A View From The Cheap Seats – Chip Hale, A Passion Project

Posted on June 28, 2021

By Rich Herrera

Wildcats Radio 1290 / CBS Sports Radio

As the rumors run wild of who should be on the short list of to replace Jay Johnson plenty of names are being thrown about. There is one name that has emerged that everyone can agree on, Chip Hale. He was recruited to come to Tucson out of Northern California in the mid 1980’s and helped lead the Cats to National Championship in 1986.  If Dave Heeke is going to re-recruit Hale back to Tucson and away from Tiger Stadium it will be quite a feat of strength for the Arizona AD.

It won’t be easy and it will take a huge commitment on both sides to make it happen.  How hard is to pry someone away from the proffessional ranks of baseball to come back to the college game?  It isn’t common, but it has been done before.

Eric Wedge played a handful of seasons in the Big Leagues, managed in the minor leagues, and went on to manage both the Cleveland Indians and the Seattle Mariners

Prior to landing the job at Wichita State he was working for the Toronto Blue Jays in player development.  I spoke to several proffesional baseball people and asked them how often does someone leave the pro ball to take an amateur baseball job.  It doesn’t happen as often as it does in The NFL or NBA, but under the right situation it is possible.

The one phrase I heard when talking about someone like Chip Hale leaving MLB to return to the college ranks is, it would have to be a passion project for him. Meaning if he is going to give up Major League Baseball, he would be doing it for personal reasons and something more than just his next job. It would have to be because he has a deep emotional tie to the program and would want to be here for ten plus years.

Chip Hale has had a very successful Big League career. He has managed the Arizona Diamondbacks and been on the coaching staffs of the Mets, Athletics, Nationals, and the Tigers. With the Nats he won a World Series ring as Davey Martinez’s bench coach and even took over running Game 6 of the 2019 World Series when Martinez was ejected.  right now he Is the Detroit Tigers 3rd Base Coach working for AJ Hinch.

It is pretty clear Chip left his heart in Tucson. In fact he lives here in town during the off season and has a strong connection to his school.

If Heeke can recruit Hale to leave the Tigers it will be because of his passion for the Arizona Wildcats pure and simple.

But the passion for him to be successful is going to have to go both ways, meaning the AD, the school, and the community will need to ratchet up the passion for this baseball program for this to work. Let’s face it, if you ask Chip Hale to leave MLB, you will be asking a lot of him. He has already sat in the Skippers office at Chase Field and been a finalist for other managers job in baseball over the years and I have no doubt that he could manage in the Big Leagues again.

If he comes back to Tucson, he will be making a big leap of faith leaving all that behind. Arizona Baseball calls itself an “MLB Training Ground”. If that is the case then who would be better at that than Chip Hale. Imagine him walking into a living room wearing his 2019 World Series ring and telling a recruit and their family he knows what it takes to make it to the big leagues. It would be a powerful message.

But if he comes back to Tucson his passion has to be matched by our community in order for this to work. We need to make sure we make Hi Corbett the true “West Coast Home of College Baseball”. We need fans to step up and buy season tickets, and create a home field advantage and become the true 10th man. It needs to have atmosphere and be an event every time the Wildcats play at home. If that can happen there is nothing that can stop this program from rivaling anything you can find down South.

The one question for Hale will be his ability to recruit. It isn’t something he is tasked with in pro ball, but if he keeps the current support staff and some of the coaches with him from Johnson’s staff like Dave Snow and Mark Wanaka, there is no doubt in my mind he will be successful. They are as important to the baseball program as Jason Terry and Jack Murphy are to Tommy Lloyd’s basketball program.

Other candidates …

If Heeke can’t entice Hale to leave the Tigers, there are other good baseball men he can turn to keep the Arizona Baseball program rolling.

On my radio show Pac 12 Network’s Wes Clements ran through some names that make sense for Arizona.

Valenzuela is considered a great recruiter and has a track record of working with pitchers throughout his career. With stops at Mt St Marys and University of San Diego before running the Dirtbag’s program. He played at ASU going to the CWS in 1998 before transferring to Pepperdine to finish college.

Checketts was in the running for the Arizona gig when they hired Jay Johnson last time out. he lead UCSB to the CWS. He played in the Pac12 at OSU, and has coached at Riverside CC, US Riverside, and Oregon before landing the job at UCSB.

Andy Stankiewicz is also a name being thrown around it it had folks in Phoenix nervous. We saw GCU in the Tucson Regionals this year and He has built quite a program for The Lopes. A hard nose blue collar player he has brought that work ethic to college baseball.

Jordan Bischel is considered a rising star in college baseball. He lead his team into the regionals this season. He is also someone Arizona AD Dave Heeke knows a lot about since his son played for Bischel at CMU.

One more name out there if you are looking for an Arizona connection, Shelly Duncan. He comes form a baseball family and is a Wildcat through and through. He went to CDO and then played for the Wildcats. He played in the big league before he began managing in the DBacks organization. He managed short season A, A Ball and Double A ball before heading to the Blue Jays as an field coordinator and now with the White Sox working in the front office.

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