Bums hire Mason as pitching coach

TRAVERSE CITY -- During their inaugural season in 2006, the Traverse City Beach Bums held a Roger Mason night.

The nine-year major league pitcher and Bellaire native was welcomed to Wuerfel Park and even threw out the first pitch.

Mason was introduced Wednesday as Traverse City's new pitching coach for the 2009 season.

"We're really excited about getting someone from northern Michigan that's the caliber he is," Beach Bums CEO John Wuerfel said. "I could talk all day about it. If you see a smile on my face, it's because I'll put our staff up against anybody in the league."

Mason spent nine seasons in the major leagues with Detroit, San Francisco, Houston, Pittsburgh, San Diego, Philadelphia and the New York Mets. The 6-foot-6 right-handed pitcher picked up 22 career wins working mostly as a reliever with 286 strikeouts and a 4.02 career ERA.

Most notably, Mason appeared in 11 postseason games from 1991-93 with the Pirates and Phillies. He had a 0.00 ERA in the NLCS and pitched in four games of the 1993 World Series, including the deciding Game 6 where he pitched 21/3 innings of scoreless ball before closer Mitch Williams surrendered a game-winning three-run homer to Toronto's Joe Carter in the ninth inning.

"John called me out of the blue a few weeks ago and asked me about the position, and to tell you the truth, I hadn't thought much about it," Mason said. "The thought of getting back into baseball, especially on the coaching end of it wasn't something I had given much thought to. But this being in our back yard made it that much more appealing."

Mason's hiring came a week after Traverse City introduced Gregg Langbehn as the team's new field manager. He replaced Jon Cahill, who was let go along with former pitching coach John Sexton. Director of Baseball Operations Jason Wuerfel was the team's hitting coach last year, but hasn't decided if he will return to his on-field job in 2009.

"When we hired Gregg Langbehn a few weeks ago, before his announcement, we talked about a pitching coach," Wuerfel said. "Gregg researched a few people, and I told Gregg 'I've got a guy. I don't know if he wants to do it, but he lives in northern Michigan.' Gregg said 'by all means, if he's interested, contact him.'"

Langbehn and Mason talked a few times on the phone, but met face to face last week after Langbehn's press conference.

"(Gregg) had a two-hour meeting with Roger and came out of the meeting and said 'we have our pitching coach,'" Wuerfel said.

"That was one of the concerns, not only me working with him, but him working with me," Mason said. "You're together a lot for the course of the season and one of the issues would be if we were compatible on a personal level. I really like Gregg a lot."

Last year, the Beach Bums led the Frontier League in ERA (3.57) and shutouts (11) and allowed the fewest hits (785), but were last in strikeouts with 583.

Mason returns to baseball for the first time in more than a decade. And his hiring will also be his first professional coaching stint.

"It's going to be different," Mason said. "My brother coaches the girls basketball team in Bellaire and I've helped out a little bit, so I've been around coaching. But pitching is pitching. It's mechanics and throwing strikes. Even though I've been away for a little bit, I don't think it's going to be that tough to get back."

Wuerfel said Langbehn believed Mason had earned coaching experience playing through the ranks.

"I said to Gregg I don't think Roger's done a lot of coaching," Wuerfel said. "He said 'Oh yeah, he has. Anybody who played college baseball, worked his way through the minors, played professional ball and has been to the World Series has coached himself. That's the hardest person to coach.'"

That experience will be something Mason will look to pass on to his players this spring.

"I hope so," Mason said when asked if players will respond to him because of his pro experience. "When I was in San Francisco, I had a chance to talk to Steve Carlton. I absolutely loved to watch him pitch when he was in St. Louis. I asked him all the questions I could think of and listened to everything he had to say. I think anyone who is going to be successful is going to ask the people who have gone before and accomplished what they're hoping to accomplish."

Mason has been working with the Northern Michigan House of Prayer. With his prayer group meeting on Saturday nights, there will be some adjustments for the four months he is coaching.

"If you join one of the affiliated teams, you've got an eight or nine month commitment," Mason said. "I was pretty sure I didn't want that. If I'm going to make bus trips, at least the season is shorter."

Now that he's back in baseball, Mason isn't necessarily looking to climb the coaching ladder.

"I'm going to see how I like it at the end of the season," Mason said. "I can't imagine finding a place that is more fun to work at. I played with a lot of minor league teams. This is a fantastic place. I'm not looking for this being a stepping stone to something else."

Photos

Bellaire's Roger Mason is all smiles during Wednesday's press conference at Wuerfel. The former MLB pitcher was named the team's pitching coach. Record-Eagle