Kopitzke returns to Chiefs for 2012
"We are excited to have Casey return to the Chiefs staff for 2012," said Chiefs President Rocky Vonachen. "He has done an outstanding job the last two seasons with young teams on the field and also by representing the Chiefs and Cubs in the Central Illinois community. As we celebrate our 30th season of Midwest League baseball in 2012 we are excited to have veteran leadership and familiar faces with Casey, Tom and Barbaro."
Kopitzke, 33, has spent 13 seasons in the Cubs organization as a player, coach and manager. He led a very young Chiefs squad to a 60-79 record in 2011 after going 71-66 overall in 2010 with a third place finish in the first half. In the two seasons Kopitzke has managed the Chiefs, the team has finished second and third in the MWL in batting average with a .266 mark in 2010 and a .262 team average last year. Kopitzke is the second skipper in franchise history to lead the team for three consecutive seasons joining Steve Roadcap who was the Chiefs manager from 1992-1994. Joe Cunningham also managed Peoria for three seasons, but not successively with his stints coming in 1997, 2003 and 2004. Kopitzke enters his third campaign needing 79 wins to match Cunningham's franchise mark for career wins. Kopitzke starts the season with 131 needing 10 to pass Jim Tracy for fourth, 21 to catch Pete Mackanin for third and he is 58 behind Roadcap for second. With seven home wins, Kopitzke will match Cunningham for career wins at Peoria Chiefs Stadium with 75.
Born in Green Bay, Wisconsin, Kopitzke was drafted by the Cubs in the 27th round in 1999 out of the University of Wisconsin-Oshkosh. A graduate of East DePere High School in Wisconsin, Kopitzke earned a bachelor's degree in criminal justice from UW-Oshkosh in 2001. He and his wife Erin currently live in DePere, Wisconsin with their son Sam. He began his pro career as a catcher with Eugene in the Northwest League in 1999. Kopitzke spent the 2000 season in the Midwest League with the Lansing Lugnuts hitting .224 with 22 RBI in 68 games. The following year he moved up to the Florida State League and hit .240 for Daytona. Kopitzke spent the 2002 and 2003 seasons with Double-A West Tennessee in the Southern League. In 2002 he hit .221 and in 2003 batted a career-best .261. He caught for the Triple-A Iowa Cubs in 2004 hitting .215 with a homer and 17 RBI before going back to West Tennessee for the 2005 season. Kopitzke retired after the 2006 campaign in which he hit .239 in 30 games for Iowa.
Before joining the Chiefs, Kopitzke made his managerial debut in 2009 going 34-42 with the Boise Hawks of the Short Season-A Northwest League. Before managing the Hawks in 2009, Kopitzke served as the Cubs roving catching coordinator from 2007-2008 and made numerous stops in Peoria and other venues around the Midwest League to work with Chiefs catchers and hitters. He also managed the Arizona Fall League Mesa Solar Sox in the fall of 2010. Overall Kopitzke played in 495 Minor League games hitting .230 with two homers, 44 doubles, 122 RBI. He was known as a defensive catcher committing just 11 errors in 2,057 chances between 2002 and 2006. In his nine years as a player, Kopitzke caught future Major Leaguers Mark Prior, Carlos Marmol, Angel Guzman, Ricky Nolasco, Randy Wells, Sean Marshall, Sergio Mitre, Todd Wellemeyer and Rich Hill among others. He played for former Baltimore Orioles manager Dave Trembley in 2001 with Daytona and former Cubs Manager Mike Quade was his manager in Iowa in 2004 and 2006.
Pitching coach Tom Pratt returns to the Chiefs after spending the last two seasons in the same role with the Advanced-A Daytona Cubs. Pratt, 51, was the Chiefs pitching coach in 2005 as Peoria returned to the Cubs organization for the first time in 11 seasons. During that 2005 season in Peoria he helped mentor future Major Leaguers Sean Gallagher, Justin Berg, Jerry Blevins and Adalberto Mendez as the staff posted a 4.49 ERA and 37 saves. Overall the 2012 season will be Pratt's 13th in the Cubs organization and his tenure has included stops in Eugene, Boise and Daytona. Prior to joining the Cubs, Pratt was a coach and athletic director at Chino Valley High School, a coach at both Arizona State and the University of Nebraska and an associate scout for the Montreal Expos and California Angels. A graduate of Arizona State, Pratt pitched at the minor league level with the Kansas City Royals and California Angels from 1969-73 before earning a master's degree from Northern Arizona University. His son Andy pitched in the Majors for the Cubs in 2004 while also spending time in the Minors with the Brewers, Braves and Rangers.
Barbaro Garbey returns to the Chiefs as the hitting coach for the third time in four years and the fourth time overall. He spent last season with the Advanced-A Daytona Cubs helping them to a Florida State League Championship with a .267 team batting average. Garbey joined the Cubs organization in 2006 and was the Chiefs hitting coach that season and again in both 2009 and 2010. He was the hitting coach for the Double-A Tennessee Smokies in 2007 and 2008. Prior to joining the Chiefs in 2006, Garbey coached youngsters at the Total Sports Facility in suburban Detroit. He has also worked in the Detroit Tigers organization as the hitting coach in West Michigan in 2003 and in Oneonta of the New York-Penn League in 2002.
Garbey, 43, made history in 1980 when he became the first player to ever leave the Cuban National team and come to the United States as one of 125,000 who left Cuba in the Mariel Boatlift. The infielder/outfielder signed with Detroit in 1980 and made his debut in April 1984. He played 110 games as a rookie that season getting time at first base, second base, third base, outfield and DH. Garbey batted .287 that season with five homers, 17 doubles and 52 RBI as the Tigers led the AL East from day one and won the World Series in five games over San Diego. Garbey spent the next season in Detroit under Hall of Fame Manager Sparky Anderson before he was traded to Oakland. In 1988 he played in 30 games for Texas before retiring.
The Garbey family has a long history of successful athletic accomplishments both in Cuba and the United States. He is half brothers to both Livan and Orlando Hernandez who have combined to win four World Series in the last nine years. In 1978, Garbey was a member of the Cuban National Team that won the World Amateur Championships. His older brother Rolando won Cuba's first ever International Gold Medal in the light-middleweight boxing class at the 1967 Pan American Games and then won a Silver Medal in the 1968 Mexico City Olympics and a Bronze in the 1976 Montreal Olympics. His sister Marcia took 4th at the 1972 Munich Olympics in the long jump which at the time was the highest ever finish for a Cuban woman in a track event.
Shane Nelson comes to Peoria as the Athletic Trainer after serving as an intern with the Mesa Cubs and the Fitch Park Minor League complex last season. The Chiefs staff will be rounded out with a Strength and Conditioning Coach later in the off-season.