Former Dirtbag Brandon Hyde Named Baltimore Orioles Manager

LONG BEACH, Calif. -- The tradition of Dirtbags in Major League Baseball was continued in a new way this week, as former Long Beach State catcher Brandon Hyde was introduced as the 20^th manager in the history of the Baltimore Orioles. Hyde played at Long Beach State in 1997, and after spending four seasons in the minor leagues as a player and 16 years in the coaching ranks, he has been rewarded with his first big league managerial job.

"Being named manager of the Orioles is a dream come true, and I'm incredibly humbled to be here," Hyde said during his introductory press conference on Monday in Baltimore. "There are a lot of things that are strange about it, the reasons why I'm here today."

Hyde moves to Baltimore from the Chicago Cubs organization, where he was the bench coach in 2014 and 2018, and was the first base coach from 2015-17. He won a World Series ring with the Cubs as the first base coach during Chicago's historic 2016 campaign, after he had helped develop the Cubs' elite farm system in the minor league ranks. Prior to his time with the Cubs, Hyde spent nine seasons in the Miami Marlins organization, including managerial stints at the Class-A and Double-A levels. He also spent time as the bench coach in Miami and served one game as the interim manager during the 2011 season.

"He's an up-and-coming star in our business," new Orioles General Manager Mike Elias said of Hyde. "His was the very first name I heard. Every phone call I made, his name always came up."

A native of Santa Rosa, Calif., Hyde went to Montgomery High School before playing at San Jose Junior College. From there, he went on to play at St. Mary's College where we was named the team MVP in 1995. Hyde transferred to Long Beach State in 1996 and sat out a redshirt season before finally hitting the field for the Dirtbags in 1997. As a catcher/designated hitter, Hyde played in 40 games that season, making 23 starts for Long Beach State. He hit .276 with eight doubles, three home runs, 14 RBIs and 16 runs scored for the Dirtbags and signed a free-agent contract with the Chicago White Sox organization following the season.

After five years in professional baseball, reaching as high as Triple-A with Chicago in 2000, Hyde returned to Long Beach State for his lone season as a volunteer assistant coach in 2002. That helped springboard his coaching career, which moved to the professional ranks in 2003 as he became the hitting coach with Class-A Greensboro in the Marlins organization. He would eventually take over as Greensboro's manager in 2005-06.

One player who Hyde coached at Long Beach State was 12-year big leaguer and Dirtbags legend Jered Weaver, who was a freshman in 2002 while Hyde was the volunteer assistant. Weaver took to Twitter following the announcement of Hyde's hiring, and offered his congratulations: "Congrats Raw Hyde! Had a lot of fun with this guy when he was helping coach us at Long Beach State! Now a manager in the big leagues! What a journey for you my man!"

With Hyde's hiring, Long Beach State has now had a former player become head coach in the three major American pro sports leagues. Jim Fassel was the head coach of the NFL's New York Giants from 1997-2003, Mike McCoy was the head coach of the San Diego Chargers from 2013-16, and Mike Montgomery was the head coach of the NBA's Golden State Warriors from 2004-06.

Long Beach State University Athletics

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