Kingsport Axmen

GENERAL INFORMATION

Address:............................................800 Granby Road, ........................................................ Kingsport, TN 37660 Phone: ....................................................(423) 224-2626 Website: ..........mlb.com/appalachian-league/axmen Twitter/Instagram: ..........................@KingsportAxmen Facebook: .........................................Kingsport Axmen League Championships.........1944, 1945, 1951, 1973, ................................................................ 1977, 1988, 1995 Stadium.....................................Hunter Wright Stadium Stadium Built..............................................................1995 Stadium Capacity .................................................. 2,500 Stadium Dimensions (LF-CF-RF)............330-410-330

FRONT OFFICE STAFF

Operated By ................................................Boyd Sports General Manager ........................................Steve Brice Director of Operations............................. Logan Davis Head Groundskeeper .............................. Steven Falin

GAME INFORMATION

PA Announcer .......................................Reece Williams Broadcast Announcer......................... Daniel Gillman Broadcast Network.............................................. Online No. of Games Broadcast ...................... All 54 Games Official Scorer..........................................Alex Reynolds Standard Game Times .................... Mon-Sat: 7:00pm .............................................................................. Sun 5:30 Newspaper...............................Kingsport Times-News NOTABLE ALUMNI

Dale Murphy ..............................................................1974 Darryl Strawberry......................................................1980 Dwight Gooden.........................................................1982 Jason Isringhausen..................................................1992 A.J. Burnett.................................................................1996 Jose Reyes............................................................... 2000 David Wright............................................................. 2001 Daniel Murphy......................................................... 2006 Wilmer Flores .......................................................... 2008 Jacob deGrom ......................................................... 2010 Brandon Nimmo.........................................................2011 Steven Matz...............................................................2012

ABOUT

In 1775, Daniel Boone and 35 axmen began clearing forests in East Tennessee, near present-day Kingsport, to create the Wilderness Road.

Little did they know that they would later be memorialized by a baseball team over 200 years later, but that is exactly the case as the Appalachian League’s Kingsport organization has been rebranded as the Axmen in honor of that group of frontiersmen.

Much like how the Wilderness Road led early settlers from the East into Kentucky, the Kingsport Axmen hope that this new identity will help lead them to continued success in the new-look collegiate wooden bat Appy League.

It is the first name change the club has seen since 1980 when it became an affiliate of the New York Mets. En route to seven league titles over the years, dozens of future big leaguers have passed through Kingsport on their way to The Show, including Dale Murphy, Darryl Strawberry, Dwight Gooden, Kevin Mitchell, Jose’ Reyes, David Wright, and two-time National League Cy Young Award winner Jacob deGrom.

Guiding the Axmen into their first season will be Daren Brown who arrives in Kingsport with over two decades of managerial experience, including a brief stint as the interim manager of the Seattle Mariners in 2010, and over 1,200 wins. At his side will be pitching coach Stan Kyles, hitting coach Jermaine Curtis, and player development coach Billy Barker.

MANAGER

Daren Brown joins the Kingsport Axmen with over two decades of managerial experience at various levels throughout the Seattle Mariners organization and over 1,200 wins as a manager. Brown was most recently the skipper for the Triple-A Tacoma Rainiers in 2019, returning to the club after also serving at the helm from 2007-2013. He got his start in coaching while playing for the Amarillo Dillas in the Texas-Louisiana League, serving as the team’s pitching coach from 1994-1997. After his playing career, Brown stayed on as manager for the Dillas until 2000, leading the team to first place finishes in all three seasons as manager and earning Texas-Louisiana League Manager of the Year honors after winning a league championship in 1999. Brown also won a league championship in 2016 with the Double-A Jackson Generals, leading the team to an 84-55 record in the Southern League. In a brief stint as the interim manager of the Mariners in 2010, Brown collected 19 MLB wins and later rejoined the big league club in 2013 to serve as the team’s third base coach. Before getting into coaching, Brown spent four years in the Toronto Blue Jays organization after being drafted by the team in the 29th round of the 1989 MLB Draft. The Holdenville, Oklahoma, native then spent five years with the Dillas, where he not only began his coaching career as a player/coach, but was also named the league’s Pitcher of the Year in 1995, 1996, and 1997 and was a Texas-Louisiana League All-Star from 1995-1998.

STAN KYLES

PITCHING COACH

Stan Kyles arrives in Kingsport with a wealth of baseball knowledge to share as the pitching coach for the Axmen this season. He has coached at either the Major or Minor League level for over three decades, including four seasons as the bullpen coach for the Milwaukee Brewers from 2009-12. Kyles began his coaching career with the independent Bend Bucks in 1991 and has since worked in the minor league systems for the Chicago Cubs (1992-93, 1997-2000), Colorado Rockies (1994-96), Brewers (2001-2009) and Pittsburgh Pirates (201320). Drafted in the fourth round of the 1979 MLB Draft by the Chicago Cubs, Kyles pitched for 11 seasons in the minor leagues with the Cubs (1979-83), Oakland Athletics (1984-87), Los Angeles Dodgers (1988), San Francisco Giants (1989) and Brewers (1989). He completed his playing career after the 1989 campaign with a lifetime ERA of 3.86 and 508 strikeouts.

HITTING COACH

Jermaine Curtis will make his Appy League coaching debut this summer as the hitting coach for the Kingsport Axmen. A versatile defender and a lifetime .274 hitter, he played professionally for 12 seasons culminating in a call up to the Major Leagues with the St. Louis Cardinals in 2013. After helping lead UCLA to three consecutive postseason appearances, Curtis was drafted by the Cardinals in the fifth round of the MLB Draft in 2008. He also played in the minor league systems for the Cincinnati Reds (2014-16), Oakland Athletics (2017) and Minnesota Twins (2018), spending parts of seven different seasons at the Triple-A level. BILLY BARKER

PLAYER DEVELOPMENT

Billy Barker joins the Kingsport Axmen staff this summer as the player development coach. Currently an assistant coach at Paradise Valley Community College in Phoenix, Ariz. The Tacoma, Wash., native graduated from Henry Foss High School in 2012 and played two seasons at Green River Community College in Auburn, Wash., where he was a catcher. Barker then transferred to Central Washington University where he graduated with a degree in business administration in 2018.