Mike Gambino sat down Tuesday in front of the press for the first time as the Penn State baseball’s coach.
Gambino immediately expressed his respect and focus on the players on his team.
“As you get to know me, you’ll realize I’ll spend as little time talking about myself and more about the boys, the program, and where we’re going,” Gambino told reporters.
Gambino has had quite the track record for baseball. He played college ball at Boston College. He would bounce around summer leagues until 2000, when he signed a free-agent deal with the Boston Red Sox and spent two years in their minor league farm system. Following his minor league career, he was an assistant for his alma mater in 2003 and Virginia Tech in 2007.
Gambino’s finished his tenure with the Eagles with an overall record of 291-366, bringing Boston College to the postseason twice in his career. He would also help 33 players get into the MLB and some into the big leagues.
Gambino has a lot of work to do at Penn State Since being established, PSU baseball has made five appearances in the College World Series, the most recent coming in 1973. The last time PSU made a playoff run was in 2000.
Add Nittany Sports Now as a preferred source in Google! Click here to add us.D Gambino has his eyes set on the bigger prize.
“It’s not just about going to Omaha for the Big Ten Tournament, he said. And I understand that the Big Ten Tournament is great and fun, and I would like to take a shot at winning that thing for sure. But we want to go to the College World Series. And I’m not going to hide behind that.”
Later in the conference, Gambino would say something that raised some eyebrows.
“I’m not gonna hide behind the fact that I want kids that want to play in the big leagues,” Gambino said. “That’s what we’re recruiting. We want guys that want to get drafted. We want millionaires coming out of this program.”
