Career
Born in Fairfield, Alabama, and raised in Pittsburg, California, Malmberg batted and threw right-handed, stood 6 ft 1 in (185 m) (185 cm) tall and weighed 170 pounds (77 kg) during his active career. Malmberg spent only three seasons at the Major League level during a 29-year career in professional baseball. The exception was the 1955 season, when Malmberg, nearing age 30, spent a full season for the Detroit Tigers, appearing in 67 games, and compiling a batting average of.216 with five doubles, two triples, no home runs and 19 runs batted in.
Malmberg played in the Boston Red Sox farm system in 1957-1958, and rejoined it when the Red Sox took over as the Seattle Rainiers" parent club in 1961.
Malmberg served as a playing coach for Rainiers manager Johnny Pesky, who was promoted to pilot of the Red Sox following the 1962 season. Malmberg followed Pesky to Boston as his first-base coach for the 1963 and 1964 seasons.
After Pesky"s firing at the end of 1964, Malmberg embarked on an 11-year minor league managerial career in the Baltimore Orioles, Kansas City Royals and Oakland Athletics organizations. He managed teams in the Class A California League, Florida State League and Carolina League, the Double-A Eastern League and Southern League, and the Triple-A American Association.
When the Seattle Mariners were formed as an American League expansion team set to begin play in 1977, Malmberg was appointed the club"s first third-base coach on the staff of manager Darrell Johnson.
But Malmberg was suffering from terminal pancreatic cancer and died in San Francisco, California, at age 51, five months before the Mariners played their first official game.