(Story by Marco Stoovelaar; Photos by University of Arizona & Marco Stoovelaar)
IN MEMORIAM
...Jerry Kindall...
(1935 - 2017)
(Photo by University of Arizona) |
 Former player and legendary coach Jerry Kindall passed away
Nederlands
 TUCSON, Arizona (USA) -
Former player and legendary college-coach Jerry Kindall passed away on Sunday-evening (December 24) at the age of 82 due to complications after suffering a major stroke on Thursday.
Kindall played in the Major League for three teams, then was very successful in 24 seasons as the Head Coach of the Wildcats, the baseball-team of the University of Arizona, with whom he won three College World Series and also won the Haarlem Baseball Week in the Netherlands.
As a coach, he became an icon in college-baseball.
Gerald Donald Kindall was born on May 27, 1935 in St. Paul Minnesota.
As an infielder, he played in the Major League for the Chicago Cubs (1956-1961), Cleveland Indians (1962-1964) and Minnesota Twins (1964-1965).
Kindall played baseball for the University of Minnesota, then signed a contract as an amateur with the Cubs on June 30, 1956, he made his big league-debut the next day!
He was a so-called 'bonus baby', which were players who signed a contract exceeding 4,000 dollars.
According to the rules, Major League-teams required to keep these players on their 25-man roster for two full seasons.
The second baseman, short stop and third baseman appeared in 32 games in his rookie-season.
After spending most of the 1958-1959 seasons in the minor league, Kindall became a regular in 1960.
The following year with the Cubs, he replaced legendary Ernie Banks as short stop, when the latter became an outfielder.
In November 1961, Kindall was traded to the Cleveland Indians.
Another trade followed in June 1964 when he moved from Cleveland to the Minnesota Twins in a 3-team trade, which also included the Los Angels Angels.
Kindall completed the 1964 season with the Twins, then played in 125 games the next year.
In 1965, he batted .196 with six homeruns and 36 runs batted in.
Kindall was released in April 1966.
In nine Major League-seasons, Kindall played in 742 games and batted .213.
He recorded 439 basehits, including 44 homeruns and batted in 198 runs.
Kindall went into coaching after his playing career and became a coach of the baseball-team of the University of Minnesota, with whom he had won the College World Series in 1956 as a player, shortly before he signed his professional contract with the Cubs.
In 1973, Jerry Kindall became the Head Coach of the Wildcats, the team of the University of Arizona.
He led the team to the postseason twelve times and won the College World Series championship-title in 1976, 1980 and 1986.
The 1976-title was the first-ever team championship in any sport for the University.
Amongst his players were several future Major League-players, including Trevor Hoffman, Kenny Lofton, J.T. Snow, Kevin Long, Craig Lefferts and Terry Francona.
The latter is currently the Manager of the Cleveland Indians.
209 players who played for Kindall at Arizona went on to play professionally, 32 of them reached the Major League.
With the Wildcats, Kindall participated twice in the Haarlem Baseball Week, the bi-annual international baseball-tournament in Haarlem (Netherlands).
In 1974, the team finished in second place behind Cuba, winning five of its eight games.
Two years later, Arizona won the ninth edition of the event.
The team then was 7-1 and finished ahead of South Korea.
The only loss came in the second game against the Koreans, who nipped the Wildcats, 2-1.
In 1974, Arizona won only 5-4 in its first of two games against the Netherlands Team.
Two years later, the two teams played another close game with the Wildcats winning 4-3.
In 1974, Kindall won the Baseball Week's Press Award and in 1976, he was named Best Coach of the event.
Amongst the players in the 1974 team at the Haarlem Baseball Week were future Major Leaguers Ron Hassey and Dave Stegman.
In 1976, Kindall's son Doug was one of the players.
Ron Hassey, who was a short stop in 1974, went on to play 14 seasons in the Major League as a catcher for the Cleveland Indians, Chicago Cubs, New York Yankees, Chicago White Sox, Oakland A's and Montreal Expos.
He played in the World Series with the A's in 1988 and 1990.
While he didn't play, Hassey was a member of the A's that won the World Series in 1989.
Later, Hassey was coach with the Colorado Rockies (1993-1995) and St. Louis Cardinals (1996).
He then was a scout for Arizona Diamondbacks (1997-2003) and was the Bench Coach of the Seattle Mariners (2005-2006).
Hereafter, Hassey was a Minor League-Manager and retired after the 2013 season.
Outfielder Dave Stegman played six years in the Majors for Detroit Tigers, New York Yankees and Chicago White Sox.
...Ron Hassey as coach of Colorado...
...Rockies on Opening Day 1993...
(© Photo: Marco Stoovelaar) |
,,I've known coach Kindall since 1972 when he recruited me.
We stayed friends all the way.
Unfortunately, this is a sad day, especially for the baseball world and especially at the University of Arizona'', Hassey reacted in a statement released by the University of Arizona.
,,He wasn't just a coach; he taught us about life also.
He was a very positive guy.
It was an honor to have played for him.''
In his career with Arizona, Kindall led the team to 860 victories, the most in the school's history.
He retired after the 1996 season, but stayed with the baseball-program, as he became an announcer for television broadcasts of the team through the 2017 season.
Kindall was named National Coach of the Year three times (1980, 1989, 1992).
JerryKindall was the first person - and is one of only two - to win a College World Series as both a player and a coach.
The other is Mike Gillespie.
Coincidendally, Gillespie also participated as a winning coach in the Haarlem Baseball Week.
In 2000, Gillespie was the Head Coach of Team USA, which then won the event.
In 1991, Kindall was elected to the American Baseball Coaches Association Hall of Fame.
He was the President of the ABCA in 1993 and had been a member of the Board of Directors in following years.
The baseball-field at the University of Arizona in Tucson was named after him in 2004, after the stadium already had been named after another former coach of the team, Frank Sancet.
The official name of the site is Jerry Kindall Field at Frank Sancet Stadium.
In 1996, Kindall was elected into the University of Arizona Athletics Hall of Fame.
Kindall also is a member of the University of Minnesota Athletics Hall of Fame (1995) and National College Baseball Hall of Fame (2007).
In 2006, the Fellowship of Christian Athletes named its Coaching Award after him.
Kindall himself was the first recipient in 2006.
In 1991, 1998 and 1999, Jerry Kindall was one of the Assistant Coaches of the Team USA
With the National Collegiate Team, Kindall won the Bronze Medal in 1991 at the Pan American Games in Havana (Cuba).
After he had retired as Head Coach at Arizona, Kindall became a senior advisor to National Team coaching-staffs for USA Baseball and later was a member of the USA Baseball Board of Directors.
,,Jerry's immense success and passion left an indelible mark on the game of baseball both on and off the field'', stated Paul Seiler, the Executive Director and CEO of USA Baseball.
(December 24)
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