Dana LeVangie

Dana Alan LeVangie (born August 11, 1969) is an American professional baseball coach, and a former professional player (as a catcher) and scout. He is currently the bullpen coach for the Boston Red Sox of Major League Baseball.

College career

A native of Whitman, Massachusetts, LeVangie batted and threw right-handed, stood 5 feet 10 inches (1.78 m) tall and weighed 185 pounds (84 kg) as an active player. He was the Red Sox' 14th-round draft pick in 1991 out of American International College in Springfield, Massachusetts. He had graduated from Cape Cod Community College in 1989, before going on to AIC. He was a catcher on the AIC baseball team for two seasons (1990–1991), and, as a senior, he compiled a .462 batting average with 13 home runs and 75 runs batted in en route to garnering Division II All-America and Northeast-10 Player of the Year honors. That season, AIC went 32–12 and advanced to the Division II College World Series for the first time in school history. As of 2008, LeVangie holds the school record for career batting average with a .410 mark among players with at least 100 hits.[1]

Minor league catcher

After being signed by Boston, LeVangie languished in the minor leagues for six seasons. He eventually reached Triple-A Pawtucket for eight games in 1995–1996. He was a .196 hitter (207-for-1,186) with seven home runs and 78 RBI in 351 career minor-league games, including 76 runs, 28 doubles, three triples and five stolen bases.[2]

Coach and scout at MLB level

Following a surgery on his left hand, LeVangie was offered the job of bullpen catcher by minor league coordinator Bob Schaefer and reached the Major Leagues in 1997 as the Red Sox' bullpen catcher. He served in that role for eight seasons, including the 2004 World Series Championship campaign. After the season, he joined the professional scouting and then the advance scouting staff of the organization.[3]

In September 2007, LeVangie was assigned to follow the Los Angeles Angels in anticipation of the postseason, and eventually saw the Colorado Rockies, too. During Game 2 of the 2007 World Series, Red Sox bench coach Brad Mills, armed with information assembled by the Sox scouting report, correctly anticipated that Matt Holliday would attempt to steal on Jonathan Papelbon's first pitch with two outs in the eighth inning and the Rockies down by a run. Mills signaled for a pickoff, and Papelbon, who had not picked off a runner since breaking into the majors, nailed Holliday with ease. Boston won the game and completed a four-game sweep of the Rockies in the Series.[4]

When Gary Tuck resigned as the Red Sox' MLB bullpen coach prior to the 2013 season, LeVangie was named his successor and earned a third World Series ring when Boston won the 2013 World Series. He served as interim bench coach of the Red Sox from August 16, 2015, through the end of that season, part of a chain reaction of temporary coaching reassignments caused by manager John Farrell's medical leave of absence for the successful treatment of lymphoma. Entering spring training in 2016, LeVangie had resumed his former role as the Red Sox' bullpen coach and catching instructor.

He gained induction to the AIC Yellow Jackets Hall of Fame in 2006.[5]

References

  1. ↑ AIC Yellow Jackets career
  2. ↑ Minor League statistics
  3. ↑ Release point for LeVangie
  4. ↑ These details paying off
  5. ↑ AIC Yellow Jackets Hall of Fame
Sporting positions
Preceded by
Gary Tuck		 Boston Red Sox bullpen coach
2013– 		Succeeded by
Incumbent
This article is issued from Wikipedia - version of the 4/12/2016. The text is available under the Creative Commons Attribution/Share Alike but additional terms may apply for the media files.