Mark Hallberg

Hallberg was born in Jeddah, Saudi Arabia. His parents were teachers who lived abroad; Hallberg spent his first eight years living in Jeddah and Riyadh in Saudi Arabia and another five years living in Islamabad, Pakistan. Hallberg moved from Islamabad to Barron, Wisconsin before his sophomore year at Barron High School. ==High school career==

Hallberg graduated from Barron High School, batting .455 in his high school career. During his junior and senior seasons in high school, Hallberg did not strike out once. As a senior, he had a 5–0 win–loss record with an 0.80 earned run average as a pitcher. He was named All-State three times, and was the 2004 Northwest Wisconsin Player of the Year. In soccer, he led the state in scoring as a senior, with 45 goals. He was inducted into Barron High School's Wall of Honor on December 22, 2017. ==College career==

Hallberg attended the University of Illinois Chicago for two years, where he played college baseball for the Illinois-Chicago Flames. In his freshman year for the Flames in 2005, he was the fourth-toughest hitter in the nation to strike out, and batted .354, while leading the league in hits (84) and runs (54). He was selected as All-Conference First Team for the Atlantic Coast Conference, Third Team All-American by the American Baseball Coaches Association, and All-American Honorable Mention by Ping. Overall, he had a .362/.438/.486 slash line for his college career. ==Minor league career==

The Arizona Diamondbacks selected Hallberg in the ninth round, with the 283rd overall selection, of the 2007 Major League Baseball draft, and he signed for a signing bonus of $95,000 and played in Minor League Baseball within the Diamondbacks' farm system. He was the 2008 Hawaii Winter Baseball Most Valuable Player, playing for the West Oahu CaneFires, for whom he batted .362 while playing primarily second base. In Hallberg's minor-league career, he played 221 games at second base, 168 games at shortstop, and 121 games at third base. ==Coaching and managing career==

After he retired as a player in April 2012, Hallberg coached the River Falls High School baseball team as he finished his Bachelors degree. From 2014 to 2017, he was assistant coach of the Orleans Firebirds of the Cape Cod Baseball League. He coached for the Salem-Keizer Volcanoes in 2018 and was their manager in 2019. San Francisco Giants The San Francisco Giants hired Hallberg as an Assistant Coach in 2020, and he was named their Third Base Coach following the 2021 season. On November 10, 2023, following the hiring of Matt Williams as the third base coach for the Giants, it was announced that Hallberg would be named first base coach for the 2024 season, replacing Antoan Richardson. Minnesota Twins On November 14, 2025, Hallberg was hired by the Minnesota Twins as their bench coach. ==Education==

Hallberg holds a Bachelor’s in Health and Human Performance (K-12 Teaching) and a Master’s in Business Administration (MBA). ==References==