As manager As coach Michael Lorri Scioscia (/ˈsoʊʃə/ SOH-shə; born November 27, 1958), nicknamed "Sosh" and "El Jefe" (Spanish for "The Boss"),[1] is an American former Major League Baseball catcher and manager in Major League Baseball (MLB).

He was signed by the San Diego Padres and Texas Rangers late in his career, but never appeared in a major league game for either team due to injury.

Scioscia made himself invaluable to the Dodgers by making the effort to learn Spanish in order to better communicate with rookie sensation Fernando Valenzuela in 1981.

Scioscia went to the San Diego Padres in 1993, but suffered a torn rotator cuff injury during spring training that year and did not play in any regular season games for the team.

He closed out his career with the Texas Rangers in 1994 after a failed attempt to come back from the injury, again without having played in any regular season games that year.

Former Dodgers vice president Al Campanis once called Scioscia the best plate-blocking catcher he had seen in his 46-year baseball career.

In one collision with St. Louis Cardinals' slugger Jack Clark in July 1985, Scioscia was knocked unconscious but still held onto the ball.

We were both out.Scioscia's technique for blocking the plate and making a tag varied slightly from the traditional manner employed by most catchers.

Offensively, Scioscia was generally unspectacular, but he was known as a solid contact hitter, striking out fewer than once every 14 at-bats over the course of his career.

Scioscia also hit a dramatic, ninth inning, game-tying home run off the New York Mets' Dwight Gooden in Game 4 of the 1988 National League Championship Series.

In 1990, Scioscia became the first Dodger catcher to start in an All-Star Game since Hall of Famer Roy Campanella.

Scioscia was involved in three no-hitters in his career: he was on the losing end of Nolan Ryan's fifth no-hitter on September 26, 1981 vs. the Houston Astros, and on the winning side, he caught Fernando Valenzuela's on June 29, 1990 vs. the St. Louis Cardinals and Kevin Gross's on August 17, 1992 vs. the San Francisco Giants.

[4] Career statistics After spending several years as a coach in the Dodgers' organization, Scioscia was hired by new Angels general manager Bill Stoneman to be the Angels' manager after the 1999 season, following the late-season resignation of Terry Collins and interim managerial tenure of Joe Maddon.

Under the leadership of Stoneman and Scioscia, the Angels ended their 16-year playoff drought in 2002, winning the AL Wild Card and ultimately winning the franchise's first World Series, a series that pitted the Angels against a San Francisco Giants team managed by Scioscia's former Dodgers teammate Dusty Baker.

[8] On May 8, 2011, the Angels defeated the Cleveland Indians, which marked Scioscia's 1,000th win as a major league manager.

[20] In addition to his more orthodox work in baseball, Scioscia is also notable for a guest appearance as himself on The Simpsons episode "Homer at the Bat" in 1992, while he was still a player.

His character is ultimately hospitalized with a life-threatening case of radiation poisoning that leaves him unable to play.

Scioscia acted as a celebrity endorser of the Howard's Appliance & Big Screen Superstore chain in Southern California.

Early in his career after signing with the Dodgers, Scioscia spent the off-seasons attending Penn State University, working toward a computer science degree.

[22] Their son Matthew, who played baseball for Notre Dame,[23] was selected in the 45th round by the Angels in the 2011 MLB Draft.