Miners promote pitching coach

PALMER — As a general rule, Mat-Su Miners general manager Pete Christopher prefers not to hire pitching coaches as head coaches.

Call Conor Bird the exception to the rule.

Christopher and the Miners have pegged Bird — Mat-Su’s pitching coach in 2007 — as the head coach of the Mat-Su Miners for the 2008 season.

“I don’t usually hire pitching coaches to be my head coach. But I thought Conor did a good job, and I wanted to reward him,” Christopher said earlier in the offseason.

Bird, who is currently the pitching coach at the College of Marin in California, will return in May for his second summer in Palmer.

In his first season with the Miners, Bird coached arguably the top pitching staff in the Alaska Baseball League. Under Bird’s tutelage, the Mat-Su pitchers won 26 games, fanned 239 hitters and posted a 2.17 team earned run average.

Although he has spent his entire coaching career as a pitching coach, Bird, 27, said he’s excited to take on a different role, and have the chance to run a ball club on the field.

“I’m excited for the opportunity to make those kind of decisions; manage the game,” Bird said earlier in the offseason by phone from his home in the Sacramento area. “When you’re an assistant coach, you kind of manage the game in your head. You tell the head coach what you would do, but it’s ultimately up to the head coach. I’m excited to kind of put my fingerprint on what the Miners are going to do.”

Bird said he is not worried that he has not had the opportunity to manage before. Bird said he was able to learn a great deal while coaching with former Mat-Su head coach Jeff Pritchard.

Pritchard coached the Miners to a co-ABL championship in 2007, and has since been named an assistant coach at San Jose State University.

Pritchard’s responsibilities with the Division I program prevented him from coming to Palmer for another season with the Miners.

Bird will have another veteran from 2007 on the 2008 staff. Shortly after learning he was the head coach, Bird grabbed Ryan Heil to be his pitching coach.

“As soon as I got the job, I knew Ryan was right there with me. He helped me out a ton last year,” Bird said of Heil, a volunteer assistant last summer with the Miners. “When you coach, you want to surround yourself with other good coaches.”

Bird said Heil is a perfect fit for the 2008 staff.

“Our philosophies on pitching are really similar,” Bird said.

Heil is also a veteran of the ABL. He pitched for the Mat-Su Miners in 2002.

Bird has also added Jimmy Kolaitis to the coaching staff. Kolaitis is currently the director of baseball operations for Troy University in Troy, Ala.

Bird said Kolaitis will help with the position players and will coach either first or third base.

Bird said the Miners also hope to add a fourth assistant coach.

Bird said he is excited about the potential for the 2008 Miners.

“Pete’s put together a really good roster,” Bird said. “We have like four freshman All-Americans.”

The Miners have been one of the most consistent teams in the ABL for most of the decade. In the last four years, Mat-Su has won 88 games — most in the ABL.

Contact Frontiersman sports editor Jeremiah Bartz at sports@frontiersman.com.