Rick Aguilera

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Rick Aguilera bigraphy, stories - American baseball player

Rick Aguilera : biography

December 31, 1961 –

Richard Warren Aguilera (born December 31, 1961 in San Gabriel, California) is a former Major League Baseball pitcher. During a 16-year baseball career, he pitched from 1985 to 2000 for the New York Mets, Minnesota Twins, Boston Red Sox, and Chicago Cubs.

Return to Minnesota

A free agent following the season, Aguilera opted to return to the Twins. Minnesota skipper Tom Kelly installed Aguilera as a starting pitcher—a position he hadn’t been in since starting 11 games for the team in —rather than his familiar closer role. Despite early season shoulder and wrist injuries (with the latter reportedly caused lifting his wife’s suitcase the last week of spring training) forcing Aguilera to miss 6 weeks early in the season, the veteran battled his way to an 8–6 record with a 5.42 ERA in 19 starts, including a pair of complete games. With Aguilera now working as a starting pitcher, Dave Stevens led the pitching staff with 11 saves. Stevens was one of seven Twins pitchers to record a save in .

The following season, the experiment of Aguilera as a starting pitcher had ended midway through spring training and the veteran returned to the bullpen. At age 35, he went 5–4 with 26 saves and a 3.82 ERA in 61 outings. In , he recorded 38 saves (the most since saving 41 games in ) in 68 games for the Twins. In , Aguilera had gone 3–1 with 6 saves and a 1.27 ERA in 17 games before the Twins traded the 37-year-old and pitcher Scott Downs to the Chicago Cubs for Kyle Lohse and Jason Ryan.

Life after baseball

After spending the off-season weighing the possibility of coming back for a 17th season, Aguilera officially retired on February 17, 2001. At the time of his retirement, his 318 saves trailed only Lee Smith, John Franco, Dennis Eckersley, Jeff Reardon, Randy Myers, Rollie Fingers, and John Wetteland in career saves. As of June 2011, he stands 15th on the career saves list. Aguilera was on top of the Twins / Senators franchise list for career saves with 254 until current Twin Joe Nathan surpassed him on August 10, 2011. In addition, Aguilera’s save totals in 1991 (42 saves), 1992 (41), and 1998 (38) are 5th, 7th, and 10th on the franchise’s top 10 season saves list (as of the end of the 2010 season).

Aguilera is married to wife Sherry (m. 1988) and the couple have two children, daughter Rachel (born 1991) and son Austin (born 1996). A devout Christian, Aguilera now lives in the San Diego suburb of Rancho Santa Fe, California and dedicates his time to his family and real estate investments. He has also served as the pitching coach for the Santa Fe Christian High School baseball team from 2001 to 2005 and as the head coach from 2005 to 2007.

On June 21, 2008, Rick Aguilera was inducted into the Minnesota Twins Hall of Fame.

Minnesota Twins

Although he got his wish and completed the season with the Twins as a starter, going 3–5 with a 3.72 ERA and 3 complete games in 75 2/3 innings, he was shifted to the closer’s role in and responded by saving 32 games for a team that went 74–88. The next year, his relief pitching was instrumental in the Twins’ surprising division title, as he saved 42 games with a 2.35 ERA, a team record that would stand until Eddie Guardado broke it in with 45 saves. He went on to save three of four victories in the ALCS and the first two games of the World Series against the Atlanta Braves. In Game 3, he became the first pitcher to pinch hit in a World Series game since Don Drysdale in 1965, flying out in the top of the 12th with the bases loaded and two outs before giving up the game-winning hit in the bottom of the inning. Aguilera also won Game 6. Aguilera became one of baseball’s premier closers with the Twins from – and was named to three All-Star teams from -.

New York Mets

Aguilera attended Edgewood High School in West Covina, CA and played third base. Following graduation, he was drafted by the St. Louis Cardinals in the 37th round of the 1980 amateur draft on June 3, but did not sign and instead chose to attend Brigham Young University. After three years at BYU, in which he had made the transition from third base to pitcher, the Mets drafted him in the 3rd round of the 1983 amateur draft on June 6. Although he did not sign until September, he was able to get into 16 games (going 5–6 with a 3.72 ERA in 104 innings) for the Little Falls Mets in the low A-ball New York-Penn League. The following season he was promoted to the Lynchburg Mets in the high-A Carolina League where he was 8–3 with a 2.34 ERA and 101 strikeouts in 88 1/3 innings before being promoted to the Jackson Mets in the AA Texas League. In , Aguilera was promoted to AAA Tides and was 6–4 with a 2.51 ERA in 11 starts before being promoted to the majors.