Matthew Neil Franco (born August 19, 1969 in Santa Monica, California) is an American former professional baseball player who played first base in the major leagues from 1995 to 2003, and in Nippon Professional Baseball from 2004 to 2006. He is the son of film producer Larry Franco and the nephew of actor Kurt Russell (his mother Jill is Russell's sister), and the grandson of actor Bing Russell.

Drafted by the Chicago Cubs in the 7th round of the 1987 MLB June Amateur Draft, Matt made his MLB debut om 9/6/1995 for the Chicago Cubs. A major career moment came on July 10, 1999, with the Mets trailing the Yankees by one run with two outs and two strikes in the bottom of the ninth, Matt came up with a pinch-hit single off of Mariano Rivera to score two runs and give the Mets a 9-8 win.

Matt holds the major league record with 20 pinch hit walks in a season (1999).

(excerpted from Baseball Almanac, CenterfieldMaz, BR Bullpen & Wikipedia)