The Red Sox have hired Jerry Narron to serve as Ron Roenicke’s bench coach, according to Chris Cotillo of MassLive. Narron had spent the last three seasons in the same role with the Diamondbacks.
Although it’s a change of scenery for Narron, he should inherit a fairly familiar situation. It won’t be the first time he’ll have held the title of Red Sox bench coach; in 2003, he was second-in-command to manager Grady Little for Boston’s run to the ALCS. He’s also coached in tandem with new Sox manager Ron Roenicke, working as Milwaukee’s bench coach concurrent with Roenicke’s five-year stint as the Brewer skipper.
Narron brings to the table his own experience as a Major League manager, having presided over the Rangers and Reds in the early 2000s for 633 total games. His teams compiled a 291-341 record in his career and never appeared in postseason play.
Between his days as a coach and Major League catcher, the 64-year-old Narron has been around the MLB game for 32 seasons—not to mention plenty more coaching and playing in the minor leagues.
jayfaraday
2011 Brewers 2.0
loota.
I’ll bet you $5 the 2020 Boston Red Sox don’t match the success of the 2011 Milwaukee Brewers. 96 wins, division champion, lose in game 6 of the League Championship Series.
dynamite drop in monty
Fairly sure that’s not what he meant.
jayfaraday
Definitely not what I meant, I meant it towards the coaching staff
dynamite drop in monty
Yeah and Lucroy!
loota.
Ah gotcha. It that case, the only way I’d be completely satisfied is if they hire Rick Peterson and his unreasonably tight pants as pitching coach.
pasha2k
Why would they our Brockstar is on your team now:(
dynamite drop in monty
Dude you need to let it go
costergaard2
What are you going to do when Holt dons the Pinstripes ?!?
brucenewton
I could totally see Boston winning 96 games this season.
Angry Disgruntled Sox Fan
No way, unless you want to be our fifth starter.
dynamite drop in monty
Great. Another fossil.
hawkny11
Does he speak Spanish?
miltpappas
Who cares?
oldmansteve
Here’s a story.
I played American Legion ball with Connor, Jerry’s son. The only time I ever interacted with Jerry was during BP before one of our games. After BP, one of the pitchers not throwing that day was responsible for going outside the fences and retrieving all the HR balls. Today it was me. Jerry was just strolling around in the grass. He was maybe 100 feet away from me and picked up a ball that had gone further than all the rest. I saw him and held up my glove hoping he’d toss it over. He sees me, drops the ball, and calls out, “Not my job to help you, you lazy ‘SOB’.”
Don’t know if he is a tool or just a twisted sense of humor, but yeah, hard to like the guy after that.
dynamite drop in monty
What a jerk.
heartbrokentexassportsfan
Joe Montana
dynamite drop in monty
Robert California
heartbrokentexassportsfan
Johnny Utah
dynamite drop in monty
Steve Nebraska
nowheredan
George Washington
pasha2k
I AGREE, whadda a jerk!!!!!
pasha2k
I can’t stand him already.
JackMars
Great,sounds like a John Henry kind of guy. HE will probably succeed Ron,whenbthe sox are 10 games out at the allstar break
dynamite drop in monty
Does John Henry have a history of hiring jerks? Or is this one of the laziest jabs ever, for no discernible reason other than what I can only assume is animus towards the Sox?
MoRivera 1999
Well there’s a lot of animus towards rival sports teams to go around here. “160!!!” Aside from the subject of Ortiz and “rebutting” Whyhayzee’s venom, I’m pretty silent on the rivalry myself.
MafiaBass
Was Tito a jerk?
costergaard2
Sorry to hear that. He caught the first Yankees game after Munson died.
I guess you shouldn’t meet your heroes (not my hero, but you get the idea…)
qazer
I was Jerry Barron’s neighbor. Whenever it snowed, he shoveled the driveways for everyone on the block.
Finest man I ever met.
InPolesWeTrust
Might’ve been high on meth.
i like al conin
He once stepped on my foot outside then Anaheim Stadium and apologized.
Bart Harley Jarvis
I hear he’s really good at keeping his team from cheating. Just sayin’…
Tom E. Snyder
You made that up.
Bart Harley Jarvis
No, I didn’t!
deweybelongsinthehall
I recall he was the catcher who had to start that first game after Munson died. Munson also belongs in the hall. I recently had the privilege to speak to his widow and explain how I realized the day he died by how I felt that my hatred for was actually respect.
jkim319
Munson belongs in the hall? (46.1 WAR?)..
… Bartolo Colon (46.1).. mark grace (46.4) … Gene Tenace (46.8)… Curtis Granderson (47.3)… Roy Oswalt (50.1)… Ron Cey (53.8) …
Great yankee, agree …
… HOF(?)… there is a long line of unqualified players ahead of him
MoRivera 1999
He accomplished 46.1 WAR in about HALF the career of any of those dudes.
Bruin1012
Thurman Munson was an incredible player. He also played in the era that pitchers, for the most part dominated hitters in relation to other eras, he was great I disliked him greatly wink wink
A Boston Red Sox fan.
fox471 Dave
Yeah, no staying power.
fox471 Dave
This was to answer another post, not a knock on Munson.
nymetsking
WAR is not the answer.
jkim319
You missed the point… none of the guys noted are in the Hall,
Nor do any deserve to be… Munson played 10 (great) years .. as a catcher, he maybe plays 13-14(?)… as a catcher, his performance deteriorates (you cannot assume he does what Johnny bench did), longevity is part of what gets you into the Hall…
falconsball1993
How does he compare to catchers in the hall?
looiebelongsinthehall
Please stop the WAR nonsense. Anyone who saw Munson play knows he was a HOFer and this is coming from a Sox fan.
Jubilee3333
Thank you. As a Yankee fan I appreciate what you just wrote. I’m glad to see you know a player ( no matter what team he played on) needs to get respect if he deserves it.
looiebelongsinthehall
I just remember Reggie or no Reggie, he was the Yankee that was not going to “beat me” in 77 late in the game. He reminds me of Kirby Puckett career wise. Middle of the diamond important position on two winning teams (not to mention he was the on,y Yankee to show up against the Reds in 76). ROTY, league MVP, gold gloves, all star games and man was he tough behind the plate. A leader who earned respect.
jkim319
Eyes don’t get you into the Hall .. that is the whole point of the comment … nor does WAR (i just picked 1 metric).. the truth is that you have to dig deep to find a data set (beyond fans love of the player) or find reasons why he deserves to be (hands down) in the HOF..
Like i said, ‘great Yankee,’ no question..
pasha2k
I believe that Dewy.
looiebelongsinthehall
I’m certainly not always right but I’ll defend my beliefs and team or no team, I try to be objective.
Mike_Davis
Narron’s greatest contribution to a team is his calligraphy. An A+ calligraphy game.
dynamite drop in monty
I hear he makes a passable strawberry rhubarb pie.
loota.
Someone told me he once won trivia night at the bar three weeks in a row.
DockEllisDee
I’m pretty sure he was brought in to manage the Reds years ago to specifically stay out of Junior, Larkin, and Dunn’s way. They could’ve hired a mannequin to the same effect.
DockEllisDee
scratch that Larkin was gone by that time now that I look it up
rycm131
Booya!
Gwynning's Anal Lover
What do you need to coach the bench for?
dynamite drop in monty
Someone has to be on the lookout for splinters.
Gwynning's Anal Lover
Tru’dat
nymetsking
Aahhh, I thought it meant a coach that got benched.
looiebelongsinthehall
To make sure when the bench cheats, no one gets caught.
HalosHeavenJJ
He’s wearing long sleeves in that pic. Can’t see if that’s the newest Apple Watch or not.
pasha2k
Halo you made me laff hard.
phillies012tg
Totally off topic (kind of) but I just realized that it seems like 80% of former players who become managers were catchers. It doesn’t really surprise me but I find it interesting
aircarter777
Sox win a Championship in the next 3 years now!!
MoRivera 1999
With the way they’re going this century that sounds about right.
pasha2k
I’m not holding my breath!!
looiebelongsinthehall
Odds improve as by then cleat’n Cora will again be at the helm…Maybe with Beltran as his bench coach …
looiebelongsinthehall
*cheat’n
dynamite drop in monty
If you think Cora is ever setting foot in Fenway again as anything other than a spectator you’re immensely naive.
looiebelongsinthehall
It was said tongue in cheek but after the love fest interviews after he got canned, if ownership could get away with it, who knows? Watching that day, I felt like Cora had the goods on them by how much praise they still gave him.
Nobby
Grady Little’s bench coach? That alone is enough of a reason to not like him.
dynamite drop in monty
Why? Little wasn’t perfect but he was respected by the clubhouse and was scapegoated via hindsight.
rsnash
He got the Sox to the ALCS, granted, but leaving Pedro in may have been the worst baseball decision I’ve ever seen. everybody in New England knew it was an absolute mistake. I was screaming at the TV, because I knew it was going to happen to us again…
jgebby2827
Can we get a manager and coach that are a little younger and might relate to the players a little bit
bobtillman
Don Zimmer was unavailable.
looiebelongsinthehall
This is only for this year unless they pull a rabbit out of their you know what. Circumstances are different but this reminds me of 2012.
SonnySteele
I’ve always remembered Jerry Narron’s name because he was the Yankees’ No. 2 catcher when Thurman Munson died in 1979 in his Cessna Citation.