Just before Christmas the Dodgers announced the 2014 coaching staffs for their minor league affiliates. Although there were not wholesale changes there were several at the managerial level. Damon Berryhill, after five seasons with the Advanced Rookie League Ogden Raptors, in which he led the Raptors to four playoff appearances, was promoted to the AAA Albuquerque Isotopes. Razor Shines moves to Chattanooga to manage the AA Lookouts after one year as the manager of the Single A Great Lakes Loons. P.J. Forbes will manage the High A Rancho Cucamonga Quakes after a successful season with the AZL Dodgers. John Shoemaker, in his 21st season as a minor league manager, takes over the reins of the AZL Dodgers. Lee Tinsley joins the Dodger organization as manager of the Ogden Raptors.

The managerial change that interests me the most was the assignment of a new manager to the Great Lakes Loons. Bill Haselman, former major league catcher, has moved into that position. I am most interested in this change as I follow many of the Loons games on MiLB.TV. I fully expect Bill Haselman will have the same type of relationship with his players as Razor Shines did in 2013. Assisting Haselman will be Bill Simas who returns as the Loons pitching coach in 2014 while Johnny Washington moves from the Ogden Raptors as the Great Lakes hitting coach.

The Inland Empire 66ers are the biggest rivals of the Rancho Cucamonga Quake, yet former 66ers manager Bill Haselman is now the manager of the Dodgers affiliate Great Lakes Loons. Haselman is seen here watching Quakes third baseman Scott Wingo smash a home run to right field. (Photo credit – Ron Cervenka)

Haselman graduated for Saratoga High School in Saratoga, California and attended UCLA where he played both baseball and football. He didn’t receive a hoped-for scholarship from UCLA but went anyway and walked on to the baseball team. By his last year, he’d played well enough to get that scholarship. On the gridiron he was the backup quarterback, behind Troy Aikman who was to become the Dallas Cowboys’ all-time leading passer. Haselman went from a walk on to the first round (23rd overall) selection by the Texas Rangers in 1987 First Year Player Draft.

His thirteen-year major league career as a back up catcher began with the Texas Rangers in 1990 and ended with the Boston Red Sox in 2003. In between those years he also played with the Seattle Mariners and Detroit Tigers. Haselman appeared in 589 major league games overall, batting .259 with 47 home runs and 210 RBIs.

During his career, known as a knowledgeable, hard nosed player, Bill Haselman perhaps had his best year with the Red Sox in 1996. One of his highlights was catching Roger Clemens’ second 20-strikeout performance against the Tigers. Dom Amore, Courant Staff Writer reported on May 5, 1996 that Red Sox manager Kevin Kennedy indicated: “… Haselman will catch when Clemens starts.” On the season he hit .274 with 8 home runs and 34 runs batted in. Behind the plate he had a .994 fielding percentage in 530 chances. Although he never really got the opportunity to be a starting catcher Haselman earned the respect of his teammates. “Hass could start for a lot of teams,” Red Sox first baseman Mo Vaughn said.

Former MLB manager and current DodgerTalk host Kevin Kennedy was very excited to learn of Hasleman’s appointment as the Loons new manager. (Image courtesy of @KevinKennedyMLB)

Haselman retired as a player at the end of the 2003 season. He then became part of the 2004 Red Sox championship team serving as the interim first-base coach for three months when the regular first base coach Lynn Jones injured his eye. In 2005 he became the bullpen coach and the full-time first-base coach in 2006. Although he was offered a minor league managing position by the Red Sox he decided to leave the game to spend more time with his family.

Bill Haselman was away from baseball for almost three years and then this announcement was posted by the Associated Press, dated August 12, 2009: “Former Mariners catcher Bill Haselman has been named as a volunteer assistant coach for the Washington baseball team, completing the staff of new coach Lindsay Meggs.”

“I’m looking forward to getting back into coaching,” Haselman said. “I’ve been away from baseball for a little bit and I really enjoy teaching. For me, working with Lindsay is the main thing. I think he’s a tremendous hire. I’m not sure how much I would want to do this for any other coaches.”

Haselman returned to the full time coaching ranks in 2010 as manager of the Texas Rangers Class A California Leagues’ Bakersfield Blaze. In 2012 he joined the Anaheim Angels organization as manager of the Inland Empire 66ers, the Angels Single-A affiliate of the California League. His team captured an unlikely league championship in 2013. The Sixers finished two games under .500 at 69-71 but had qualified for the playoffs as the first-half Wild Card team. In the postseason they first defeated the second-half Wild Card winning Rancho Cucamonga Quakes in an exciting come-from-behind win in the final inning of the final game of the best-of-three series. The 66ers then defeated the heavily favored and defending Cal League Champion Lancaster JetHawks in the same manner, winning a 15-inning thriller in the final game of the best-of-five series. They then swept the San Jose Giants, a team that the parent club San Francisco Giants annually makes sure is loaded for a postseason run, in three games to capture the 2013 Cal League Championship.

Now for the rest of the story.

On October 11, 2013 Michelle Gardner of InsideSoCal.com reported that “Despite winning the High-A California League Championship, the organization has severed ties with Inland Empire manager Bill Haselman and pitching coach Brandon Emmanuel.”

Although that is a head scratcher, Michelle’s comments regarding the nature of Bill Haselman’s team makes his dismissal an even greater mystery. In the same report she wrote: “The Sixers had a very unique team chemistry. All teams say they have it but this team REALLY had it. It was obvious in watching the team as much as I did this season. Players had nothing but good things to say about the coaching staff. One player even told me at the end of the season he would rather NOT get promoted to Double-A because he enjoyed playing for this team and coaching staff so much and wanted to compete in the playoffs with them.”

Haselman (third from right on the bottom) poses for a photo with his 2013 California League Champion Inland Empire 66ers. Three weeks later he was let go by the Angels affiliate.(Photo courtesy of MiLB.com)

Haselman realistically revealed his grasp of just how difficult it is to play major league baseball and why he spent his career, a very productive one, as a back up. The most games he played was 77 in 1996 with the Red Sox. Looking back now he flatly says he just wasn’t good enough to be a regular in the majors. “It was something you always strive for, but it was something, you know, I just wasn’t able to do. I wasn’t good enough. There were better players. I tried like crazy, but I just wasn’t able to do it.”

One teams loss is another’s gain and in this case the Dodger organization is the big winner. I certainly look forward to watching Bill Haselman at the helm of the Great Lakes Loons in 2014. This man is a gamer and I definitely want him on my team.