Miners coach hits milestone

PALMER — Mat-Su Miners skipper Ben Taylor hit a coaching milestone recently.

Mat-Su’s 5-4 win over the Anchorage Glacier Pilots July 8 marked Taylor’s 200th as a summer collegiate baseball head coach.

“It’s fun to have coached long enough to get there, and coach as many really awesome players I’ve been blessed enough to coach, and work with the assistant coaches I’ve been blessed to work with,” Taylor said after the victory.

Taylor, in his third season as Mat-Su’s head coach, already has 64 league wins with the Miners. He also has seven additional non-league wins with the club. Mat-Su finished as the Alaska Baseball League runner-up during each of Taylor’s first two seasons with the Miners. Last year, Mat-Su won the ABL National Division and played in the league’s championship, the Top of the World Series.

This year, the Miners are off to a 20-6 start, heading into their game against Chugiak Saturday night, and are 18-6 in league play.

Taylor is also quickly climbing Mat-Su’s historical ladder. He is only one of three to serve as head coach of the Miners for at least three seasons in the 39-year history of the summer collegiate amateur baseball club, and is currently ranked third in all-time wins by a Mat-Su head coach. Jim Fleming, who coached the team from 1985-1987, holds the organization’s record with 102 victories. Jim Frye, the only coach to lead the team for four seasons, won 90 games from 1981-1984. Fleming, who coached in 156 total games and led the Miners to the 1987 National Baseball Congress World Series title in 1987, posted a winning percentage of 65.3 percent, just ahead of Taylor, who has a current winning percentage of 63.3 percent.

Taylor came to Mat-Su after setting a career wins record in the Texas Collegiate League. He spent eight seasons as head coach of the East Texas Pumpjacks, and left as the league’s all-time winningest field manager with a 136-76-1 record.

Taylor is also currently the associate head coach at Chandler-Gilbert Community College in Arizona.