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American baseball player and coach (born 1951)
Baseball player
Bruce Edward Kimm
(born June 29, 1951) is an American former
professional baseball
catcher
,
manager
and
coach
. He played all or part of four seasons in
Major League Baseball
for the
Detroit Tigers
,
Chicago Cubs
and
Chicago White Sox
between 1976 until 1980.
Born in
Cedar Rapids, Iowa
, Kimm grew up in nearby
Norway
and was a star player on the celebrated
Norway High School
baseball teams, all of which played in state championships during his high school days. He was a three-time all-state player in baseball and selected in the seventh round of the
1969 amateur draft
by the White Sox, signing in his senior year of high school. Kimm made his major league debut in
1976
with the Detroit Tigers on May 4, where he was
Mark Fidrych
's personal catcher in 1976 and
1977
. They had been teammates in 1975 at
Triple-A
Evansville
and won the
Junior World Series
. He played his final major league game on September 19, 1980.
Managerial career
[
edit
]
Kimm began his managerial career in the Tigers organization in 1982. In 1995, he won Manager of the Year honors in the AA
Southern League
, compiling a 76?67 record with the Orlando Cubs en route to a playoff appearance. Kimm has also managed within the
Cincinnati Reds
organization. He managed in the minor leagues for five and a half seasons from 1982 to 2002, compiling a 405?382 (.515) record.
After the
2002 Chicago Cubs
started the season with a 34?49 (.410) record, manager
Don Baylor
was fired and replaced on an interim basis by Kimm (though bench coach
Rene Lachemann
managed one game on July 5 prior to Kimm's arrival), who had been managing the Cubs' AAA affiliate. This caused some controversy, as former
Tampa Bay Devil Rays
manager and then Cubs pitching coach
Larry Rothschild
was seen by some as a better choice. Kimm did not fare much better than Baylor, as the Cubs went 33?45 (.423) for the rest of the season. His departure was announced before the final game of the season; he was replaced by
Dusty Baker
. In 2003, Kimm was a third base coach for Chicago's other MLB team, the White Sox.
Kimm has also been a coach for the
Cincinnati Reds
,
Pittsburgh Pirates
,
San Diego Padres
,
Florida Marlins
,
Chicago White Sox
, and
Colorado Rockies
.
External links
[
edit
]
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Iowa Oaks (1969?1981)
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Iowa Cubs (1982?present)
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