Sox Scoops 40.005 "Bench coach search stresses easily pronounced name"
Posted: Fri Sep 13, 2019 4:01 pm
Chicago Sports Online Report
The Chicago Black Sox declined to renew the contract of bench coach Andrej Steijnis, who served in that position for the past two seasons.
Officials said they did not believe Steijnis was fully on board with the team’s evolving philosophy of stressing pitching, defense and OBP over power and contact hitting.
Andrej Steijnis
Also, they said, Sox owner Vinnie Vitale was wigged out about Steijnis’s name.
Said one front office source: “Vinnie couldn’t figure out either end of it – was his first name pronounced like Andre Agassi, the tennis star? Or did you pronounce the ‘j’ at the end, in which case it would be like Andredge. The last name was just completely beyond Vinnie’s comprehension.”
So what is Chicago looking for in a new bench coach?
“Someone who values pitching and defense,” the source said, “and has a last name with no silent letters.”
The Chicago Black Sox declined to renew the contract of bench coach Andrej Steijnis, who served in that position for the past two seasons.
Officials said they did not believe Steijnis was fully on board with the team’s evolving philosophy of stressing pitching, defense and OBP over power and contact hitting.
Andrej Steijnis
Said one front office source: “Vinnie couldn’t figure out either end of it – was his first name pronounced like Andre Agassi, the tennis star? Or did you pronounce the ‘j’ at the end, in which case it would be like Andredge. The last name was just completely beyond Vinnie’s comprehension.”
So what is Chicago looking for in a new bench coach?
“Someone who values pitching and defense,” the source said, “and has a last name with no silent letters.”