Michael Laurence Birkbeck (born March 10, 1961) is a

college baseball College baseball is baseball that is played by Student athlete, student-athletes at institutions of higher education. In the United States, college baseball is sanctioned mainly by the National Collegiate Athletic Association (NCAA); in Japan, ...

coach and former

baseball Baseball is a bat-and-ball games, bat-and-ball sport played between two team sport, teams of nine players each, taking turns batting (baseball), batting and Fielding (baseball), fielding. The game occurs over the course of several Pitch ...

pitcher In baseball, the pitcher is the player who throws ("Pitch (baseball), pitches") the Baseball (ball), baseball from the pitcher's mound toward the catcher to begin each play, with the goal of out (baseball), retiring a batter (baseball), batter, ...

. He is the pitching coach at

Kent State University Kent State University (KSU) is a Public university, public research university in Kent, Ohio, United States. The university includes seven regional campuses in Northeast Ohio located in Kent State University at Ashtabula, Ashtabula, Kent State ...

. Birkbeck attended Orrville High School in

Orrville, Ohio Orrville is a city in Wayne County, Ohio, United States. It is about east of Wooster, Ohio, Wooster and southwest of Akron, Ohio, Akron. The population was 8,452 at the 2020 United States census, 2020 census. It is part of the Micropolitan stat ...

and played

at the

University of Akron The University of Akron is a public university, public research university in Akron, Ohio, United States. It is part of the University System of Ohio. As a STEM fields, STEM-focused institution, it focuses on industries such as polymers, advance ...

. Birkbeck's professional career was plagued by injury played for the

Milwaukee Brewers The Milwaukee Brewers are an American professional baseball team based in Milwaukee. The Brewers compete in Major League Baseball (MLB) as a member club of the National League (baseball), National League (NL) National League Central, Central Di ...

New York Mets The New York Mets are an American professional baseball team based in the Boroughs of New York City, New York City borough of Queens. The Mets compete in Major League Baseball (MLB) as a member club of the National League (baseball), National ...

, and the

Yokohama BayStars The are a professional baseball team in the Japanese Central League. Their home field is Yokohama Stadium, located in central Yokohama. The team has been known by several names since becoming a professional team in 1950. It adopted its current ...

Nippon Professional Baseball is a professional baseball league and the highest level of baseball in Japan. Locally, it is often called , meaning simply ''Professional Baseball''; outside of Japan, NPB is often referred to as "Japanese baseball". The roots of the league ...

. It was with Yokohama that Birkbeck suffered a broken

fibula The fibula (: fibulae or fibulas) or calf bone is a leg bone on the lateral side of the tibia, to which it is connected above and below. It is the smaller of the two bones and, in proportion to its length, the most slender of all the long bones. ...

on a comebacker from Shane Mack which effectively ended his career. He retired as a player in 1996. In six MLB seasons, Birkbeck had a 12–19 win–loss record, 54 games pitched (51 started), two complete games, innings pitched, 319 hits allowed, 158 runs allowed, 146 earned runs allowed, 27 home runs allowed, 93 walks allowed, 149 strikeouts, four hit batters, eight wild pitches, 1,196 batters faced, four intentional walks, 12 balks and a 4.86 ERA. Birkbeck was hired as the pitching coach for the

Kent State Golden Flashes The Kent State Golden Flashes are the athletic teams that represent Kent State University. The university fields 19 varsity athletic teams in the National Collegiate Athletic Association (NCAA) at the NCAA Division I, Division I level with footba ...

in 1997 and was later promoted to associate head coach. In 2012, he was named the ABCA/''Baseball America'' Assistant Coach of the Year.

References

External links

Major League Baseball pitchers Baseball players from Wayne County, Ohio Milwaukee Brewers players New York Mets players American expatriate baseball players in Japan Yokohama BayStars players Canton-Akron Indians players Richmond Braves players Akron Zips baseball players Kent State Golden Flashes baseball coaches 1961 births Living people People from Orrville, Ohio American expatriate baseball players in Canada Beloit Brewers players Colorado Springs Sky Sox players Denver Zephyrs players El Paso Diablos players Norfolk Tides players Paintsville Brewers players Tidewater Tides players Vancouver Canadians players 20th-century American sportsmen {{US-baseball-pitcher-1960s-stub