Michael Henry Riley

Pitcher, Shopkeeper, Father

Michael Riley, Agawam High School senior portrait, 1978.
Michael Riley, Agawam High School senior portrait, 1978.
This is the story of Michael Henry Riley. He is my son-in-law's father, which makes him the grandfather of two of my grandchildren. Michael is one of the eight children of John William Riley and Marion Loretta (Cummings) Riley. He was born on May 24, 1960, in Springfield, Massachusetts, and grew up in Feeding Hills, a village in the town of Agawam. Most people know him as Mike.Mike grew up tall. Family memory puts him at 6 feet 8 inches, though his baseball records usually list him at 6 feet 7. You'll see where that height came in handy."Snake" at Agawam HighAt Agawam High School his nickname was "Snake," which you can picture when you think of his long, lean build. He played basketball, but baseball was where he really stood out. Like his father before him, he was a right-handed pitcher.His senior season in 1978 was something special. The Springfield papers that spring reported that he finished 10–2. Twice he struck out 16 batters in a single game, and he pitched in the state finals in front of more than 2,000 people. He was named to the All-League and All-Western Massachusetts teams. Forty-five years later, in 2023, Agawam High School inducted him into its Athletic Hall of Fame as “one of the best baseball pitchers in town history.”The family remembers that season as a Massachusetts high school strikeout record that stood for about 27 years, until Scott Barnes of Cathedral High School in Springfield broke it in 2005. The 1978 papers show Mike finished with 135 strikeouts and a 0.29 ERA (Morning Union, June 14, 1978), but Brian Ryder of Shrewsbury struck out 157 that same spring (Springfield Republican, June 7, 1978), so it wasn’t the state’s best total. And here’s the fun twist: Barnes had a 0.13 ERA in 2005 but fewer strikeouts than Mike, so he couldn’t have broken a strikeout record of Mike’s. My best guess, and it’s only a guess since no article we’ve found names the record, is that it was really a Western Mass. season ERA record, which Barnes’s 0.13 would have beaten.Mike was offered 52 college baseball scholarships, and he didn't apply to any of them.Professional Baseball, 1978–1983Every June, Major League teams take turns choosing young players in the amateur draft. In June 1978 the Minnesota Twins picked Mike in the second round, 42nd in the whole country. (One later article says 47th, but the newspapers from that week say 42nd.) He was the Twins' second pick that year, right after a shortstop named Lenny Faedo. The local paper ran a family photo that week, with his father described as "the proud popa." Mike signed right out of high school for a $30,000 bonus. He was eighteen.Before players reach the major leagues, they work their way up through the minor leagues, also called the "farm system," starting with Rookie ball, then Class A, then Double-A, then Triple-A. Mike started with the Elizabethton Twins in Tennessee, where he went 3–1 with a 3.40 ERA in his first summer for a first-place team. One of his teammates there was Jesse Orosco, who went on to pitch 24 seasons in the majors. Over the next few years Mike pitched for Wisconsin Rapids and for Visalia in California. Then he moved to the Cincinnati Reds organization, where one of his Cedar Rapids teammates in 1982 was a nineteen-year-old Paul O'Neill, later a star for the Reds and the Yankees. That same year the Reds promoted Mike to the Waterbury Reds of the Double-A Eastern League, the highest level he reached. His last professional appearance was in 1983 with the Tampa Tarpons. We haven't found any record of him playing in 1981.His teams:Minnesota Twins organization: Elizabethton Twins (1978, 1979), Wisconsin Rapids Twins (1979), and Visalia Oaks (1980)Cincinnati Reds organization: Cedar Rapids Reds (1982), Waterbury Reds (1982), and Tampa Tarpons (1983)Across his minor league career he pitched in 72 games, including 39 starts, and threw about 240⅔ innings. He finished 14–16 with a 5.46 ERA and 161 strikeouts.He never made the major leagues. But think about it: his father pitched in the New York Giants system in 1950, and twenty-eight years later his son was a second-round pick. Two generations of Rileys on a professional pitcher's mound is a rare thing for any family.Life After BaseballMike spent most of his signing bonus opening a batting cage in Agawam. It did well for a while but didn't last. Years later, he told a reporter that his one regret was not going to college.In 1983 he went to work at the Athens Candy Store in Mason Square, Springfield. It was a variety store owned by Jim and Aphrodite Barbalias, whose daughter Maria he was going to marry. He worked there for about fourteen years, sometimes up to 90 hours a week.Mike married Maria A. Barbalias in 1986. Maria grew up in Longmeadow, graduated from Longmeadow High School in 1980, and comes from a Greek family. They had two children:Anthony "Tony" Riley, born in 1988. Tony is my son-in-law. He played baseball at Longmeadow High School, keeping the family tradition going.Kristy Riley, born in 1990.The family settled in Longmeadow by 1997. After leaving the candy store, Mike started a landscaping business of his own. Later he took a job with the Thomas P. Ryland Company, a landscaping firm. For about eleven years he also worked at the Longmeadow Package Store. In June 2006 he moved to The Bottle Shop in Longmeadow, and in 2007 he was planning to go into the mortgage business. By 2007 he had been through two back surgeries, a hard thing for someone who had made his name with his arm and his body. He has always loved golf.Mike and Maria later divorced. We haven't found the date.
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