October 21, 2006
THINGS THAT MAKE YOU FEEL OLD:
Magadan handed the job of adding punch to lineup (SEAN McADAM, October 21, 2006, Providence Journal)
Posted by Orrin Judd at October 21, 2006 8:20 AMFollowing a 16-year major league career and the past five years as a coach with the San Diego Padres, Magadan's has finally landed in Boston, introduced yesterday as the Red Sox hitting instructor.
Signing out of high school with the Sox was "something I always thought about," said Magadan yesterday. "It's strange how things come full circle."
Magadan replaces Ron Jackson, who was not invited back after this season. After being dismissed as the Padres' hitting coach in June, Magadan met with Red Sox general managerTheo Epstein late in the season to discuss role in the organization.
"We offered an invitation to come aboard with the Red Sox in a role to be determined later," Epstein said. "I thought he had a lot to offer the organization, whether it be in a scouting capacity, roving (instructor) capacity or coaching capacity. We exposed him to a lot of different areas of our organization. We all put our heads together and decided the best role would be as our major league hitting coach."
I was at Magadan's first game...in September '86 as a late season call-up for the Mets against the Cubs. He filled in for Keith Hernandez, who was announced to have had the flu...but with what we now know about the habots of the '86 Mets, who knows? If I recall correctly (I went to about 15 or 20 Mets games that September/October), Magadan rapped out a couple of hits, and a young Rafael Palmiero took Doc Gooden deep.
Posted by: Foos at October 21, 2006 7:26 PM