Mark Connor
{{Short description|American baseball coach (born 1949)}}
{{Use mdy dates|date=June 2024}}
{{Infobox baseball biography
|name=Mark Connor
|image=
|caption=
|position=Coach
|birth_date={{Birth date and age|1949|5|27}}
|birth_place=New York City, New York, U.S.
|bats=Right
|throws=Right
|teams=
As coach
- New York Yankees ({{mlby|1984}}–{{mlby|1987}}, {{mlby|1990}}–{{mlby|1993}})
- Arizona Diamondbacks ({{mlby|1998}}–{{mlby|2000}})
- Toronto Blue Jays ({{mlby|2001}}–{{mlby|2002}})
- Texas Rangers ({{mlby|2003}}–{{mlby|2008}})
- Baltimore Orioles ({{mlby|2011}})
|highlights=
}}
Mark Peter Connor (born May 27, 1949) is an American former pitching coach for the New York Yankees, Baltimore Orioles, Toronto Blue Jays, Arizona Diamondbacks and Texas Rangers. Before his coaching career, he was a minor league pitcher from 1971 through 1972 who batted and threw right-handed.
Playing career
Connor played two minor league seasons for the Minnesota Twins before his career was ended by an arm injury. He went 4-5 with a 2.78 ERA, three saves, and 57 strikeouts in 55 innings for the 1971 Auburn Twins. The following season, he posted a 5-2 record with a 3.83 ERA in 32 relief appearances for the Wisconsin Rapids Twins.
Coaching career
Following his playing career, Connor became the pitching coach at the University of Tennessee from 1974 to 1978 and served as the head coach in 1988 and 1989. He also coached in the major leagues for the New York Yankees (1984–87, 1990–93), Arizona Diamondbacks (1998–2000) and Toronto Blue Jays (2001–02) before joining Texas (2003). Tommy John called Connor a "brilliant coach."John and Valenti, p. 262 "He knew what to look for in my motion and had an intuitive understanding of the way I threw the baseball."John and Valenti, p. 263 Even after Connor left the Yankees, John still sought him out for help.John and Valenti, p. 277 Under his guidance, Randy Johnson earned consecutive NL Cy Young Award honors in 1999 and 2000.
Connor served as the bullpen coach of the Rangers from 2003–2005, and became the team's pitching coach in 2006. At the end of the season, the team named Ron Washington as their new manager for the 2007 season. Washington kept Connor as the pitching coach.{{cite web|url=http://texas.rangers.mlb.com/news/article.jsp?ymd=20061105&content_id=1733731&vkey=news_tex&fext=.jsp&c_id=tex|title=Rangers select Washington to manage|work=Texas Rangers|access-date=November 7, 2010|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20120330023653/http://texas.rangers.mlb.com/news/article.jsp?ymd=20061105&content_id=1733731&vkey=news_tex&fext=.jsp&c_id=tex|archive-date=March 30, 2012|url-status=dead}}
Conner was fired by the Texas Rangers on August 1, 2008. The Rangers re-hired Connor as a consultant in December 2008.
Connor joined the Baltimore Orioles as their pitching coach for the 2011 season.{{cite web|url=http://mlb.mlb.com/news/article.jsp?ymd=20101107&content_id=16024756&vkey=news_bal&c_id=bal&partnerId=rss_bal|title=Connor agrees to terms to be O's pitching coach|work=Baltimore Orioles}} He resigned on June 14 for personal reasons.{{cite web|url=http://mlb.mlb.com/news/press_releases/press_release.jsp?ymd=20110614&content_id=20469476&vkey=pr_bal&fext=.jsp&c_id=bal|title=Orioles pitching coach Mark Connor resigns; Rick Adair to assume pitching coach duties|work=Baltimore Orioles}}
References
{{reflist}}
- {{cite book|last1=John|first1=Tommy|last2=Valenti|first2=Dan|title=TJ: My Twenty-Six Years in Baseball|publisher=Bantam|location=New York|year=1991|isbn=0-553-07184-X}}
External links
{{Baseballstats|mlb=427075|brm=connor001mar|retro=C/Pconnm801}}
{{Tennessee Volunteers baseball coach navbox}}
{{DEFAULTSORT:Connor, Mark}}
Category:Arizona Diamondbacks coaches
Category:Baltimore Orioles coaches
Category:Texas Rangers coaches
Category:Major League Baseball bullpen coaches
Category:New York Yankees coaches
Category:Major League Baseball pitching coaches
Category:Baseball players from Brooklyn
Category:Toronto Blue Jays coaches
Category:Wisconsin Rapids Twins players