Rick Waits
Template:Short description Template:Use mdy dates Template:Infobox baseball biography Michael Richard Waits (born May 15, 1952) is an American former professional baseball pitcher. Waits, who threw left-handed, played all or part of twelve seasons in Major League Baseball (MLB) for the Texas Rangers (1973), Cleveland Indians (1975–83), and Milwaukee Brewers (1983–85). Waits served as minor league pitching coordinator for the Seattle Mariners organization[1] before being named pitching coach for the Mariners under new manager Lloyd McClendon for the 2014 season.
Playing career
Waits was drafted by the Washington Senators in the fifth round of the 1970 Major League Baseball Draft.[2] He made his debut on September 17, 1973, pitching one game for the Texas Rangers, who had moved from Washington by then. On June 13, 1975, he was traded to the Cleveland Indians with Jim Bibby, Jackie Brown and cash for Gaylord Perry.[2] Waits, a starter in his prime, beat the New York Yankees in the final regular season game of Template:Baseball year, forcing a one-game playoff between the Yankees and Boston Red Sox for the American League East division title. After the Indians-Yankees game ended, news of the Indians' victory was announced on Fenway Park's video screen (The Red Sox had defeated the Toronto Blue Jays 5–0 only moments earlier) with the words "THANK YOU, RICK WAITS, GAME TOMORROW."[3][4] He was dealt along with Rick Manning from the Indians to the Brewers for Gorman Thomas, Jamie Easterly and Ernie Camacho on June 6, 1983.[5]
Coaching career
In Template:Baseball year, Waits joined the Rimini Pirates of the Italian Baseball League, leading them to two championships (1987 and 1988) and a European Cup Championship (1989). He led the league in ERA, serving the last two seasons (1988 and 1989) as a player-manager.[6] He also managed the IBL's Parma Angels.[1]
Waits later joined the New York Mets organization, where he worked for fifteen years in various capacities, including a stint as the team's bullpen coach in 2003.[1]
Waits was hired by Cory Snyder, manager of the Chinatrust Brothers of Taiwan's CPBL as pitching coach for 2017 season.[7]
References
External links
- Career statistics from Script error: No such module "String".Script error: No such module "Check for unknown parameters".
- ↑ a b c Mariners name Rick Waits Minor League pitching coordinator
- ↑ a b Script error: No such module "citation/CS1".
- ↑ Script error: No such module "citation/CS1".
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- ↑ "Gorman Thomas dealt to Tribe," The Associated Press (AP), Tuesday, June 7, 1983. Retrieved December 15, 2022.
- ↑ A Former Major Leaguer Savors Italian Baseball
- ↑ Script error: No such module "citation/CS1".
- Pages with script errors
- 1952 births
- Living people
- American expatriate baseball people in Taiwan
- American expatriate baseball players in Canada
- Anderson Senators players
- Baseball coaches from Georgia (U.S. state)
- Baseball players from Georgia (U.S. state)
- Baseball player-managers
- Cleveland Indians players
- American expatriate baseball players in Italy
- Fort Myers Sun Sox players
- Major League Baseball bullpen coaches
- Major League Baseball pitchers
- Major League Baseball pitching coaches
- Milwaukee Brewers players
- New York Mets coaches
- Oklahoma City 89ers players
- Pittsfield Rangers players
- Pittsfield Senators players
- Rimini Baseball Club players
- Seattle Mariners coaches
- Spokane Indians players
- Texas Rangers players
- Vancouver Canadians players