Matthew Maniscalco

  Oxford’s Maniscalco was named Calhoun County’s outstanding baseball player as a senior in 1999. He batted leadoff for the Yellow Jackets, hit .504 for the season, and scored 60 runs. His hits included 20 doubles, four triples, and 14 home runs. Six of his home runs opened a game for Oxford, and he totaled 46 RBIs. He was a perfect 23 of 23 stealing bases. Maniscalco ended the 1999 season on a 35-game hitting streak, an AHSAA state record which lasted three more seasons.

  He topped off his senior season by winning the first Mr. Baseball award presented by the Alabama Sports Writers Association. Maniscalco was named to the ASWA Class 6A first-team All-State baseball list as a sophomore, a junior, and a senior. In 1997 and again in 1999, Maniscalco was selected as MVP of the Calhoun County baseball tournament.   

   Mississippi State head baseball coach Pat McMahon came calling with the offer of a baseball scholarship, and Maniscalco accepted. Over the next four years, Maniscalco started each of State’s 246 games and started each at shortstop, the most crucial fielding position. His batting average rose from .253 as a freshman and .232 as a sophomore to .291 as a junior and .338 as a senior. His senior season also included seven home runs, 26 extra base hits, 42 RBIs, and 138 total bases – all career highs.  

     Maniscalco was a Louisville Slugger All-American in 2000. In 2002 and 2003, he was a two-time team captain for the Bulldogs. Baseball America named him the best defensive shortstop in the SEC prior to the start of the 2003 season.

     In the June 2003 Major League Baseball draft, Maniscalco was chosen in the eighth round by the Tampa Bay Rays. He spent the remainder of the 2003 season with the Charleston RiverDogs, hitting .259 in 62 games. The following year, he hit .253 in 124 games against High A pitching. That improved to .278 over the first 52 games of 2005, and Maniscalco was promoted to Double-A Montgomery, where he hit .280 in 71 games. From 2005 forward, his batting average declined at Montgomery and Triple-A Durham. Twenty-five games into the 2007 season with Durham, Maniscalco did some soul-searching and retired.           

In an interview with the Anniston Star’s Creg Stephenson following his retirement, Maniscalco called Mississippi State baseball “the classiest program in college baseball.”