Questioning Authority with Tony Tarasco

Drafted by the Atlanta Braves in the 15th round of the 1988 draft, Tony Tarasco began his career with Class A Short-Season Idaho Falls of the Pioneer League and went on to spend eight seasons in the Majors with six different teams. He moved through Braves system with stops in the Gulf Coast League, Class A Pulaski, Class A Durham, Double-A Greeneville and Triple-A Richmond before he made his Major League debut on April 30, 1993 with two hits against St. Louis.

Tarasco enjoyed his most productive season in 1995 when he batted .249 with a career high of 14 homers and 40 RBIs in 126 games for Montreal. The outfielder and set career highs that season in steals (24), doubles (18), triples (4), runs (64), at-bats (438), on-base percentage (.329), walks (51) and total bases (177).

In 1996, Tarasco was traded to Baltimore and was involved in one of the most memorable and controversial moments in playoff history. With the Orioles facing the Yankees in Game 1 of the 1996 American League Championship Series in the Bronx, Tarasco memorably feuded with an umpire after a young fan reached over the right field wall and snagged Derek Jeter's fly ball for a home run. Tarasco jumped at the wall, but the umpire called it a homer, leading to local hero status for Jeffrey Maier and a call still debated by Orioles fans today.

The lefty-swinging Tarasco was claimed off waivers by the Reds in 1998, joined his hometown Yankees in 1999, played in Japan in 2000, signed with the Mets in 2001 and played his final game on Sept. 1, 2002, with New York. He finished his career with 34 homers, 118 RBIs and 241 hits in 457 Major League games. In the Minors, Tarasco was a .284 hitter with 111 home runs and 437 RBIs in 875 games. He was promoted to hitting coach for Class A Hagerstown (Nationals) of the South Atlantic League in 2008 after spending two seasons as the hitting coach for Class A Short-Season Vermont.

Minorleaguebaseball.com: What do you remember most about your first time around in the Minor Leagues?

Tony Tarasco: For me, it was just falling into that life. I came out of high school and was sent to Idaho Falls, so it was just a case of going out for your first time. I remember being in awe of the players around me -- they seemed so much bigger and threw harder than I did.

MiLB: Have times changed that much? How different are the Minors from when you were a player?

TT: I think that guys move through the system more rapidly now than they used to. Kids are coming in more polished than they used to. I definitely see more kids like that now. When I came up in the late '80s, that was the whole Blue Jays/Cardinals era, and I saw a lot of athletes. Now you see true baseball players at a lower level. When I came up, you wouldn't see that until high-A.

MiLB: Life in the Minors can be surreal. What's your favorite tale of the Minors, either as a player or on the bench?

TT: My favorite one, I can't tell you! (laughs) Actually, I think going to play in Durham, that whole atmosphere -- that was the pinnacle of Minor League life. I went there right after [Bull Durham] came out, it had its full magic going ... hitting the cow for the steak, that kind of stuff. I caught the cow a couple times. I was lucky, but you know, I'm only going to remember the good years. It was a good team. I was playing with guys like Mike Kelly, Chipper Jones, Javier Lopez -- we had fun.

MiLB: How have teammates you played with in the bigs reacted to your current gig?

TT: I look so good, they still think I should be playing! (laughs) But people said they knew it would happen, and they're happy to see I'm still around the game. They ask me what it's like to stop playing. That's a little episode for every ballplayer to go through I guess.

MiLB: Do the guys on your team know much about you and your history as a player?

TT: If they don't, I'm going to let them know. (laughs) But as a coach, your knowledge and experience is where you get your strength from. Sometimes it is that knowledge, and the stories you tell are motivation to a lot of kids. The more you enlighten them to the struggles you had as a player, the more they realize they're just like you.

MiLB: What have the players on your team taught you? Do they keep you up-to-date on pop culture?

TT: You know, I'm only 37, so I still feel like I'm still in the mix. I feel like I can relate to them, I still know what's on the air right now. But the players are very open, I let them have their own personality. So I do learn a lot from these kids.

MiLB: What kind of reaction do you get from fans?

TT: I've been lucky to be personal with fans and with the people in the small towns, host moms, kids -- it's so much more of a community. I've made good friends, and I've been treated very well. I take my regular amount of heat when we play the Yankees in the Minor Leagues, though, but I hope I'm perceived well. I've always got to remind them [that I played for the Yankees]. And then they'll say, 'Oh yeah, that's right.' But it doesn't matter what I do, they're still going to remember that [home run in 1996], and I'm fine with that.

MiLB: What city or cities do you most look forward to stopping in during the season?

TT: The Big Apple, of course. I like to stop everywhere I play. I look forward to a Big Apple return. I like the cuisine in New York, the restaurants.

MiLB: What's the toughest part of the job?

TT: The toughest part so far is having to watch a player pack his bags up and go home. Especially since I try to treat them like they will make it. You become friends with them and when you see them fall short of their dreams, it's a tough part for any coach I've ever known. If I get a little success out of them, I get it back ten-fold. I was lucky to have the coaches I had coming up with the Braves -- [Willie] Stargell was our hitting coordinator, Hank [Aaron] was always around, Grady Little -- we had a cast of people, they weren't just teaching mechanics, they were teaching the game.

MiLB.com: Have you collected all your bobblehead dolls and baseball cards?

TT: I do have all my baseball cards. There are only four Tony Tarasco bobbleheads out there, and they were made by Mets players in 2002 -- it was a bobblehead with dreadlocks -- and I do have one of them. The whole team made them. They presented it to me in the locker room.