Mike Young (born December 21, 1955) is a former Australian cricket team fielding coach, as well as a former US minor league and Australian baseball manager, player and coach.
Mike Young (born December 21, 1955) is a former Australian cricket team fielding coach, as well as a former US minor league and Australian baseball manager, player and coach.
Young attended the University of Wisconsin-River Falls and he was the team's MVP in 1978. After graduation, he managed to land a contract to play in the Netherlands Honkbal Hoofdklasse baseball league and he played there in 1979 and 1980 and realized that there were other opportunities for American players to ply their skills around the globe. He sent his resume around and was contacted in 1981 by the Queensland Rams, an Australian Baseball League team, which he also player-coached and led to a national championship (the Claxton Shield) in 1982. [1]
Because the Australian and American seasons do not overlap, Young was able to pursue opportunities on both continents, and in 1985 landed the job of coach with the Medicine Hat Blue Jays, his first in organised baseball. In 1989, he managed the Bluefield Orioles in the Appalachian League and the Wausau Timbers in the Midwest League in 1990. He was a coach with the Rochester Red Wings in 1991 and 1992, then returned to managing with two seasons in the Cleveland Indians organisation. [1]
At the same time, he was becoming a major player in the development of baseball in Australia, landing a coaching job with the Australian national team. He managed the team at the 1988 Olympics in Seoul, South Korea. He was twice named the International Baseball Federation coach of the year, in 1997 and 1999, for his work with the Australian national team. This included its results in two Intercontinental Cups, a bronze medal in the 1997 tournament and then to a gold medal at home in 1999. Young's work down under coincided with a period when Australian baseball was booming, producing Major League players like Dave Nilsson, Mark Hutton, Cam Cairncross, Shayne Bennett and Chris Snelling, all of whom reached the major leagues. This boom is linked to Young's work, as he is the one who developed the idea of the Australian Baseball Academy, which is jointly funded by Major League Baseball and aims at grooming Australian baseball talent. The number of Australian players signed by MLB has quadrupled since the Academy's foundation. [2]
Young's career took another twist in 2000 when the Australian cricket federation approached him for help. Fielding has long been an under-developed aspect of cricket, as teams have concentrated on developing bowlers and batsmen. The Australians, observing how fielding was a central part of baseball, decided to exploit an opportunity by having Young coach their players on catching, throwing and positioning. Young was appointed as an assistant coach until 2005 when his contract was not renewed and instead moved back to Chicago to manage the Rockford Riverhawks. During the 2005 Ashes series the Australian teams fielding had slipped and the side lost the Ashes to England for the first time since 1987. [3] John Buchanan then made the decision for Australia to have a full-time fielding coach and Young became speculated in the media as the first baseball coach to coach a national cricket team and announced he would like to finish his managerial career doing it. [4] [5] In 2009 he spent three weeks working with the Indian cricket team as a fielding consultant. [6]
Albert Goodwill Spalding was an American pitcher, manager, and executive in the early years of professional baseball, and the co-founder of A.G. Spalding sporting goods company. He was born and raised in Byron, Illinois yet graduated from Rockford Central High School in Rockford, Illinois. He played major league baseball between 1871 and 1878. Spalding set a trend when he started wearing a baseball glove.
Michael Jack Schmidt is an American former professional baseball third baseman who played his entire 18-season career in Major League Baseball (MLB) for the Philadelphia Phillies. Schmidt was a 12-time All-Star and a three-time winner of the National League (NL) Most Valuable Player award (MVP), and he was known for his combination of power hitting and strong defense. As a hitter, he compiled 548 home runs and 1,595 runs batted in (RBIs), and led the NL in home runs eight times and in RBIs four times. As a fielder, Schmidt won the National League Gold Glove Award for third basemen ten times. Schmidt was elected to the Baseball Hall of Fame in 1995 and is widely considered to be the greatest third baseman in baseball history.
Gregory Stephen Chappell is a former cricketer who represented Australia at international level in both Tests and One-Day Internationals (ODI). The second of three brothers to play Test cricket, Chappell was the pre-eminent Australian batsman of his time who allied elegant stroke making to fierce concentration. An exceptional all round player who bowled medium pace and, at his retirement, held the world record for the most catches in Test cricket, Chappell's career straddled two eras as the game moved toward a greater level of professionalism after the WSC schism.
Edward Hugh Hanlon, also known as "Foxy Ned", and sometimes referred to as "The Father of Modern Baseball," was an American professional baseball player and manager whose career spanned from 1876 to 1914. He was posthumously inducted into the Baseball Hall of Fame in 1996 by the Veterans Committee.
William Henry "Harry" Wright was an English-born professional baseball player, manager, and developer. He assembled, managed, and played center field for baseball's first fully professional team, the 1869 Cincinnati Red Stockings. He is credited with introducing innovations such as backing up infield plays from the outfield and shifting defensive alignments based on hitters' tendencies. For his contributions as a manager and developer of the game, he was inducted into the Baseball Hall of Fame in 1953 by the Veterans Committee. Wright was also the first to make baseball into a business by paying his players up to seven times the pay of the average working man.
John Charles "Jack" Rowe was an American professional baseball player, manager and team owner from 1877 to 1898. He played 12 years in Major League Baseball, as a shortstop, catcher, and outfielder, for four major league clubs. His longest stretches were in the National League with the Buffalo Bisons (1879–1885) and Detroit Wolverines (1886–1888). He was also a player-manager and part owner of the Buffalo Bisons of the Players' League in 1890, and the manager of the Buffalo Bisons from 1896 to 1898.
Darren Scott Lehmann is an Australian cricket coach and former cricketer who coached the Australian national team. Lehmann made his ODI debut in 1996 and Test debut in 1998. He was on the fringes of national selection for the entirety of the 1990s, and only became a regular in the ODI team in 2001 and Test team in late 2002, before being dropped in early 2005. Primarily an aggressive left-handed batsman, Lehmann was also a part-time left arm orthodox bowler, and gained renown for his disregard for physical fitness and modern dietary regimes. He announced his retirement from first-class cricket in November 2007. Lehmann was a member of the Australian team that won the 1999 Cricket World Cup and the 2003 Cricket World Cup, where in the 1999 final, he scored the winning boundary, and took the winning catch in the 2003 final.
Michael Lorri Scioscia, nicknamed "Sosh" and "El Jefe", is an American former Major League Baseball catcher and manager in Major League Baseball (MLB). He managed the Anaheim / Los Angeles Angels of Anaheim / Los Angeles Angels from the 2000 season through the 2018 season, and was the longest-tenured manager in Major League Baseball and second-longest-tenured coach/manager in the "Big Four", behind only Gregg Popovich at the time of his retirement. As a player, Scioscia made his major league debut with the Los Angeles Dodgers in 1980. He was selected to two All-Star Games and won two World Series over the course of his 13-year MLB career, which was spent entirely with the Dodgers; this made him the only person in MLB history to spend his entire playing career with one team and entire managing career with another team with 10+ years in both places. He was signed by the San Diego Padres and Texas Rangers late in his career, but never appeared in a major league game for either team due to injury.
Raymond Illingworth CBE was an English cricketer, cricket commentator and administrator. As of 2015, he was one of only nine players to have taken 2,000 wickets and made 20,000 runs in first-class cricket. He played for Yorkshire, Leicestershire (1969–1978) and England (1958–1973) and was a Wisden Cricketer of the Year in 1960.
Michael Edward Killeen Hussey is an Australian cricket coach, commentator and former international cricketer, who played all forms of the game. Hussey is also widely known by his nickname 'Mr Cricket'. Hussey was a relative latecomer to both the one-day international and Test Australian teams, debuting at 28 and 30 years of age in the respective formats, with 15,313 first-class runs before making his Test debut. With his time representing Australia, Hussey won multiple ICC titles with the team: the 2007 Cricket World Cup, the 2006 ICC Champions Trophy, and the 2009 ICC Champions Trophy.
Sports are an important part of culture in the United States. Historically, the national sport has been baseball. However, in more recent decades, American football has been the most popular sport in terms of broadcast viewership audience. Basketball has grown into the mainstream American sports scene since the 1980s, with ice hockey and soccer doing the same around the turn of the 21st century. These sports comprise the "Big Five". In the first half of the 20th century, boxing and collegiate football were among the most popular sports after baseball. Golf, tennis, and collegiate basketball are other spectator sports with longstanding popularity. Most recently, Mixed martial arts, has been breaking records in attendance and broadcast viewership for all combat sports.
John Marshall Buchanan is the current First XI cricket coach at Brisbane Boys' College, and a former cricket coach of the Australia national cricket team and of Kolkata Knight Riders team in the Indian Premier League. John Buchanan is a King's Old Collegian and is also an old boy of The Southport School, located in Gold Coast, Queensland, Australia. Buchanan is also known in cricketing circles as 'Ned Flanders', due to his similarity in appearance to the character in The Simpsons. Buchanan led the Australian teams to being the champions of both the 2003 Cricket World Cup and the 2007 Cricket World Cup, along with winning the 2006 ICC Champions Trophy.
Stephen John Rixon is an Australian cricket coach and former international cricketer. He played in 13 Test matches and six One Day Internationals between 1977 and 1985. He has coached the New Zealand cricket team, New South Wales cricket team, Surrey County Cricket Club, Hyderabad Heroes and the Chennai Super Kings of the Indian Cricket League and was the fielding coach of the Australian national cricket team, Pakistan national cricket team and Sri Lanka national cricket team.
Arthur Albert Irwin, nicknamed "Doc", "Sandy", "Cutrate" or "Foxy", was a Canadian-American shortstop and manager in Major League Baseball (MLB) during the late nineteenth century. He played regularly in the major leagues for eleven years, spending two of those seasons as a player-manager. He played on the 1884 Providence Grays team which won the first interleague series to decide the world champions of baseball. Irwin then served as a major league manager for several years.
William Reginald Armour was an American professional baseball player and manager. He was the manager of the Cleveland Bronchos in 1902 when they signed Nap Lajoie to the most lucrative contract in baseball history and the manager of the Detroit Tigers when they acquired Ty Cobb in 1905.
Charles Louis "Chief" Zimmer was an American professional baseball player whose playing career spanned from 1884 to 1906. He played for 19 seasons as a catcher in Major League Baseball (MLB), including 13 seasons for the Cleveland Blues/Spiders (1887–1899), three seasons for the Pittsburgh Pirates (1900–1902), and one season as the player/manager of the Philadelphia Phillies (1903).
Fredi Jesús González is a Cuban-born American baseball coach and manager who is currently the bench coach for the Baltimore Orioles. He managed the Florida Marlins from 2007 to 2010 and the Atlanta Braves from 2011 to 2016. González was fired from both managing positions. For four seasons prior to 2007, he was the third base coach for the Atlanta Braves. Despite never reaching the playoffs with Florida, González nearly led the Braves to a playoff berth in his first season as manager in 2011. He then guided the Braves to the postseason in 2012 and 2013.
Sport plays an important role in the business, community, social and cultural life in South Australia.
Julien Fountain is an English professional cricket coach and former Great Britain baseball player. He is known primarily as a specialist fielding coach but has also performed the roles of head coach and assistant coach. He has worked on the coaching staffs of the West Indies, Pakistan, Bangladesh, and England and has coached at 36 test matches, 106 ODIs, and 28 T20 Internationals. This includes two ICC Fifty Over World Cups, one ICC T20 World Cup, one Asia Cup, and one Champions Trophy. He has also coached at a wide variety of domestic or franchise fixtures.
The organisation of sport in Australia has been largely determined by its Federal system of government – Australian Government and six states and two territories governments and local governments. All three levels play an important role in terms of funding, policies and facilities. Each major sport is managed by a national sports organisation, with state counterparts that manage community sporting clubs. Umbrella or peak organisations represent the interests of sports organisations or particular sport issues. Education sector plays a small role through universities and schools. Private sector's involvement is extensive in professional sport through facilities, club ownership and finance/sponsorship.
