Matt Merullo

Being born into a baseball family can be both a blessing and a curse. Just ask Matt Merullo.

Merullo – a 6-foot-2, left-handed hitter who spent six seasons (1989, 1991-95) as a backup catcher for three different teams – was a third-generation pro baseball player. His grandfather, Lennie Merullo, was the shortstop for the Chicago Cubs 1945 World Series team and went on to spend over half a century as a legendary scout. His father, Len “Boots” Merullo, was a promising Pittsburgh Pirates prospect before a freak injury ended his baseball dreams. Len got his nickname because Lennie played for the Cubs mere hours after the birth of his son and tied a major-league record that day by committing four errors in a single inning.1 As for Matt, he spent much of his childhood not only playing baseball but also tagging along with his grandfather on scouting trips.

“I spent so much time with scouts that I knew what they were doing, what they were looking for,” Matt Merullo said. “Sometimes I wondered what they were saying about me. You can’t be playing the game with one eye on the ball and one eye on what the scouts were doing.”2

Matthew Bates Merullo was born on August 4, 1965, in the Boston suburb of Winchester, Massachusetts. His father, Len Jr., worked for a printing sales company, while his mother Catherine (née Bates) stayed at home with Matt and his younger sister Lisa.3 When Len was transferred to the printing company’s New York office, the family moved to the New York area for several years before settling into the affluent western Connecticut town of Ridgefield, where Matt and his sister grew up while their father commuted by train. Catherine, meanwhile, eventually turned her photography hobby into a business taking family portraits and photos for real estate agents, leading to a later career helping families relocate.4

From an early age, Matt spent a lot of time with Lennie, who often took him to minor league games. Lennie, a Cub for seven years, was an inaugural member of the Professional Scouts Hall of Fame.5 It was Lennie who bought Matt his first catcher’s mitt at age 12, telling him, “You look like you like it back there.”6

Playing catcher was a good fit for Merullo, who was always big for his age and by the age of 14 stood 6-foot-1. Lennie Merullo, who at the time was the Northeast scout for the Major League Scouting Bureau, invited then 15-year-old Matt to attend one of the tryout camps he was running in the region.7 When it came time for high school, Merullo, who described himself at that age as “socially awkward,” wanted to attend Fairfield Prep, an all-boys Jesuit school in a nearby town. He had become enamored of the school from watching family friends play hockey for Prep, which was an annual powerhouse. After initially being rejected for admission because his family didn’t belong to a church, Merullo was accepted on his second try after a neighbor saw him highlighted as the Athlete of the Week in a local newspaper and wrote a letter to the school on his behalf.8

Fairfield Prep also turned out to be a good fit. Not only did Merullo star for the baseball team, but he played football for the first time, earning all-state honors three times and serving as captain for a state championship team. Merullo played tight end and defensive line; he also handled placekicking and punting duties.9 On the baseball field, he led Prep to four league titles and by the end of his career he ranked first on the school’s career list in hits (84) and RBIs (70) and second with a lifetime batting average of .377.10 In his senior year, Merullo was named to the Team USA High School Team, a squad of high school baseball stars from the Eastern Seaboard who traveled to Chicago, California, Hawaii, and Taiwan under the auspices of the United States Baseball Federation.11 In 2021, he was inducted into the school’s Athletic Hall of Fame.

Merullo was recruited by multiple college football programs, including Ivy League schools Princeton and Yale, where he had a one-on-one meeting with legendary coach Carm Cozza. “I knew that wasn’t for me,” Merullo said. “It wasn’t a good fit. I wanted to play baseball.”

Although Merullo hadn’t spoken with any scouts, his father, based on his conversations with scouts, told him that he was projected to go somewhere between Rounds 5 and 8 of the 1983 amateur draft. His family, though, got the word out that he would be taking the college baseball route instead.12 “My mother lived some minor league life with my dad, and she just said, ‘No way,’” Merullo said. “Everyone wants to get drafted. Not everyone wants to sign.”

Merullo went on to play at the University of North Carolina, where his teammates included B.J. Surhoff and Walt Weiss. Surhoff, also a catcher, was the No. 1 overall pick by Milwaukee in the 1985 draft, while Weiss would earn AL Rookie of the Year honors for Oakland in 1988. Merullo, a history major, didn’t stay at UNC long enough to earn his degree, but he did meet his wife Chris (née Griffin) in Chapel Hill. The couple married in 1988 and went on to have a son named Nick and two daughters, Allie and Carly.13

During his freshman year, Merullo hit .294 serving as DH and Surhoff’s backup.14 When Surhoff suffered a shoulder injury at the end of the regular season, Merullo stepped in and caught every inning as UNC won the Atlantic Coast Conference title.15 After an injury-marred sophomore year, Merullo had a strong summer playing for Team USA, for which he batted .340 with six home runs in 31 games against international competition. On June 27, 1985, Merullo’s grand slam gave Team USA a walk-off win over Japan, the first grand slam in the 14-year history of the series between college players.16  Team USA featured 16 future major-leaguers, including Merullo, who was the backup catcher to Joe Girardi.

Following a strong junior year at UNC, Merullo was selected by the Chicago White Sox in the seventh round of the 1986 amateur draft. By that point, he wasn’t getting along with UNC coach Mike Roberts, describing him as “controlling.” Despite disappointment at not being picked higher, Merullo was ready to move on.17  “I was very happy to sign a pro contract, just very happy to be drafted,” he said. “I had some things where I could have gone higher, but really, when the phone call came, I couldn’t wait for the scout to get there and just get started with my career.”18

While George Bradley was the White Sox scout who saw Merullo play the most, the one with whom he signed his contract was the team’s East Coast scout, Leo Labossiere. The first thing Merullo did after signing his contract was to look up the White Sox catching situation. When he saw that their starting catcher, Carlton Fisk, was 37, his initial reaction was “that’s great.” Little did he know that Fisk would keep playing for seven more years, outlasting Merullo’s tenure with the White Sox.

It didn’t take long for Merullo to establish himself as a rising prospect. Starting with his rookie year in pro ball in 1986, he was an all-star over the next three seasons at two different levels of minor-league ball.19 He was honored at Class A (Carolina League) in 1986, at Class A again (Florida State League) in 1987, and at Class AA (Southern League) in 1988.

Merullo also tried to make the most of the long bus rides.

“I loved it. I remember a high school teacher telling me that the one thing I have to do before I die is crisscross the country on land. I said baseball was my ticket to experience and see things and meet people. I was tied into the history of the game,” Merullo said. “I was able to travel around. I played in Rickwood Field in Birmingham, Alabama, and in Chattanooga – all these places that have so much history.”20

In 1989, Merullo came to spring training hoping to earn a spot in Chicago as the backup to Fisk. But he lost out to Ron Karkovice, a former first-round draft pick with excellent defensive skills.21 However, it was still a successful spring for Merullo, as Chicago’s new manager, Jeff Torborg, a former catcher himself, worked with Merullo on his defense while batting coach Walt Hriniak helped him with his hitting. “The two of them both gave me a lot of confidence that I could play at the major league level while I was in spring training that year,” said Merullo, who was a teammate of Torborg’s son Doug at UNC.22

Merullo soon got his chance – just two weeks into the season he was called up after Fisk was diagnosed with a broken hand.23  “I really don’t know what their expectations are,” Merullo told the Chicago Tribune.  “It hasn’t really sunk in yet that I’m here.”24

Merullo made his major-league debut on April 12 in Seattle, striking out against Erik Hanson as a pinch-hitter in the eighth inning of a 9-1 loss. Two days later, Merullo was surprised to find himself in the starting lineup for Chicago’s home opener against Oakland.

With his parents in the stands at Comiskey Park, it turned out to be a memorable first start, as Merullo had two hits and threw out a runner trying to steal.25 His first hit was a single off reigning Cy Young winner Dave Stewart. His second hit was a ninth-inning home off Rick Honeycutt which came with Chicago down to its final out and trailing, 7-3.26 The runner he threw out was Stan Javier, who had been 20-for-21 in stolen-base attempts the previous season.

But the play that might have left the biggest impression on the 37,950 fans in attendance came with Merullo on first base after his seventh-inning single. With one out, Ozzie Guillén hit a ground ball between first and second. Merullo successfully avoided being hit by the bouncing ball, but couldn’t avoid brushing into A’s second baseman Glenn Hubbard, who tagged Merullo and threw to first to complete the double play. Both Hubbard and Merullo lost their hats during the play, and Merullo, in a hurry to get off the field, grabbed the wrong hat. “Instead of picking up my helmet, I picked up a green and yellow baseball cap, put it on top of my red, white and blue uniform and started jogging off the field,” Merullo said. “I was halfway to my dugout before I realized I was wearing his hat.”27 Merullo was later fined $25 by the White Sox’ Kangaroo Court for impersonating a player on another team.

Oakland’s 7-4 victory that day also featured a temporary power outage at the stadium, which led to Chicago Mayor Richard M. Daley being stuck in an elevator. It also meant that there were no celebratory fireworks when Merullo homered. To make up for it, the White Sox shot fireworks into the air when Merullo’s name was announced during the starting lineup introductions the following day.28

When Fisk came off the disabled list at the end of May, the White Sox gave Merullo, who had batted .222 in 31 games, the choice of going back to Class AA Birmingham or going to their Class AAA team in Vancouver. He chose Birmingham, where he would get a chance to work with pitching coach Rick Peterson, whom Merullo had gotten to know in spring training. “He (Peterson) challenged me to come up with a routine on defense and to get to know the pitchers better,” Merullo said. “I was more of a hitter, and I was learning the throwing part of the game, receiving and calling a good game. That was the beginning of me starting to grow as a catcher and a ballplayer.”

Injuries started to take their toll on Merullo that year, though. He missed six weeks of Birmingham’s season with a broken hand. That fall, on the last day of Instructional League play, he partially tore his ACL in a collision at home plate. Merullo thought he was healing well enough to play for Escogido in the Dominican Winter League, but while there he suffered a potential career-ending injury to his right knee when his leg was hooked by a runner caught in a rundown between home and third.29

Before the injuries, Cleveland had been in trade talks for Merullo, possibly as part of a package for the White Sox to acquire Joe Carter.30 Years later, a scout told Merullo that White Sox general manager Ron Schueler later turned down a straight-up deal with Seattle which would have sent Merullo to the Mariners in 1991 in exchange for Mike Hampton.31

Merullo spent the entire 1990 season in Birmingham, having a solid season with the bat while working on his defense, all while still dealing with the lingering effects of his knee injury. His goal, of course, was to get back to Chicago. “I knew what it took to get there,” Merullo said, “but I had to learn what it took to stay there.”32

He was also dealing with a chronic elbow injury, which had started to bother him back when he was playing in the Cape Cod League in college. He blamed that injury on his poor throwing form. “I never was a good thrower. If I had good throwing mechanics I wouldn’t have had issues with my elbow,” Merullo said.33

It was Merullo’s bat, not his arm, that got him back to the majors in 1991. Except for a short stint in Birmingham, he spent the entire season with Chicago, playing in a career-high 80 games and leading the American League in pinch-hit appearances with 46. He also started 26 games at catcher and played 16 games at first base. Merullo batted only .229 but hit five of his seven career home runs.

 “It was frustrating because my ability to pinch hit would keep me from starting sometimes,” Merullo said, “because they like to have a guy come off at any time to swing the bat.”34

A highlight of the season came on May 13 in Boston. With the White Sox down to their last strike in the top of the ninth inning, Merullo homered off Boston closer Jeff Reardon to send the game into extra innings, where Chicago won, 4-3, in the 10th inning. It was the first blown save of the season for Reardon, who had converted his first 10 chances. “I had a ton of family and friends in the stands,” said Merullo after the game. “It’s great to have something like this happen in front of them. It’ll stay with me the rest of my life.”35

Another highlight came midway through the season, when Merullo was mentioned in an article in The Sporting News about young position players who were potential All-Stars. Detroit manager Sparky Anderson called Merullo “one of the finest young hitters I’ve seen in a while,” but conceded, “Merullo can’t be an All-Star if he don’t play.”36

On the final day of the season, Merullo homered on a line drive to deep right field in a 3-2 win over Seattle and was behind the plate for a well-pitched game by Chicago rookie Wilson Alvarez, who had thrown a no-hitter earlier that season. “Even my throwing felt good,” he said.

The next year, though, Merullo’s career took a step backwards under new White Sox manager Gene Lamont (another ex-catcher). After playing in 24 games over the first three months while backing up Karkovice, who was starting in place of an injured Fisk, Merullo was sent to Triple-A Vancouver. Owing to bone spurs in his elbow, he played in just 14 games for Vancouver. “I should have taken it a little slower on my arm,” Merullo said. “When the elbow started barking, it was the beginning of the end.”37

Merullo spent most of 1993 in Nashville, where he led the Triple-A American Association in batting with a .332 average. He had a brief midseason stint in Chicago when designated hitter George Bell was injured, going 1-for-20. His lone hit was a bloop single off Nolan Ryan on August 4. That memorable game featured a bench-clearing brawl precipitated by Robin Ventura charging the mound after being hit by a pitch thrown by Ryan.

Despite his big year in Triple A, Merullo knew he didn’t fit into the White Sox’ long-term plans. With the signing in April 1993 of free agent catcher Mike Lavalliere, who had played for Lamont in Pittsburgh, the writing was on the wall. Merullo’s injuries, which eventually resulted in three elbow surgeries and one knee operation, were also taking a toll. “The more I worked on my defense, the more I found I was starting to have trouble with my arm,” Merullo said. “So, it became a journeyman’s career. It became an up and down career.”38

On March 30, 1994, Merullo was traded to Cleveland for minor-league outfielder Ken Ramos. After almost being traded to the Indians four years earlier, Merullo had finally arrived in Cleveland. “I knew Cleveland had wanted me for a long time,” he said. “The Indians tried to get me during the offseason. They ended up signing Tony Peña to back up Sandy Alomar (Jr.), but I was their first choice.”

Despite having won a minor-league batting title in the previous season, Merullo found himself back in Triple A again in 1994, this time with Charlotte in the International League. When Alomar got hurt, Merullo played in four games for Cleveland in late April, going 1-for-10, before being returned to Charlotte, where he batted .300.

Merullo knew he had no future with Cleveland but left the organization on good terms. “They (the Indians) went above and beyond to take care of me and paid for me to have an (arthroscopic knee) surgery at the end of the year even though they knew I wasn’t part of their plans,” Merullo said.

Now a free agent for the first time, Merullo had interest from multiple teams and signed with Minnesota on December 16, 1994. The Twins’ general manager, Terry Ryan, was a former scout who knew Matt’s grandfather, and Merullo also liked the Twins’ style of play under Tom Kelly.39 The Twins, for their part, needed a left-handed hitter off the bench and hoped that Merullo would push Derek Parks for the backup catcher position behind Matt Walbeck.40

Merullo rewarded the Twins’ confidence by having his most productive season, registering career highs in at-bats (195), OPS (.714), and starts at catcher (46). On July 23, 1995, batting cleanup, he had a single and double in the first two innings off Roger Clemens. He had a four-hit game against Oakland and a pair of three-hit games. On August 5, he hit his first and only grand slam, a seventh-inning shot off Billy Brewer in a 13-8 win over Kansas City. It was the final home run of his career.

“It was right around my birthday,” Merullo said. “I remember telling the newspaper guys. ‘I’m finally 30 years old and maturing as a hitter.’ But it’s neat to be able to say you’ve got a grand slam in the big leagues.”41

A statistical oddity for Merullo in 1995 was that he batted .438 (14-for-32) against left-handed pitchers. He batted only.258 against righties.

“Tom Kelly was just great at putting guys in situations where they had a chance to have success,” Merullo said. “I probably faced more left-handed pitchers that year than any other year of my career. He just knew I could battle them. He didn’t mind starting me against certain guys, and most of them happened to be left-handed. It was a good year. I would’ve liked to hit for a bit more power. But I had this thing with my elbow. My right arm just wouldn’t straighten out. It cut the extension down on my swing a little bit. But it was a very fun year for me.” Adding to Merullo’s enjoyment that season was that he took advantage of Minneapolis’s extensive series of bike paths, often riding his mountain bike to the Metrodome.42

Despite his success that season, Merullo wasn’t surprised when the Twins did not re-sign him after finishing last in the AL Central. “We were a poor team, and we had some aging players,” Merullo said. “I was 31, but my arm was about 45. Kirby Puckett once told me, ‘It looks like there’s dust coming out of your arm.’”

The Twins released Merullo while he was driving back to Connecticut at the end of the season. Ryan left a voice mail on his answering machine, but Merullo found out when he read the transaction item in the newspaper.43

Merullo took a pay cut from $100,000 to $35,000 to sign a minor-league deal with the Chicago Cubs in 1996, hoping to earn a spot as a backup to Scott Servais. “I thought it was destiny to go to the Chicago Cubs and be a backup there where my grandfather had played,” he said. That didn’t work out, though, as the Cubs signed another backup catcher, Brian Dorsett, late in spring training. Dorsett had previously played for Cubs manager Jim Riggleman, who knew so little about Merullo that he asked him where he had played the previous season.44

Spring training with the Cubs did feature one memorable moment, though, for Merullo. “When I signed the contract with the Cubs, their clubhouse man, Yosh Kawano, was still working for them,” Merullo said. “He was working for them as a clubhouse boy when my grandfather was there. And my grandfather, ever since I was 7 years old, he would say, ‘When you’re 9 years old, you and I, we’re gonna go out to Arizona and go to spring training together.’ Then it was, ‘When you’re 12 years old, you and I, we’re gonna go out to Arizona and go to spring training together.’ Well, then I started playing baseball a lot and it never happened, so I was 30 years old, 31 years old and he said, ‘Hey we’re finally going.’ He flew out to meet me in Arizona. I sat and had dinner with him and Yosh Kawano and I never got a word in edgewise. It was so much fun to be a fly on that wall.”45

After playing 30 games for the Cubs’ Triple A team in Iowa, Merullo officially retired, only to have the Angels invite him to have a two-week tryout earning the major-league per diem playing for Lake Elsinore in the Class A California League. Merullo enjoyed hanging out with former Cubs star Leon Durham, who was a coach there, but didn’t impress the Angels enough to get a contract.46

His playing career over, Merullo wrote letters to all 30 big-league teams asking for a job. The Arizona Diamondbacks, an expansion team starting play in 1998, were the only ones to respond, hiring Merullo as an area scout in the Northeast. He spent 11 years in that position, failing to convince the Diamondbacks to use one of their two first-round draft picks in 2009 to sign Mike Trout.47 Instead, Trout went to the Angels with the 25th pick in that year’s draft. Arizona, meanwhile, used its first-round picks on Bobby Bochering and A.J. Pollock. While Pollock had a solid 12-year career, Bochering never made it to the majors.

“My scouting director has been nice enough to joke around saying if he had just listened to me, we’d all still have jobs with the Diamondbacks,” Merullo said.48 While Trout was the one who got away, Merullo did sign over 50 players to professional contracts in his 12 years as the team’s area scout.49

Merullo then spent three seasons (2013-15) as a minor-league manager in the Orioles’ system.50 Back in Connecticut, he founded and ran a baseball academy for several years and was a volunteer assistant coach at Fairfield University.

As of 2025, Merullo was a volunteer assistant coach for the Guilford High School baseball team. That squad was coached by his son Nick, who became a fifth-grade teacher after spending a season in the Baltimore Orioles organization, making him the fourth generation of Merullos to play pro ball. “It’s fun to connect with my son and do this volunteer thing for a couple of months each spring,” Merullo said. “I get so much joy.”51

Last revised: October 15, 2025

Acknowledgments

Special thanks to Matt Merullo for his memories.

This article was reviewed by Gregory H. Wolf and Rory Costello and checked for accuracy by SABR’s fact-checking team.

Photo credit: Matt Merullo, Trading Card Database.

Sources

In addition to the Sources cited in the Notes, the authors consulted SABR.org, Baseball-Reference.com, and Retrosheet.org websites for pertinent material and the box scores noted below.

Notes

1 Richard Cuicchi, “September 13, 1942: Cubs’ Lennie Merullo boots four on day his son is born,” SABR Games Project, https://sabr.org/gamesproj/game/september-13-1942-cubs-lennie-merullo-boots-four-on-day-his-son-is-born/ (Last accessed July 1, 2025). Merullo finished the season with 42 errors, third-most among NL shortstops. He finished first or second in most errors committed by an NL shortstop in three of his seven seasons.

2 Matt Merullo, telephone interview with David Bilmes, June 17, 2025 (hereafter Merullo-Bilmes interview). All quotations from Matt Merullo are from the interview with the author on June 17 unless otherwise noted.

3 Merullo-Bilmes interview. 

4 Merullo-Bilmes interview.

5 “Professional Scouts Hall of Fame,” baseballreference.com, October 14, 2021, https://www.baseball-reference.com/bullpen/Professional_Scouts_Hall_of_Fame (last accessed June 26, 2025).

6 Merullo-Bilmes interview.

7 “Interview Part 1: Matt Merullo, What Fun,” greatests21days.com, July 21, 2013, https://www.greatest21days.com/2013/07/interview-part-1-matt-merullo-what-fun.html (last accessed July 1, 2025). Merullo-Bilmes interview.

8 Merullo-Bilmes interview.

9 “Matt Merullo ’83 inducted into Fairfield Prep Athletic Hall of Fame,” Fairfield Prep YouTube Channel, https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5rOLUc_s1HU (last accessed July 1, 2025).

10 “Matt Merullo ’83,” Fairfield Prep Athletics Hall of Fame, https://www.fairfieldprep.org/athletics/hall-of-fame/ahof-post/~board/athletic-hall-of-fame/post/matt-merullo-83 (last accessed July 1, 2025).

11 Merullo-Bilmes interview.

12 Merullo-Bilmes interview.

13 Merullo-Bilmes interview.

14 ”1986 North Carolina Tar Heels,” The Baseball Cube, https://www.thebaseballcube.com/content/stats_college/1986~20006/ (last accessed September 17, 2025).

15 Merullo-Bilmes interview. UNC defeated Clemson in the title game, earning its third straight league title.

16 UPI, “Pitch-hitter Matt Merullo of North Carolina smashed a grand-slam,” UPI Archives, June 27, 1985, https://www.upi.com/amp/Archives/1985/06/27/Pitch-hitter-Matt-Merullo-of-North-Carolina-smashed-a-grand-slam/7057488692800/ (last accessed July 2, 2025).

17 Merullo-Bilmes interview.

18 “Interview Part 1: Matt Merullo, What Fun.”

19 “Interview Part 2: Matt Merullo, Got There,” greatest21days.com, July 21, 2013, https://www.greatest21days.com/2013/07/interview-part-2-matt-merullo-got-there.html (last accessed July 7, 2025).

20 Ashley Marshall, “Baseball runs deep in Merullo family,” MLB.com, July 4, 2014, https://www.milb.com/news/gcs-82801118 (last accessed July 7, 2025).

21 “Interview Part 3: Matt Merullo, “Kept Simple,” greatest21days.com,, July 22, 2013, https://www.greatest21days.com/2019/06/matt-merullo-own-path-3.html (last accessed July 8, 2025). During his major-league career, Karkovice threw out 41 percent of runners attempting to steal, while Merullo only threw out 18 percent.

22 “Interview Part 2: Matt Merullo, Got There.”

23 UPI, “Fisk out 6-8 weeks,” UPI Archives, April 12, 1989, https://www.upi.com/Archives/1989/04/12/Fisk-out-6-8-weeks/8088501206863/ (last accessed July 12, 2025).

24 “Interview Part 3: Matt Merullo, “Kept Simple.”

25 Ashley Marshall, “Baseball runs deep in Merullo family.”

26 Merullo’s homer turned out to be the last opening-day homer at Comiskey Park, as the White Sox moved into a new ballpark, also named Comiskey Park, two years later in 1991. No one from either team homered in the 1990 home opener at the original Comiskey.

27 “Interview Part 2: Matt Merullo, Got There.”

28 Merullo-Bilmes interview.

29 Merullo-Bilmes interview.

30 “Notebook AL West,” The Sporting News, December 11, 1989: 46.

31 Merullo-Bilmes interview

32 “Interview Part 2: Matt Merullo, Got There.”

33 “Interview Part 2: Matt Merullo, Got There.”

34 “Interview Part 2: Matt Merullo, Got There.”

35 AP, “AMERICAN LEAGUE ROUNDUP: Reardon can’t hold lead for Clemens, 4-3, Los Angeles Times archives, May 14, 1991, https://www.latimes.com/archives/la-xpm-1991-05-14-sp-1822-story.html (last accessed July 14, 2025).

36 Dave Nightingale, “Coming Attractions, “The Sporting News,” July 18, 1991: 12.

37 Merullo-Bilmes interview. Merullo actually injured the elbow before being sent down, and had X-rays taken inside Comiskey Park to prove he was already injured when he was demoted. The White Sox refused his request to rehab in Chicago, which led Merullo to file a grievance against the team. “We settled for a little bit of money,” he said.

38 “Interview Part 3: Matt Merullo, “Kept Simple.”

39 William Malone, “Remembering random Twins: Exclusive interview with Matt Merullo,” twinsdaily.com, May 25, 2025, https://twinsdaily.com/news-rumors/minnesota-twins-history/remembering-random-twins-exclusive-interview-with-matt-merullo-r18348/ (last accessed July 15, 2025).

40 “AL,” The Sporting News, December 19, 1994: 36.

41 William Malone, “Remembering random Twins: Exclusive interview with Matt Merullo.”

42 Merullo-Bilmes interview

43 Merullo-Bilmes interview.

44 Merullo-Bilmes interview.

45 Ashley Marshall, “Baseball runs deep in Merullo family.”

46 Merullo-Bilmes interview.

47 Merullo-Bilmes interview.

48 William Malone, “Remembering random Twins: Exclusive interview with Matt Merullo.”

49 “Matt Merullo named volunteer assistant baseball coach,” fairfieldstags.com, Sept. 22, 2021, https://fairfieldstags.com/news/2021/9/22/matt-merullo-named-baseball-volunteer-assistant-coach (last accessed July 17, 2025).

50 Merullo spent three seasons managing the Aberdeen IronBirds. He was prominently featured in “Clubbie: A Minor League Baseball Memoir,” by Greg Larson, who was the clubhouse attendant for one of those seasons.

51 Nick played four years at James Madison University before being signed by Baltimore. As a high school coach, he took Guilford from a 2-16 record his first season to the state championship game two years later.