ANAHEIM, Calif. — Pillows began flying in a house full of Cal State Fullerton baseball players in downtown Fullerton.
It was October 26, 2002, or better known to Angels fans as Game 6 of the 2002 World Series. The Angels were losing 5-0 in the seventh inning and were eight outs away from losing the Fall Classic to the Giants.
Then Scott Spiezio hit a three-run home run to spark one of the most improbable come-from-behind victories in World Series history, and the Angels went on to win Game 7 for the franchise’s lone World Series title.
In that house of Cal State Fullerton baseball players was a 19-year-old Kurt Suzuki. Although he didn’t grow up an Angels fan, the freshman walk-on became a fan during the 2002 playoff run.
“We watched every single game,” Suzuki said. “We had house parties, like watch parties, and we watched the games, cheering and screaming.”
As he and his teammates beat each other up with pillows after Spiezio’s dramatic homer, one thought came to mind.
“Man, how cool would it be to play for the Angels?” Suzuki asked himself.
Fast forward 19 years, and Suzuki would find the answer to that question when he signed with the Angels as a free agent. He played the final two years of his 16-year big league career in Anaheim.
And fast forward another four years, Suzuki now finds himself as the skipper of the very same ball club he was enamored with as a freshman in college.
Like all college players, Suzuki had dreams of making it to the big leagues, but the thought of managing never crossed his mind until the opportunity presented itself when the Angels’ job opened up after the 2025 season.
Although the overall record this year isn’t where Suzuki or the Angels want it to be, this experience of being the Angels manager has been a full-circle moment for Suzuki.
It was six miles up the 57 freeway from Angel Stadium where Suzuki put himself on the map in the baseball world.
In 2002, Cal State Fullerton baseball was at the height of its power. It had just won the program’s third national title in 1995 and a pair of Golden Spikes Award winners in the last decade with future big leaguers Phil Nevin and Mark Kotsay.
When Suzuki was surveying all of his options for college baseball as a high schooler in Wailuku, Hawaii, Fullerton’s prowess stood out to him.
Suzuki had an opportunity to play at the University of Hawaii on a full scholarship, but he wanted to challenge himself not only on the field, but off the field as well.
“There was just something in me that was like, ‘I just want to get out,’” Suzuki said. “I want to challenge myself. I want to, not get away from home, but try to grow up. Go live on my own for a little bit and see what that's like.”
The recruiting process wasn’t always smooth sailing for Suzuki. He didn’t get many looks or much attention from schools, so he and his mom took initiative.
“My mom would email schools,” Suzuki said. “At the time, it was VHS; I'd send videos in and stuff. And we sent it to a bunch of schools, and nobody responded. Fullerton did, and they called. We were coming up here to go visit LMU and Pepperdine. We met with the coaches. We set up a thing.”
Loyola Marymount University and Arizona State were the other schools that Suzuki was contemplating, but after visiting Cal State Fullerton, he was sold.
When he arrived on campus for his visit, Suzuki met then recruiting coordinator Dave Serrano.
“There was just something about Coach Serrano,” Suzuki said. “He met me on a weekend in the morning, came to the field, showed me around the campus and talked to me. That right there was just like, man, Fullerton was in the top ten in the country at the time, and for this guy to give me an opportunity. Even if they said, ‘Hey, it's not a good fit.’ But just the fact that he spent the time to meet me was, I thought, was very awesome.”
Suzuki got a chance to play at one of the top programs in the country, and Fullerton found a diamond in the rough.
“He wasn't a guy that we saw and approached and recruited and encouraged,” former Cal State Fullerton head coach George Horton said. “He had made his mind up that he was going to come and walk on at Cal State Fullerton, and we had some connections in Maui and some scouting friends, and so we started to do some vetting of him and checking on him, and we found out that he was pretty legit.”
“Pretty legit” is putting it lightly.
As a freshman, Suzuki hit .392 with a .523 on-base percentage, but only had two extra-base hits. In his sophomore year, he helped lead the Titans back to Omaha.
Then in his final season, everything came together.
Suzuki slashed .413/.511/.702 for a 1.213 OPS with 16 home runs and 87 RBIs in 69 games, and he delivered the game-winning RBI to clinch the Titans’ fourth College World Series title in program history.
“The thing that set him apart was just his motor,” Horton said. “He did an incredible job, with huge energy each and every day, willing to learn. Then you could just see him evolve; every part of his game got better and better until it culminated in his junior year.
“We've been blessed to coach in college some incredible players, Golden Spikes winners, (Phil) Nevin, (Mark) Kotsay. Nobody ever had a better year offensively.”
The dominant college tenure made him a second-round pick in the 2004 draft by the Oakland Athletics. And Suzuki kept that same walk-on mentality to his professional career.
“I wasn't the biggest guy out there,” Suzuki said. “So a lot of that stuff still stayed with me. It's like you've got to prove yourself every year. You've got to prove yourself every year that you belong here. So it just became a business knowing other people are there to take your job. They don't care about where you got drafted. The best player is going to play.”
That mentality carried Suzuki a long way. It took him three years to reach the majors, and once he was called up, he never looked back.
Suzuki enjoyed a 16-year career behind the plate that was highlighted by an All-Star selection in 2014 as a member of the Twins and winning the 2019 World Series with the Nationals. The final two years of his career were played in Anaheim, which helped plant the seeds of his hiring as manager a few years later.
There are various types of managers in baseball from a philosophical standpoint, but a common battle skippers face is the use of analytics. Some use them more than others, and whether they are right or wrong is up for debate.
Even though Suzuki comes from an “old-school” background at Fullerton, he wants there to be a balance.
“I think you do a little bit of both,” Suzuki said. “I did it with catching. There's a lot of analytics going into game calling and scouting reports and things like that. I always told myself it would be foolish for me not to use some of that information. I wanted to be the best, so how can I be the best?
“It's not just one way. You have to take the best out of everything that you can get and create the best game plan to go out there and be successful. The score dictates what you attempt to do on the field.”
But as the game of baseball continues to evolve, there seems to be an ever-growing presence of analytics. Now more than ever, teams and managers use the numbers to make decisions.
That is where personality comes into play. And Suzuki’s former skipper believes that will take him a long way as a manager.
“Just how his Ohana personality and how he blended with everybody,” Horton said. “Managers nowadays are people persons more than they are decision makers. A lot of the decisions, I think, come from metrics and the front office and general manager and they script everything. And so really, you become a psychiatrist and a friend and a shoulder for those guys to lean on.”
Now, Suzuki and his staff aren’t just looking at a spreadsheet and making all of their decisions from there. There is a human element in their process. But Suzuki’s personality and ability to relate to players do help.
It was just four years ago that he was a player in the very same clubhouse as Mike Trout and Reid Detmers.
“It's different, but he's awesome,” Detmers said of having Suzuki as manager and a teammate. “It's the same old Kurt. I have nothing but good things to say. He's been super easy to work with, easy to talk to.”
As easy as it may be to work with Kurt, it's still a difficult season for the Angels. They’re on pace to flirt with the franchise’s first-ever 100-loss season (98-loss pace as of Monday).
Sure, it’s easy to point the finger at the manager for a team’s downfalls. But the problems surrounding the Angels go beyond who the manager is.
Suzuki is far from perfect, but even a perfect manager wouldn’t take this roster to contention.
“Be patient,” Suzuki said, is the most important thing he’s learned as a manager. “I think that's kind of the thing where it's a little different than when you're playing, obviously. But when you're playing, you're in it, you understand the flow of the game and all that type of stuff. But, for me, it's a learning process. You have (bench coach John Gibbons) to lean on, and it's a long season, and there's a lot of different stuff that you worry about from when you're a player. So the baseball stuff is great. It's all the other stuff that comes with it. It's something that you gotta learn. Every single day, there's something new to learn.”
It’s been a trying year for everyone involved in Anaheim.
A general manager firing, the firing of three pitching coaches, including the highly-regarded Mike Maddux, a fire sale at the trade deadline and a 98-loss pace is a less-than-ideal situation to be in.
Amidst the struggles on the field, Suzuki is still energized to manage this team. Part of the attraction to being a manager for Suzuki was his mindset as a catcher when handling a pitching staff.
“What can I do to help these guys get the most out of them for their potential?” Suzuki said. “That's something that I really took a lot of pride in.”
With only a month left in the season, Suzuki’s one-year contract is running out. He hasn’t thought about his managerial future yet, but he hopes to take the lessons he’s learned this season and apply them to whatever comes next.
“I can honestly say that's not been on my radar right now,” Suzuki said when asked if he wants to manage next year. “It's finishing them strong and trying to get better every single day. If the opportunity arises, of course, I'd take that opportunity. But right now I'm focused on these guys here and doing whatever we can to help them get better.”