A news item caught my attention yesterday – Detroit Tigers third base coach Chip Hale has left his position to become the head baseball coach at the University of Arizona, his alma mater. Hale is among a group of former Portland Beavers who I focus on collecting, as he was one of the first players I saw play as a minor leaguer who made it to the bigs. In the late 80s through early 90s, the Beavers were the AAA affiliate of the Minnesota Twins, and the Twins had a fairly stable group of vets filling most of the key spots on their roster. As a consequence, solid if unspectacular players such as Hale stayed in Portland for parts of five or more seasons fairly regularly. This applied to such players as Victor Rodriguez, Terry Jorgensen, Jeff Reboulet, and my personal favorite, slugger Bernardo Brito. Each of the players listed above saw time in the majors – Reboulet in particular had a fantastic career for a guy who didn’t get the call until his was 28 – accumulating 10 WAR over the course of 12 years primarily as a backup.
Hale resonated with me in large part because he was in most 1990 baseball sets, and thus was deemed “major league quality” to 10-year-old me. The fact that he didn’t stick with the Twins until 1993 was beside the point – he’d already been anointed. He continues to resonate with me as he’s become something that I’ve always appreciated – a baseball lifer. Good enough as a player to get paid to play into his early 30s, and good enough as a coach to find employment basically wherever he’d like – including my two favorite teams, the A’s and the Nats.
So when something in the news allows me an opportunity to show off a small PC of a utility infielder, you bet I’m going to take it. Good luck with the Wildcats, Mr. Hale – except against the Ducks and (less so) the Beavers.
