Four days after Chip Hale was hired as manager of the Arizona Diamondbacks, he drove home to Tucson and sat for an interview inside McKale Center.
Thirty years ago, in the fall of 1984, Hale was a freshman third baseman for the Wildcats. He became one of the key players in Arizona’s 1986 national championship season under coach Jerry Kindall.
Hale is the third Kindall player to become a big-league manager, joining Phillies/Red Sox/Indians skipper Terry Francona and ex-Astros manager Brad Mills.
“It’s not just the managers that Coach Kindall has helped to develop, it’s baseball people at every conceivable level,” said Hale. “It’s a very long list.”
Here’s one man’s Top 20 (not including Francona, Mills and Hale) from Jerry Kindall’s impressive baseball genealogical chart:
-Jim Fleming, former vice president for player development, Miami Marlins.
-Mark Johnson, head coach at Texas A&M for 26 years
-Tod Brown, head coach at North Dakota State
-Clark Crist, hired last week by the Arizona Diamondbacks to be their national cross-checker of scouting
-Robbie Moen, area scouting supervisor, Southern California, for the Tampa Bay Rays
-Gil Heredia, pitching coach of the Diamondbacks’ Single-A affiliate in Visalia, Calif.
-Jack Howell, minor-league field coordinator, Seattle Mariners
-Pat Roessler, director of player development, New York Yankees
-Alan Regier, former minor-league field coordinator, Chicago Cubs
-Ron Hassey, former manager of the Triple-A New Orleans Zephyrs
-John Moses, former first base coach Cincinnati Reds and Seattle Mariners
-Craig Lefferts, pitching coach for Oakland’s Single-A affiliate, the Vermont Lake Monsters
-Alan Zinter, minor-league field coordinator for the Cleveland Indians
-Kevin Long, former hitting coach, New York Yankees
-Jerry Stitt, former head coach, Arizona Wildcats
-Wes Clements, former manager, Double-A Corpus Cristi
-Bobby Ralston, head coach Cal Stat-East Bay
-Casey Candaele, infield coordinator, Texas Rangers minor leagues
-Scott Stanley, national scout, Miami Marlins
-Damon Mashore, outfield coordinator, Los Angeles Dodgers minor leagues
