Len Matuszek wasn't all that big and burly. The 1976 5th round pick played baseball and basketball at the University of Toledo. The lefthanded hitter stood 6-2 and weighed around 190 pounds. But he mashed a little in the minors. In 1981, playing for the Phillies AAA team in Oklahoma City, Matuszek hit 21 homers and knocked in 91 runs, with a .315 average and .410 OBP. Two years later, when the AAA team was in Portland, he hit 24 HRs with 92 RBIs, a .330 batting average and a .395 OBP.
Big league stardom seemed within his grasp. But like a low throw in the dirt, he just couldn't come up with it. Matuszek played in Philadelphia for parts of four seasons from 1981 to 1984. His best year was 1984, when he hit 12 homers and drove in 43 runs, hitting a modest .248. I added the modest part because he replaced Pete Rose as the first baseman, and Pete had himself a pretty good career.
Matuszek was traded to Toronto just before the 1985 season, and was traded later that season to the Dodgers for Al Oliver. After his baseball career, he coached high school baseball and worked as a sportscaster in Cincinnati. He also helped as a caregiver for a disabled man that was chronicled in the Toledo Blade.
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