From Kinder Park To Coaching First Base In The World Series

“The greatest human alive, the most selfless guy you’ll ever meet.” That’s how Major League Baseball (MLB) Network baseball analyst Sean Casey described Severna Park High School graduate Mark Budzinski in a 2025 interview with University of Richmond Magazine.

Casey and Budzinski were teammates at the University of Richmond in the early 1990s and are still close friends today. Both players were instrumental in the Spiders’ 43-win season in 1995, which resulted in an NCAA tournament appearance.

In 1995, Casey and Budzinski were both drafted by the then Cleveland Indians (now Guardians). Casey enjoyed a 12-year major league career with multiple teams while Budzinski played with the Cincinnati Reds in 2003. Budzinski played 11 seasons in the minor leagues with multiple organizations including Cleveland, the Chicago Cubs, the Milwaukee Brewers, Cincinnati and the Philadelphia Phillies.

Budzinski hit above a .280 batting average in eight of his 11 minor league seasons before he retired in 2005 and began selling real estate in Richmond. However, he missed the allure of being on the diamond with the fresh scent of recently cut grass, the crack of the bat and the sounds of baseballs popping into gloves.

He returned to professional baseball in 2014 and became the manager of the Lake County Captains in the Midwest League in Cleveland’s minor league system. He continued managing four more years in Cleveland’s minor leagues before being added to the Indians’ major league coaching staff in 2017. In 2019, he was named Toronto’s first base and outfield coach.

Coaching was a natural move for Budzinski, who had been around baseball his whole life. He started playing baseball when he was 5 years old for the Greater Glen Burnie (GGB) organization and stayed in the GGB until he was in Severna Park Middle School.

“We lived in Severna Park, but the Green Hornets wouldn’t allow me to play when I was 5, so my dad registered me in the GGB,” Budzinski said.

It was 2025 Anne Arundel County Sports Hall of Fame inductee Charlie Becker who noticed Budzinski at various tournaments and approached the family about playing for the Green Hornets.

“Mark was my first recruit for our Mickey Mantle team,” Becker said with a smile. “Mark was a soccer player as well, and I could see he was a great athlete and became a vital part of our success with our teams in the Mickey Mantle, American Legion and Severna Park High School teams.”

Budzinski cherished those seasons playing for Jim McCandless and Becker and always looked forward to going to practice and games.

“Jim McCandless and Charlie Becker taught me more about baseball than anyone else,” Budzinski said. “In addition to teaching us the skills to be better baseball players, they taught us how to carry ourselves on and off the field.”

During those teenage years, Budzinski’s summers were filled with fishing and crabbing on the Severn River, but during his high school years, he worked for the Green Hornets as he mowed grass and maintained the baseball fields around Severna Park.

“It was a lot of fun working on those fields with my high school teammates like Charlie Becker Jr. and Steve Neuberger,” Budzinski said. “We made sure that the younger players had a good place to play their games.”

Budzinski still stays in touch with many high school friends he made at Severna Park and comes back to Severna Park during the holidays to visit his parents.

His work ethic and attention to detail, for which he credits his parents and coaches, have been paramount in his baseball journey.

According to Becker, Budzinski always gave 100% effort. “He was the kind of player who you wished every player was like,” Becker said. “He enjoyed being coached and he could do everything on the baseball field, but it was his personality that made him stand out.”

Budzinski still stays in touch with Becker, and they were texting each other during last year’s World Series between the Blue Jays and Dodgers.

Budzinski’s primary role with the Blue Jays is coaching first base, but he also oversees the outfielders’ defensive positioning during games. He positions the outfielders according to the scouting reports to enable the outfielders to take away hits from the opposing team.

“I watch a great deal of video tape for the outfielders’ positioning,” Budzinski said. “I may move them just a few feet to take away potential hits in the gap or down the line. Any slightest edge I can give the players could mean the difference in winning or losing games. For my first base coaching duties, I watch video tape that includes watching the pitchers’ tendencies and moves to first base and the catchers’ throwing time to second base.”

Toronto won 94 games and the American League title last year and faced the Dodgers in the World Series. Baseball fans will remember game seven as the lead changed throughout the game. The Blue Jays had multiple chances to win the World Series, but a pivotal moment came when Toronto’s Ernie Clement drove the ball on what looked like it was in the left center-field gap to win the game in the ninth inning only to be robbed by a miraculous leaping catch by the Dodgers’ Andy Pages, who was a defensive replacement that inning. Pages covered 121 feet with a spring speed of 29.2 feet per second to send the game to extra innings.

“When the ball left Ernie’s bat, I said to myself, ‘We just won the World Series,’” Budzinski recalled.

The Blue Jays eventually lost 5-4 in extra innings.

“There were a lot of tears in that locker room,” Budzinski said. “It was as somber of a locker room as you’ll ever see. It’s so hard to win the division and advance in the playoffs. I’m just so thankful for that experience.”

After the World Series, Budzinski went home to Richmond for a few months, visited his parents in Severna Park and went to his favorite restaurants like Garry’s Grill and Adam’s Taphouse and Grille.

“The offseason goes by very fast and now we’re in spring training to get the players ready to compete against all of the great teams in the major leagues,” Budzinski said.

Toronto will look to defend their American League East divisional title. Competing in arguably the toughest division in baseball, it will take a Herculean effort to repeat as champs.

“It will be a bloodbath again in our division with the Orioles, Yankees and Red Sox, and we’re going to battle every day,” Budzinski said.

As Budzinski reminisced about his youthful playing days in Severna Park, he recalled playing “rundown” (a baseball game with a runner and two people trying to tag out the runner before they get to a base) with his friends at Kinder Farm Park and riding his bike down Benfield Road. He also appreciates his parents for giving him the opportunity to play numerous sports and attending his games.

Budzinski comes to Baltimore several times a year to play the Orioles and gets to see his parents at the ballpark or have breakfast with them.

“I can still see Mark’s parents and sister rooting for Mark at our games, yelling ‘Go Bud’ or ‘You Go Bud,’” Becker said.