Hale PCL's top manager

Tucson Sidewinders manager Chip Hale has been selected the 2006 Pacific Coast League Manager of the Year, an accolade annually chosen by his peers as well as media representatives from throughout the league.

Currently in his third season as the Tucson skipper, Hale has led the Sidewinders to their first-ever playoff birth as the PCL's Pacific Southern Division Champions with a record of 91-52, the best for any team in Tucson's professional baseball history. On Aug. 28, he recorded his 400th career victory as a manager and now holds a .562 career winning percentage.

Earlier this season, he was selected to the coaching staff for the World Team in the 2006 Futures Game that took place in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania during Major League Baseball's All-Star Week. In 2002, he guided the El Paso Diablos to the to the top of the Texas League West Division with a record of 76-62, and was picked to manage the Western Division squad in the Texas League All-Star Game.

Hale, a resident of Tucson, Arizona, is in his 12th season as a professional manager and seventh in the Diamondbacks organization. This is Chip's first Manager of the Year award, and it is the first for a Tucson Manager in the PCL since Rick Sweet won the award in 1994.