Maui’s Kurt Suzuki steps up to the plate as MLB’s first Hawaiʻi-born manager

For the first time in baseball history, a Hawaiʻi-born player is set to manage a Major League team. The Los Angeles Angels recently hired retired catcher Kurt Suzuki, a Wailuku native and Baldwin High graduate, to lead the organization in 2026.

While Suzuki has had many influential coaches locally and nationally throughout his career, he said that playing at Baldwin on Maui shaped him into the player he is today.

"Jon Viela, Kahai Shishido — those two guys were, I guess, mentors in a sort of sense. They played in college, they understood the game of baseball, but they also understood being a good person, doing the right thing, being pono," Suzuki said.