| Tom Harmon | |
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| Coach | |
| Born:December 16, 1948 Lubbock, Texas, U.S. | |
Bats: Left Throws: Right | |
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Thomas Harold Harmon (born December 16,1948) is an American baseball coach and a former minor league catcher and manager and Major League coach. He was assistant coach of the University of Texas Longhorns men's varsity baseball team from 1989 to 2012. [1]
As a player,Harmon batted left-handed and threw right-handed;he stood 5 ft 11 in (1.80 m) tall and weighed 185 lb (84 kg). He graduated from Eastern Hills High School of Fort Worth,Texas,and The University of Texas at Austin with a degree in marketing. [2] Harmon was a first-round,secondary phase selection of the Kansas City Royals in the June 1970 Major League Baseball draft,and broke into professional baseball at the advanced Double-A level,with the Elmira Pioneers of the Eastern League. In 1972,while a member of the Jacksonville Suns,he set a Southern League record with six hits in an extra-inning game —although he batted only .201 in 209 at bats for Jacksonville that season. [2]
Although he never reached the Major Leagues,Harmon spent all or parts of seven seasons at the Triple-A level,and he finished his career in the St. Louis Cardinals and Philadelphia Phillies organizations,batting .254 in 649 games played with 12 home runs and 179 runs batted in. [3] He then coached and managed in the Phillies' organization,where he won the 1979 Northwest League championship,from 1978 through 1981. In 1982,he spent a year at the major-league level as bullpen coach on the staff of Chicago Cubs manager Lee Elia. Like Harmon,Elia was a veteran of the Philadelphia organization brought to Chicago by the team's new general manager,Dallas Green.
Harmon returned to his native Texas in 1983 as manager of the Double-A Midland Cubs and,after a period in private business,joined the Longhorns' coaching staff in 1989. [4]