It's one of those things. Many times a coach is in the dugout, working on the team and you realize, "Wait, did he play in the major leagues?" That's when I click on the old Baseball-Reference.com, and see what I can find. I gotta tell you, it's amazing. Thank God for the Internet. Thank God for Baseball-Reference.com.
I decided to do something cute. I wanted to share with all of you when and who the Yankees coaching staff played for, share some stats, show a picture and have alittle fun on this Wednesday morning. I even asked my BYB writers to take this story. No one bit. They're all fired.
Let's start with Joe Girardi:
Obviously he played and now manages for the Yankees, but he also played for the Cubs, the Rockies and 1 year with the St. Louis Cardinals in 2003, his final year in the majors. Lifetime, the guy batted .267, had 36 homers and 422 RBIs. I wanted to find a nice old picture of the dude, when he played for the Cubs, his original team in 1989. I came up with this:
Next comes Larry Rothschild. This is a dude that had an OK career as a pitcher. I say OK because he played 2 whole years in the major leagues, 1981 and 1982. He played with the Detroit Tigers, and compiled an amazing 5.40 ERA in 7 games. He never recorded a win or loss, but he does have 1 save. I searched and searched for a photo of the dude. Here's what I found:
Freaking Stud.
Alan Cockrell wasn't a porn star, despite his name. He was however a ballplayer and what I found was interesting. In 1996, he played his only season ever in the Majors. It was with the Colorado Rockies and he had a .250 average, 2 hits, a single and double and 2 RBIs. That's it!
Interesting right? Yet, he's our hitting coach.
Next up is Tony Pena and we all know how successful he was as a catcher for the Pirates and Cardinals. Pena played from 1980 to 1997 and was freaking awesome. A terrific defensive catcher. Agile, smart and just a very good teammate. My favorite years from him was when he was with the Pirates. Overall, he played 18 years and had a career average of .260, having 107 home runs and over 700 RBIs.
Gotta love Tony.
Joe Espada was a minor leaguer his entire career bouncing from teams like Vancouver to Sacremento to Calgary and Omaha. He played from 1996 to 2003. He was a second baseman and shortstop and now, amazingly, he's the third base coach for the New York Yankees.
America's a great place, ain't it?
Marcus Thames was alot of fun to watch when he played. He was passionate. He played with the Yankees, blossomed with the Tigers and returned to New York for a moment and then finished his career in Los Angeles with the Dodgers. He played a total of 10 years in the Majors. He batted .246, had 115 homers and 311 RBIs.
Now he's back assisting Cockrell. Love it.
Bullpen coach Mike Harkey was a beefy pitcher for a while in the majors. Actually, he played for several teams from 1988 to 1997 racking up a 36-36 record and a 4.49 ERA. He played for the Cubs, Rockies, A's, Angels and Dodgers. I remember him most with the Cubs... that's what I'm choosing right here.
And there you go.
Rob Thomson is the Yankees bench coach. I'm gonna be honest with you, the guy must have worked with the CIA before this because I can't find anything about the guy. It's strange actually.
What I did find came from Wikipedia. Check this out: " Thomson was selected by the Detroit Tigers in the 32nd round of the 1985 draft from the University of Kansas. He played catcher and third base in the Tigers' minor league system until 1988, when he became a minor league coach for the team. "
Obviously now he's bench coach but moved around from first base coach and third base coach and all of that. But here's the breaking news... he's Canadian! WTF bro.
Well, I hope you enjoyed this piece. Trust me, we at BYB are the only ones to take the time to put together something so mindless, yet, educational about the Yankees coaches. I really hope you liked it.
Hey... the offseason is here. I gotta fill the pages of BYB somehow!
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