Mike Laga considers himself a New Englander even though he was born in New Jersey and played his pro baseball career in the Midwest and on the West Coast.
The former first baseman for the Tigers, Cardinals and Giants has lived in Northampton since the early 1980s, marrying his wife Robyn in 1984.
“I don’t pull for the Red Sox, I do pull for the Pats,” Laga said.
He’ll be inducted into the Western Massachusetts Baseball Hall of Fame on Thursday. The ceremony will take place at 6:30 p.m. at the Hadley Farms Meeting House. Doors open at 6 p.m.
He’s part of a class that includes five other individuals: Red Sox pitching coach and AIC graduate Dana LeVangie, Jim Jachym of Westfield, Palmer’s Karl Oliveira, the late Mark Belanger, a former Major Leaguer from Pittsfield, Candy Cummings, a Ware native who invented the curveball in the mid-1800s, and the 2018 Pittsfield Little League team that played in the Little League World Series New England Regional final.
“I was a little surprised (getting inducted) not being originally from western Mass,” Laga said.
While he didn’t grow up in western Massachusetts, Laga became a pillar of the youth baseball community in Northampton. He formed Mike Laga Youth baseball with a group of friends in 2002 to help fill a need for area baseball players that aged out of Little League and needed senior-level competition.
The organization has typically fielded a Mickey Mantle division team and at least one Sandy Koufax Division team.
“We try to have as many kids on the field as we can,” Laga said. “We want kids to have something to do during the summer, we wanted them to enjoy the game of baseball, to be outside. It was rewarding to have them out there playing.”
Laga initially coached in the organization, his kids’ little league teams and at UMass. Now he serves more as a figurehead and assists with the tryouts and picking teams.
He also facilitated baseball camps with the Northampton Parks and Recreation youth programs for more than a decade.
“Boy did I enjoy that,” he said.
One of his favorite results of his involvement in youth baseball is seeing kids walking around Northampton wearing Mike Laga Youth Baseball shirts or the parks and recreation youth camp shirts. One time a former pupil wore the shirt to Fenway Park for a Red Sox game and one of the players on the field recognized it and said, “I know Mike Laga.”
“That makes you feel good they enjoyed it so much,” Laga said.
Laga was born in Ridgewood, New Jersey, in 1960 and played high school ball at Ramsey High School and in college at Bergen Community College in Paramus, New Jersey.
The Detroit Tigers drafted Laga 17th overall in the 1980 draft. The first baseman made his major league debut Sept. 1, 1982. He played for the Tigers’ 1984 World Series Championship team but did not appear in the World Series. Laga was traded to the Cardinals with Ken Hill for Mike Heath in Sept., 1986. He famously hit a foul ball out of the second Busch Stadium on Sept. 15 that year.
The 1987 Cardinals lost the World Series to the Twins, and Laga did not appear again.
Laga signed with the San Fancisco Giants and spent two years with the team.
In nine MLB seasons, he played 188 games, hit .199 with 16 home runs and 55 RBIs.
He played two years in Japan for the Fukuoka Daiei Hawks
Kyle Grabowski can be reached at kgrabowski@gazettenet.com. Follow him on Twitter @kylegrbwsk.