Marz Visits Pluto

John Marzano, beloved mediocre back-up catcher, died after a drunken tumble down the stairs at the age of 45. The Temple grad was a member of the 1984 Olympic baseball team, but he was more John Hoover than Mark McGwire and the Boston Red Sox wasted the 14th round of the 1984 amateur draft on him, ahead of future Hall of Famers Greg Maddux and Tom Glavine – overlooking the Billerica boy in their own back yard. Marzano’s best moment for Boston fans actually came while he was a member of the Seattle Mariners and told whining Yankees outfielder Paul O’Neill to “shut up and hit,” then punched him in the face. Although he never made the majors with his hometown team, the Phillies, Marzano spent a season with their AAA farm club and later served as baseball analyst in Philadelphia and on mlb.com.