By Amy Batista, Special Writer
GLASSBORO — Monroe’s Marc Magliaro has finally seen his dream come true and will follow it west to play for pro baseball’s Colorado Rockies organization.
”It was very overwhelming and it was something I wanted to do my entire life,” said Mr. Magliaro, a student at Rowan University, in an email on Jan. 29. “It is pretty surreal that it came true.”
Rowan Head Baseball Coach and Assistant Athletic Director Juan Ranero said he is “very proud, excited and honored” to have Mr. Magliaro as part of its program and to see all his hard work pay off and have the opportunity to play at the next level of the game.
”It’s an honor to have one of your players have an opportunity to go on play professional baseball,” said Mr. Ranero. “He worked real hard and took his game to a different level by the preparation and hard work that he put in and it paid off.”
According to Mr. Magliaro, he first learned about being signed by the professional team in the first week of January.
Since the age of four, Mr. Magliaro said he grew up playing ball and set his dreams on playing for a professional team.
”I always said I wanted to play baseball professionally,” Mr. Magliaro said. “I always thought it was possible, but I knew it was going to take a lot of hard work and dedication.”
His dad, Al Magliaro, reflected on all the hard work and dedication his son put into making his dream come true.
”He worked hard at making himself better,” said dad Al Magliaro. “Its a life lesson that hard work, dedication, and focus that one can achieve their dreams. He just never gave up.”
His dad talked about how his son’s love for baseball started at a young age and the dedication he invested to get him where he is today.
”Marc loves the game of baseball,” Al Magliaro. “He chose it over several other sports and focused on it completely. When he was about 13, playing mostly all year, and training in the winter months.”
Mr. Magliaro, a shortstop and relief pitcher for Rowan’s Division-3 baseball team, was officially signed as a pitcher by the Rockies on Jan. 24 in the lobby of the University’s Esbjornson Gymnasium.
He will report to spring training in Arizona on March 1.
Mr. Magliaro played a shortstop and was a relief pitcher during his senior season. He also served as one of the team’s captains.
According to a press release, Mr. Magliaro posted a .328 career batting average in 164 games.
He registered 212 hits in 647 at bats with 115 runs scored and 85 RBIs. Mr. Magliaro’s extra base hits included 32 doubles and five triples. He stole 39 bases in 50 attempts and produced a .393 on-base percentage, according to the release.
In 2012, he made eight relief appearances on the mound and compiled a 1-0 record with five saves and a team-best 0.00 earned run average (ERA). He only allowed three hits in eight innings and struck out four batters. Magliaro held opponents to a .115 batting average.
”We had talked about it with him as a freshman that if he wasn’t going to get quality time as a position player, him pitching, and we actually worked a little bit on it, not a whole lot, during the fall of his freshman year and as things turned out he ended up being our starting short-stop,” Coach Ranero said. “Last year, we started discussing a little bit about him coming in as our closing and him being our closer and probably around the middle of the season we finally gave him that opportunity and he excelled at it.”
For Coach Ranero, he knew that Mr. Magliaro was made for the shortstop position and it was best for him and the team and kept him in this position instead of making him the pitcher.
”We couldn’t afford to take him out of that position, the short-stop position,” Coach Ranero said. “He was by far the best qualified and that’s probably from a defensive stand point one of the top positions on the field so we needed him in there so it made it hard for him to pitch on a consistent basis.”
For his dad, there are too many memories to select just one about his son and call it a favorite.
”I think some of my best memories of Marc are his abilities to seize the moment he has always had this uncanny manner of pulling through in the most important situations and when everything was on the line,” Mr. Magliaro said. “It be hard to express my favorite moment or highlight of his baseball career his first freshmen hit at high school varsity, his first college hit, his teammates storming him many times with a game winning hit, or closing out a game, but nothing beats his inner excitement or the smile on his face when he was signing with the Rockies last week.”
Mr. Magliaro is looking forward to the experience and what it has to offer him and teach him.
”This is an amazing experience and I am going to take advantage of the situation,” Mr. Magliaro said. “I am also looking forward to working with the Colorado Rockies organization and everything they have to teach me.”

