Seattle Mariner and Cyclone Baseball Standout Matt Wagner
I’m not sure you’re ever going to play baseball again
Most Moonlighter’s start at the bottom and have to work their way to the top and wait for an opportunity. This week, our guest was one of the top prospects in the country before having a shoulder injury that threw a curveball into his career. Matt Wagner overcame his injury to make the big leagues and played alongside some of the biggest names in baseball history.
Matt Wagner left Cedar Falls High School with the talent and size to be a star in the Southwest Conference. After getting connected to Arkansas after crossing paths with a major league scout, Wagner sent a VHS tape of a bullpen he threw to the Razorback staff. He was offered a scholarship without ever playing in front of his future coaches. Wagner was given the chance to show his stuff as a freshman and ended up being the Friday night starter. It was towards the end of that season that he started to notice something was off with his shoulder. That injury turned out to be a torn rotator cuff tendon. After going back to Fayetteville for his sophomore year, Wagner thought his baseball career might be over.
Wagner decided to head back to Cedar Falls and planned to attend UNI as a student. When Iowa State baseball coach Bob Randall heard he was back in Iowa, he offered Wagner a chance to play first base as a non-scholarship player. As he got on the field for the Cyclones, his arm started to come back to life. Wagner found out his rotator cuff had healed after another exam and went on to have a great season on the mound for the Cyclones. After being drafted out of high school and after his redshirt season, the Mariners saw that he was back to full speed and took him in the 3rd round of the 1994 draft.
My first introduction to Ken Griffey Jr. was buck naked in the shower
Matt Wagner quickly progressed through the minor league system and was a top prospect for the Mariners organization at a time they were loaded with talent. He made his major league debut in 1996 against the Cleveland Indians. Matt Wagner played alongside Alex Rodriguez, Ken Griffey Jr, Edgar Martinez, and Randy Johnson among many other big names. Wagner went from thinking he would never be able to play again to starting 14 games in the majors for the Mariners on a team loaded with Hall of Famers.
Every listener to this podcast knows that a game of catch is rarely just a game of catch. Playing catch is an opportunity to connect with someone, whether you spend that time in conversation or just listening to the pop of the ball hitting the leather. Few understand this more than this week’s guest, Kevin Negaard. Negaard’s journey is nearing his goal of 365 consecutive days of catch. This endeavor has connected him with hundreds of partners, has spanned two continents, and led to two injections in his shoulder.