During his retirement, former Ohio baseball coach Joe Carbone can be found at Mannino’s Grand Slam in Dublin teaching the principles of baseball to everyone from kindergartners to high schoolers.
He works at the facility with players who have a wide array of baseball prowess, teaching youngsters on Tuesdays and high schoolers on Thursdays.
And after 24 years at the helm of Ohio baseball, his title has switched from Coach Carbone to Coach Joe, but one of his core coaching tenants still rings true: fundamentals.
However, Carbone, who last coached for the Bobcats in 2012, will make his return to the dugout for the Kalamazoo Growlers’ inaugural season in the Northwoods League, which is composed of players from collegiate teams throughout the country.
Carbone won 689 games with the Bobcats, making him the second winningest coach in Mid-American Conference history. He also played for the Bobcats from 1968-70 — leading the team to the College World Series as a captain in 1970.
“We’re looking forward to going up there and just see what we can do,” Carbone said of his new job. “After taking a year off the field, I’m looking forward to getting back on the field, quite honestly.”
Growlers president Brian Colopy, one of Carbone’s former players, initiated the idea of his old skipper managing once again. He was seeking candidates for the Growlers’ manager job, and half jokingly mentioned Carbone should throw his cap in the ring.
“Once we really kind of mentioned it and threw it out there, we put the full-court press on him to get him over here,” Colopy said.
Carbone was happily retired and turned down opportunities to coach in professional baseball before his former player came calling. While he was in Kalamazoo for the unveiling of the team’s name, Carbone told former Western Michigan coach Fred Decker, who was in attendance, that he never thought he would manage in Kalamazoo.
“I said, Fred, ‘The last place in the world where I thought I would be coaching a baseball team was Kalamazoo, Michigan, home of Western Michigan, who are our big rivals,’ so we’ve kind of got a great kick out of that,” Carbone said.
Carbone is no stranger to collegiate summer leagues, though.
He was one of the founders of the Great Lakes Summer Collegiate League, which is home to the Southern Ohio Copperheads. When Carbone was an assistant coach at Ohio State in the 1980s, he was a coach and general manager the Columbus All-Americans, formerly of the GLSCL.
Carbone also was a player in collegiate summer leagues in the summers of 1968 and 1969 in Bollington, Illinois and Harrisonburg, Virginia, respectively. Carbone described his experience in Illinois as “the greatest summer of my life.”
“What I’m try to do is just get Brian off to a good start with his new franchise,” Carbone said. “It’s something we’re doing from the ground up, and quite honestly if it wasn’t one of my former players I probably wouldn’t have done this.”
Colopy, a third baseman for the Bobcats in 2004 and 2005, said Carbone’s connections, knowledge of the game and player development, made the hire a no-brainer. The Growlers will play 72 games in 77 days beginning in late May.
“This is our first inaugural season in the Northwoods League,” Colopy said. “(It’s) our first year, so we want to do it right from the start, and Joe was one of the first puzzle pieces we got to bring baseball back to Kalamazoo.”
Ohio Director of Baseball Operations Marck Paliotto was a pitcher for the Bobcats from 2009 to 2013, playing under Carbone for all but one of his seasons with the program. Paliotto said he didn’t think Carbone would continue managing after his retirement from Ohio.
“It was surprising,” Paliotto said. “Because I thought — (and) I think a lot of the majority of the players that used to play for him thought — that he was done for sure after coaching here at Ohio. I think once you get away from it, you decide you miss it a little bit and get back into it, and maybe that’s what he’s doing going back to coaching.”
Carbone said his return to managing will allow him to continue his passion of developing players’ skills, regardless of their talent level.
“I’m thrilled to death when one of my kindergarten guys every Tuesday is now being able to catch the ball, throw the ball back,” Carbone said. “To me that’s an accomplishment. So it doesn’t matter what level, I just get satisfaction (from) kids who like baseball, want to play and want to get better … It’s kind of my niche in life, I guess.”
mk277809@ohiou.edu
@Brandon_Kors
By The Numbers
- Carbone was at Ohio for 24 seasons and won 689 games.
- He retired following the 2012 season.
- He will return to managing May 27.
