Baseball Forever for Ever
Oct 07, 2020 | Baseball, General
A sip of a cup of coffee.
That was how long the Major League playing career was for onetime Aggie shortstop Ever Magallanes.
Three games, three plate appearances. Although it seems brief, it belies the success he has enjoyed in baseball and the impact he has had on the game.
For Magallanes, baseball has been life. A good life.
It is a life that enjoyed playing 20 years of professional baseball, including a stellar 11-year stint in the Mexican Baseball League. A life that has led to enshrinement in the Caribbean Baseball Hall of Fame. And now it’s a life that has spent 15 years shaping young baseball lives as a minor league instructor, coach and manager.
Magallanes, who moved to Los Angeles from Chihuahua, Mexico, at age 2, was always surrounded by baseball.
“We were a baseball family,” Magallanes said. “We always had bats and balls and gloves all around the house.
Magallanes’ father, Roberto, was a semi-pro player in Mexico and his grandfather organized local teams.
“In the town where I was born, the name Magallanes is associated with baseball,” Ever relayed to the Bryan-College Station Eagle’s Larry Bowen in a 1987 interview. “My father played semi-pro, and I think he could have played in organized baseball, but he had to work and never really got a chance. I think some of my instincts are God-given, and the rest I learned from my father. He would always hit me grounders and work with me.”
His brother, Bobby Magallanes also enjoyed a lengthy professional career, including six years in the Mexican Baseball League, and has nine years of Minor League Baseball managerial experience.
The two-year standout at shortstop was brought to College Station by then-second-year head coach Mark Johnson and pitching coach Jim Lawler. The duo recruited California at their previous gigs and Cerritos College was a noted baseball powerhouse under legendary head coach George Horton, who would go on to lead Cal State Fullerton to six College World Series and a 2004 NCAA title.
“We knew we always had to cover Cerritos,” Johnson said. “They always had studs. He wasn’t a guy that would catch your eye, because he seemed to be effortless out there. He was a guy that was young in body, not totally filled out or built, but could see that he was not going to get big. He was going to be just fine though. He had great anticipation and instincts for the game. He got to the ball so well and got rid of it so quick that you didn’t see a lot of effort.”
His time in Aggieland almost ended early. Real early.
“I remember my first summer in College Station,” Magallanes said. “I lived off campus in an apartment with two of the ball players and we didn’t have air-conditioning for like a week or 10 days. It was so hot. So hot and so humid. I was struggling in classes and everything was overwhelming. But my parents said ‘Hey, stick it out.’ They kept encouraging me and giving me positive feedback.”
He would settle in to College Station, a place where for a short while, he thought everybody knew who he was.
“One of the things that really sticks out about Texas A&M is how friendly everybody was,” Magallanes said. “The first day I was walking to class and people would walk by and say ‘Howdy.’ I’m looking around thinking ‘Are they talking to me?’ I called home and I said, ‘You know what? Everybody’s saying hello to me. Do they know who I am?’ They obviously didn’t, but that’s how friendly they were.”
In his junior season, Magallanes was a solid contributor at the plate. He appeared in 66 games, batting .310 with 29 runs, 12 doubles, one triple, one home run and 33 RBI as the Aggies finished 45-23. At the time it was a school-record for wins. That season, Texas A&M won a share of the Southwest Conference regular-season title as Magallanes hit .409 in league play. He shined in the postseason, earning Most Valuable Player recognition as the Aggies won the SWC Tournament. He landed a spot on the All-SWC team as a shortstop.
The first year in Aggieland put Magallanes on the radar after being mostly overlooked during his prep days at Bell High School in the Los Angeles suburbs as well as his two years at Cerritos. He was selected by the New York Mets in the 31st round.
Magallanes opted to return to College Station for his senior season.
“I came real close to signing,” Magallanes revealed to the Bryan-College Station Eagle’s Larry Bowen in a 1987 interview. “But I thought I would at least be picked in the twenties. Going that low was kind of a slap in the face.”
He did just about everything better his second go-around in the Maroon & White. Again playing in 66 games, Magallanes hit .342 with 62 runs, 12 doubles, two triples, two home runs and 41 RBI. He was once again heralded as the All-SWC shortstop.
“Ever was such a fun player to coach,” Johnson said. “If I had to choose about 10 or 15 of my favorite players, he would most definitely be one of them. He was a really good shortstop. I hesitate to say this since we had some really good shortstops, but I think he and Cliff (Pennington) were the best to come around in my day. He was a guy that didn’t have an overpowering arm, but he always got the ball there in time. He had a quick release and an unmatchable rhythm that made it fun to watch as a coach. He was a fairly good hitter and he worked at it as much as any player who came along. He was a great presence in the locker room, too. He was a great guy, who was trustworthy, reliable and he came ready to play all the time.”
The admiration between Johnson and Magallanes is mutual.
“He was so positive,” Magallanes said. “He kept everything fun and loose. He would get on you if you weren’t doing it right, but he would be so encouraging. He was positive with everybody, including me. He was awesome to play for and I can’t say enough about Coach Johnson.”
Magallanes still carries a lot of great memories from his days in College Station, but among the best of them was the opportunity to play at Olsen Field.
“Getting to play there ranks pretty high on the list,” Magallanes said. “The atmosphere is so much better than what you will find at minor league parks. And the Major League fields are bigger, but it takes a pretty important game to match the feel and atmosphere you got at Olsen Field. I loved the Raggies that would sit up above the visiting dugout. They were awesome.”
Along with Coach Johnson, another person who left a lasting impression on Magallanes was Leo Goertz, the longtime Aggie field manager who passed away in 2015.
“One of the things I tell people, even to this day, is the infield that I played on at Texas A&M was probably the best I’ve ever played on,” Magallanes said. “It was comparable to big league fields. The grass was trimmed like a putting green and I never had a bad hop.”
Magallanes grew to love Texas A&M and all the traditions.
“It’s such a unique place,” Magallanes said. “All the things like Midnight Yell Practice and the other traditions, you don’t see that kind of attachment to a school in California. The things that stick out the most are the traditions and everybody just being so friendly and willing to go out of their way to help. It was the best two years.”
His path to professional baseball was aided by longtime Aggie head coach Tom Chandler. The 26-year A&M skipper served as the signing scout for the Cleveland Indians as they picked Magallanes in the 10th round of the 1987 MLB Draft.
“Coach Chandler called me,” Magallanes said. “He said ‘Hey, buddy, we got you. We got you in the 10th round.’ And I said ‘I’m happy to be an Indian. I’m ready to play.’”
His climb to the Major Leagues took the expected route. Two solid seasons of Single-A ball with the Kinston Indians in 1987 and ’88 as well as a 1989 summer with promotions to Double-A and Triple-A. He spent the entire 1990 season with the Triple-A Colorado Spring Sky Sox, where he enjoyed an outstanding year. He batted .308 with 60 runs, 17 doubles, three triples, one home run and 63 RBI in 125 games.
After starting 1991 in Triple-A, Magallanes got the call he’d been waiting for his whole life in the middle of May.
At the time, the wheels were off the wagon for the Indians. They sputtered out of the gate for an 11-19 start on the way to what would be a 57-105 campaign.
“It wasn’t a good time there for the Indians,” Magallanes said. “When I first got called up it was a weird experience. They had the most transactions in the big leagues that year. Guys were getting called up and sent down all the time. When I walked in the clubhouse, instead of congratulating me right away, a lot of the guys were wondering who was going to be sent down or released next. But after I got settled in they were great.”
He made his debut on May 17, 1991. The Tribe was taking on a juggernaut Oakland Athletics team that featured a trio of future Hall of Famers in Dennis Eckersley, Rickey Henderson and Harold Baines, as well as the Bash Brothers, Jose Canseco and Mark McGwire.
On a chilly evening in cavernous Cleveland Municipal Stadium, Magallanes took the field as a defensive replacement at shortstop with Chief Wahoo’s charges leading the A’s, 11-3. He got his first plate appearance in the bottom of the eighth, drawing a walk off of John Briscoe.
“Once I waked out on the field, it was like ‘Wow,’” Magallanes said. “It was an awesome experience. Something I’ll never forget.”
Alan Cannon, Texas A&M Associate Athletics Director and longtime Aggie Baseball sports information director, described Magallanes as the smoothest of operators at shortstop.
“It was uncanny,” Cannon said. “It didn’t matter how fast the hitter was. Ever would always get the throw to first base to beat the runner by a step.”
Magallanes’ stint in the Majors dispelled Cannon’s observation of “always beating the runner by a step.” In his MLB debut, his first play on defense Magallanes fielded a grounder from Henderson, who is on the Mount Rushmore of MLB speed merchants with the likes of Maury Wills, Lou Brock and Willie Wilson.
“Rickey came up and he hit a ground ball pretty much right at me,” Magallanes said. “It was Rickey Henderson! So, I had shortened up a little bit, respecting his speed. It’s a routine ground ball, probably a three-hopper, I charged it and grabbed it and you know, I threw it and got rid of it as quick as I could. I look up and Rickey’s not even on the cut of the grass. He’s probably 10 feet from first and he’s just cruising. He’s not even running hard. I walk into the dugout and everyone is kind of laughing and saying stuff like ‘Dude, why did you rush the throw?’ My first grounder in the Majors. I wasn’t going to let him beat it out (laughing).”
He would see action in two more games, spending 11 days with the big league club. Despite the brief stint, Magallanes joined an elite club. Since the dinosaurs have roamed the earth, less than 20,000 people have played Major League Baseball. And of that group, nearly 1,000 have played in just one game.
As is often the case, Major League dreams depend on a lot of luck. The future of the Indians’ infield featured names like Carlos Baerga, Felix Fermin and 1988 MLB Draft No. 2 overall pick Mark Lewis. So Magallanes looked for other places to catch on, spending 1992 in the Chicago White Sox organization and 1994-95 with the Texas Rangers farm system. He enjoyed relative success, including hitting .320 in 88 games between Double-A and Triple-A in 1993, but never got back to the Show.
That’s when Magallanes would return to his native Mexico where he would play from 1995-2005, including the first seven seasons with the Monterrey Sultanes.
“After I started playing in Mexico, there were a few offers to come back and be a spring training invitee,” Magallanes said. “Battle for a spot on the Triple-A team and be there to maybe get called back to the Majors. After I settled in down in Mexico, it really didn’t interest me. I started making some pretty good money in Mexico – tax-free money. They paid for my apartment. You make a decent living down there. You know what I said? ‘Nah. I’m just going to play here. I’m going to ride it out here.’”
In his first two seasons with Monterrey, the Sultanes claimed Serie del Rey titles. He also played for the Tabasco Olmecas in 2003 and wrapped up his career spending two campaigns with the Oaxaca Guerreros, playing his final season in 2005 at age 39.
“I was blessed to stay healthy and be able to enjoy a lengthy career,” Magallanes said. “I have no regrets. It was fun playing down there year-round and I was able to save up some money. That really helps when you’re first trying to break in as a coach.”
Enjoying the stability of a playing career in Mexico, Magallanes immersed himself in the sport, playing year-round. He would star repeatedly in one of the most pressure-packed baseball environments – The Caribbean Series.
“The atmosphere is like none other,” Magallanes said. “You can ask players that have played winter ball and they’ll tell you about the pressures of playing in the Caribbean World Series. It’s a different kind of pressure than playing in the majors because most of the guys are playing for their home country. It makes you play at a different level. There’s more at stake. There’s pride. You see the players on the other side like Roberto Alomar and Bernie Williams and Pudge Rodriguez. You see those guys and you want to beat them and put your name in the record books. It definitely raises your level of play.”
Magallanes would play in four Caribbean Series, batting .358 in 24 games. In 1996, he helped Culiacan Tomateros claim the title, the first-ever for the club and just the third for a squad from the Mexican Pacific League which began sending teams to the tournament in 1971. He was named the tournament’s All-Star second baseman in 1997 when he batted .526 (10-for-19) with nine runs, a home run and two RBI, beating out future MLB Hall-of-Famer Roberto Alomar.
“If I ever need to pat myself on the back or brag a little bit, I can bring that up,” Magallanes chuckled. “Puerto Rico had a dream team that year and Roberto was playing second base. But I played some really great baseball that week and got picked for the all-tournament team over Roberto who was at his peak at the time. It was a surreal experience.”
He earned his second Caribbean Series All-Star accolade in 1999, batting .381 with seven RBI in six games.
His outstanding play in Mexico and at the Caribbean Series earned Magallanes a spot as one of 101 players in the Caribbean Baseball Hall of Fame when he was installed as part of the 2013 class. The list of distinguished members includes MLB Hall of Famers Tony Perez, Rod Carew, Willie Mays, Edgar Martinez, Alomar and Roberto Clemente as well as renowned baseball dignitaries Minnie Minoso, Fernando Valenzuela, David Concepcion, Juan Gonzalez, Bernie Williams and Tony Pena.
“I was so honored when they told me, but I thought they were joking,” Magallanes said. “I’m like ‘Who? What? Who is this? You guys joking around?’ Seriously, I was waiting. I paused for a bit and then I said thank you. I hung up and told my wife. She said “You played so well. And they know it.” I never even thought about the numbers and how well I did average-wise and all that. And you know what? I did do some pretty good things. I recall I got some good hits and played solid defense. It was just a surreal experience and it didn’t hit me until the actual ceremony. My wife was pregnant at the time, so she didn’t travel but I got to be there with my dad and brother. It was a humbling experience and an incredible honor.”
As his playing career was winding down, Magallanes turned an eye toward coaching. He starting taking a more holistic view of the sport and developing his philosophy.
“Probably the last four years of my career playing I would be thinking in games ‘This is what I would do if I managed’,” Magallanes said. “That’s sort of how the thinking transitions. You start thinking what you would do in different situations if you were the manager. I was fortunate enough that a spot opened up with the Angels when I was ready to retire.
Coach Johnson knew Magallanes as a student of the game and felt he would enjoy a long career as a coach.
“He really loved the game and continued to work hard at it,” Johnson said. “He wanted to continue the game. Most kids want to do that, but don’t work hard enough to actually do it. He was learning the game as he played. He would watch how the second baseman turned double plays and learn the different approaches to slow rollers – the things that I would work on with the infielders. He was interested in all of that stuff, as well as showing interest in what the other positions were doing. I sensed he would stay in baseball somehow.”
Magallanes’ view of the game is constantly evolving. As a player he was a low strikeout guy with a good eye. He ranked among the league leaders in stats like walks, walk percentage, strikeout-to-walk ratio, strikeout percentage and sacrifice bunts on his various minor league stops. Now as a coach, he has had to adjust with the current trends in baseball.
“It’s a new world in baseball with the sabermetrics and the numbers like launch angle,” Magallanes said. “A guy who hits line drives isn’t thought of as highly anymore. Now we want you to lift it regardless of whether you’re a leadoff guy or a bottom of the order guy. If you have a little bit of power we want to utilize it, especially in the major leagues where some of these parks are so small and the ball jumps. It’s different and you roll with it. Everybody’s adapting to the times.”
He has tackled various tasks in the baseball world since his playing days ended, including stints as a minor league infield instructor, Dominican Republic Academy director and a minor league manager. He was headed to his eighth season as a manager, including third as the White Sox’s Arizona League manager before COVID-19 shut down the minor league campaign. His wealth of coaching experience includes stints on the staff for the Mexican squad at the World Baseball Classic in 2009 and 2013 and the Central American and Caribbean Games in 2014. He served on the coaching staffs for the MLB All-Star Weekend Futures Games in 2016 and 2019. He spent three seasons coaching winter ball in Mexico, including serving as the Hermosillo Naranjeros’ manager for 2010-11 and 2011-12 seasons.
Although managing in the minor leagues is more about developing young players and helping them climb the ladder, Magallanes has done his fair share of winning. In 2006, he led the Los Angeles Angels’ Arizona League squad to a 34-21 mark and earned Manager of the Year recognition. Three years later, he skippered the Birmingham Barons to a first-place finish with a 92-47 mark to earn Southern League Manager of the Year and Double-A Manager of the Year accolades.
For Magallanes there is a great sense of pride in seeing the players he’s mentored develop into all-star caliber players.
“For the most part, you have really good relationships with pretty much everyone you coach,” Magallanes said. “But there’s always a couple that probably stick with you more. I’ve spent some time instructing infielders in the White Sox organization, so I take some pride in seeing Tim Anderson develop and I’ll shoot him a text and congratulate him. He’s a special person and an incredible talent. Marcus Simien is another guy like that, you know they are doing most of the work, but it’s fun knowing you’ve helped him along the way, teaching him the little things every now and then or giving him a drill or two to do that may have helped in his development.”
Magallanes has settled into life in Goodyear, Arizona, near the White Sox training facility with his wife Maria Del Pilar. They have three children together, Antonella, Ever and Isaiah, along with three children in their 20s from her previous marriage, Maria Del Pilar, Pedro and Abdul.
He hasn’t been to College Station since November 1997, to start his minor league career, but with some prodding from Coach Johnson, he may be returning soon.
“I’d love to take my family down there and let them see where I played,” Magallanes said. “When I talked to coach a couple weeks ago he said I need to get down there and see the stadium and the campus. I’d love to take my family down there and let them see where I played and show them around. I’d love to go back eventually at some point.”
If you see him in Aggieland, make sure to say “Howdy.”
