearance was during the 1995 American League Division Series, when he played in one game against Cleveland and was hitless in two at bats.

Haselman had his best season in 1996, when he hit .274 with 8 home runs and 34 RBI in a career-high 237 at bats for the Red Sox.

He also led American League catchers with a 7.64 range factor.

Haselman was the battery-mate for Red Sox pitcher Roger Clemens on September 18, 1996, when Clemens struck out 20 batters in a game against the Detroit Tigers to tie his own major league single-game strikeout record in a nine-inning game.

It was also a productive night for Haselman, who had three hits and two RBIs in the memorable Red Sox victory.

The Red Sox traded Haselman (along with Mark Brandenburg and Aaron Sele) on November 6, 1997, to the Texas Rangers for Damon Buford and Jim Leyritz.

In 40 games, he hit .314 with 6 home runs.

Haselman signed as a free agent with the Detroit Tigers on December 14, 1998.

With the 1999 Tigers, he hit .273 in 48 games.

The Tigers traded Haselman back to the Rangers (along with Frank Catalanotto, Francisco Cordero, Gabe Kapler, Justin Thompson and a minor leaguer) on November 2, 1999, in exchange for Juan González, Danny Patterson and Gregg Zaun.

Haselman remained with Texas from 2000 through 2002.

He appeared in at least 47 MLB games during each of those seasons.

Overall, in three stints spanning parts of five seasons with the Rangers, Haselman played in 225 games and hit .273.

With the bases empty and the score tied, 5–5, he pinch hit for catcher Mike Macfarlane in the bottom of the 11th inning.