For the 2006 Lexington Legends Program
The Lind Era Begins
By Rich Herles
As the Legends open their sixth season, they will be welcoming their fifth manager. Let’s take a walk along the long and winding road that is the career of Jack Lind and find out how he made his way to Lexington.
Jack was born Jackson Hugh Lind on June 8th, 1946 in Denver, Colorado. Along with his parents and his sister (Nancy), he moved to Chandler, Arizona in 1952. Besides traveling about 950 miles south and dropping over 4000 feet in elevation, the move was to be the last major change for the young Lind. It was here that baseball became a part of the youngster’s life. Jack credits his little league coach, Mr. Brown, for having a major influence on his game. “I had a strong sense of justice and I would always get into trouble. If I thought that something was wrong, I would fight and fight, not physically but argue. That would get me in trouble with the umpires in Little League, so much so, that the league voted, when I was twelve, not to let me play my last year. Mr. Brown talked them into letting me play. Then he sat me down and straightened me out. I learned a big lesson. I was much better (that year) and made the all star team.” Growing up Willie Mays was Jack’s favorite player. The Giants trained in Arizona. “I loved listening to the games on the radio and I got to see him (Mays) play a couple of times in spring training and that was fun.”
In 1961, the family did move to the nearby city of Mesa, Arizona, where the Linds’ still reside. Jack began his march toward professional baseball at Mesa High. While in high school there were two men that not only helped the young man with baseball, but with life. Lind recalled, “My PE teacher for three years at Mesa High was the basketball coach. I didn’t play basketball but Carl Heath was a great guy. He taught me some really good life lessons, just being in his classes.” The other was “Jim Brock. He was my high school baseball coach and he had a great influence on me and he was an outstanding baseball coach.”
After Jack graduated from Mesa High he enrolled in Arizona State University. At ASU, the young shortstop played for three seasons and was a member of the 1967 National Championship team. ASU’s coach, Bobby Winkles, was another big influence on the youthful infielder. “He was tough on you and made you know how hard it was to be a good player.”
The Houston Astros drafted Lind in the seventh round of the 1967 Amateur Draft. Another person who influenced Jack was Randy Davis, his manager, for his second year of pro ball. “He was the kind of guy that took special interest in me. He kind of kept my head level about the offensive part of the game.” Jack jokingly described his time with Houston. “It took me three years to go from prospect to suspect.” After a total of four seasons with the Astros (two in A-ball and two in AAA), he was traded to the Cincinnati Reds organization, where he played for their AA team. His next stop on his road to the Big League was with the Milwaukee Brewers. The four years with the Brewers organization not only allowed the infielder to play in the highest minor league, but also, to see action with the Major League Brewers for parts of two seasons. Following the 1975 season the Brewers traded Lind to the Los Angles Dodgers, who assigned him to their AAA Albuquerque team. The next season, he was call upon to play on the other side of the Pacific Ocean where he was a part of Japan’s Tokyo Yomiuri Giants. Midway through that season, he broke his leg and that pretty much ended his playing career.
After eleven years of professional baseball, Jack Lind hung up his cleats and retired from baseball. Jack had a different claim to fame, he was one of two players who were teammates with both the Major League Home Run Champion- Hank Aaron and Japan’s All-Time Home Run Champ- Sadaharu Oh. (Davey Johnson was the other player.) Looking back on his playing days, he remembered, “It is always great to be around great players. Both of them were fun to watch. They were both good guys.”
For the next five years, Jack took a break from baseball. Then in 1981, his old high school coach, Jim Brock, was now Arizona State’s coach and Lind was recruited as a volunteer assistant coach. He coached first base and worked with the infielders. During that time, ASU won the National Championship and Jack received his second College World Series ring.
In 1983 the Arizonian returned to professional baseball, but this time as a manager. His first position was to manage the California Angels Class A team in Redwood. He led the team to the California League Championship. The next season the young skipper not only changed organizations, but also coasts. With the Reds Class AA Vermont Team, his charges won back to back Eastern League titles. The string of league titles ended in 1986 when the best that Lind’s Denver Zephyrs could do was to win the Western Division of the American Association (AAA). Lind concluded his five year association with the Cincinnati organization as he skippered the Nashville Sounds (AAA) in 1987 and 1988. From 1989 through 2000, he returned to the Big Leagues with the Pirates. Although he never worked for him directly, the Pirates manager had a major influence of Lind as a manager. “Being around Jim Leyland at spring training and the way that he treated me, he was a good guy to learn from.”
During that time, he held a variety of positions, everything from infield instructor and field coordinator to third base coach. Then he revisited the team that drafted him way back in 1967. For two seasons, he was a Major League Scout with Houston. In 2003, Lind again traveled west as he reacquired the reins of command, when he managed San Francisco’s Class A San Jose Giants. Prior to the 2004 season, the well traveled baseball veteran packed his bags and once more changed coasts and organizations, this time with the New York Mets. As the manager of the Capital City Bombers, he guided the team to the South Atlantic League’s Southern Division crown for both halves of the regular season, but fell short to Hickory in the SAL Finals. After a twenty year hiatus Lind found himself once more a manager in the Eastern League, this time with the Class AA Binghamton Mets.
That brings us to this season, as we welcome Jack Lind as our Lexington Legends fifth Manager. When asked to summarize what he thought was important at this level, he replied. “The most important thing to learn at this level is to be ready to play every day over the course of a full season. Second is to learn how to make adjustments against pitching. They are going to see you over and over because you are going to play some teams 15 to 20 times and they are going to learn about you and find your weaknesses. Now you have to make some adjustments.”
As for his managing style, he summed it up as “I like to have fun with the kids. I am not going to be stern with them all the time. You communicate the rules to them. What you expect, what the organization expects.” In other words “try to be a fair guy and have a good time.”