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HomeSportsNashville Sounds welcome new manager, Darnell Coles

Nashville Sounds welcome new manager, Darnell Coles

Nashville SoundsNashville, TN – The Nashville Sounds welcome Darnell Coles as the team’s field manager for the 2014 season, replacing two-year Sounds skipper Mike Guerrero, who was promoted to the Milwaukee Brewers’ coaching staff earlier this off season.

The 51-year-old Coles becomes the 25th manager in the Sounds’ 37-year franchise history and will be joined by a returning coaching staff. Coach Bob Skube, pitching coach Fred Dabney, trainer Aaron Hoback, and strength & conditioning specialist Andrew Emmick will all return for another season in Music City in 2014.

Nashville Sounds Manager Darnell Coles. (Nashville Sounds)
Nashville Sounds Manager Darnell Coles. (Nashville Sounds)

The 2014 campaign will mark Coles’ fifth as a manager and his ninth overall season as a minor league instructor. He carries a 223-268 career record (.454 winning percentage).

Prior to joining the Sounds’ staff, Coles managed the Double-A Huntsville Stars, leading the club to a 124-153 (.448) record over two seasons of Southern League play in 2012-13. Prior to making his Brewers managerial debut in Huntsville, he served two seasons as the organization’s minor league hitting coordinator from 2010-11.

Coles began his professional coaching career with four seasons in the Washington Nationals organization before joining Milwaukee’s system. He served as hitting coach at Triple-A Syracuse in 2009 and manager with Class-A Hagerstown in 2008 and Class-A Vermont in 2007. In 2006, he served as the Nationals’ roving hitting instructor.

The new Sounds manager had a lengthy 14-year major league playing career with Seattle (1983-85, 1988-90), Detroit (1986-87, 1990), Pittsburgh (1988), San Francisco (1991), Cincinnati (1992), Toronto (1993-94), St. Louis (1995) and Colorado (1997). In 957 games, he hit .245 with 75 home runs and 368 RBIs and won a World Series Championship with Toronto in 1993.

Originally selected by the Mariners in the first round of the 1980 draft, Coles went on to become one of only 14 players, including Babe Ruth, to hit three home runs in a single game in both the American League and National League. He was also an ESPN baseball analyst from 2001-06.

Coles becomes the second former Sounds player to return to the club as a manager, joining Marty Brown (player from 1988-89, manager from 2001-02). In 1992, he batted .296 (24-for-81) with six home runs and 16 RBIs in 22 games for Nashville and tied a Sounds single-game record by belting three home runs on April 10th, 1992 at Denver, one of six players in club history to accomplish the feat.

He and his wife, Shari, have three children, DeAnna, Darnell Jr., and Jared, and are grandparents of three. They reside in Safety Harbor, Florida.

Season tickets to see Darnell Coles manage the 2014 Nashville Sounds are currently on sale. Call 615.690.HITS or visit www.nashvillesounds.com to order or for more information. The 2014 home season begins on Friday, April 11th at Greer Stadium.

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