Kevin Long (baseball)

Long attended Thunderbird High School in Phoenix, Arizona. There, he played baseball, basketball, and football. In 1982, he was a bat boy during spring training for the Milwaukee Brewers. He attended the University of Arizona, alongside future MLB players Trevor Hoffman, J.T. Snow, and Scott Erickson. Long was on the 1986 Arizona Wildcats team that won the NCAA Tournament. In 1989, he was named a second-team All-American and first-team Pac-10 and the Wildcats won the regular season conference title. A three-year letter-winner, Long still holds the Arizona record for most extra-base hits in a game (five) and ranks in the top 10 in extra-base hits, doubles, multi-hit games, total bases, and runs scored. That year, he led the Class-A Eugene Emeralds in games played, at-bats, runs scored, hits, doubles, and RBI’s. He also ranked eighth among all Northwest League hitters with his .312 batting average in his rookie season. He missed most of the 1994 season after undergoing surgery on his left wrist. ==Coaching career==

At the end of spring training in 1997, Long, who was assigned to the Triple-A Omaha Royals, decided to retire, asking instead for a coaching job. He made his professional managing debut with the Class-A Wilmington Blue Rocks. That year, he helped a young Carlos Beltran learn how to switch hit. Long next served as the hitting coach for the Wichita Wranglers in Double-A. It was there that he and manager Keith Bodie developed Long's popular net drill, an exercise used to help players shorten their swing. In 2001, he used the drill to turn Brandon Berger into a 40-home run player. He then moved up to Triple-A as the hitting coach for the Omaha Royals. When he didn't get an opportunity in 2004 to interview for the job of hitting coach for the big league team, he moved to the New York Yankees organization. Long was promoted to hitting coach for the New York Yankees in 2007. Long remained on the coaching staff after the Yankees hired Joe Girardi as manager for the 2008 season. on their way to win the franchise's 27th World Series title. Following the 2010 season, the Yankees signed Long to a three-year contract. He was fired following the 2014 season. On October 23, 2014, Long was hired by the New York Mets to be their hitting coach. In his first season there, the 2015 Mets won the National League pennant. Long helped turn Daniel Murphy into a power hitter; he hit seven homers in the 2015 postseason. He was a candidate for the open managerial position after the 2017 season, but was ultimately turned down in favor of Mickey Callaway. Long left the Mets and became the hitting coach of the Washington Nationals on November 2, 2017. The team then won the World Series in 2019. That year, the Nationals led the National League in batting average (.265) and on-base percentage (.342), and were in the top 10 in MLB in several other batting categories. On October 13, 2021, Long left the Nationals to become the hitting coach of the Philadelphia Phillies, reuniting him with former Yankees manager Joe Girardi. The Phillies reached the World Series in 2022. On November 12, 2022, the Phillies signed Long to a two–year contract extension. ==Personal life==

When Long was still a player (though he does not remember which year), he suffered an accident during an offseason job with a drywall company, when a 25-pound sledgehammer hit him in the left eye, shattering three bones. Long resides in Scottsdale, Arizona with wife, Marcey, daughter, Britney, and sons Tracy and Jaron. ==References==