Ray Birmingham

Ray Birmingham (born November 14, 1955) is an American college baseball coach who has been the head coach of New Mexico since the start of the 2008 season. Under him, New Mexico has reached four NCAA Tournaments. Previously, he was the head coach at the College of the Southwest and New Mexico Junior College. His coaching career began at Las Cruces (N.M.) Mayfield High School where the Trojans won the Class AAAA state championship in 1981 and had three No. 1 rankings through 1983. Birmingham went to NMJC in the fall of 1983, serving as the public relations officer and assistant to legendary basketball coach Ron Black. The Thunderbird basketball team posted three consecutive 20-win seasons, including the school's first conference championship in 1987, a year in which they were ranked No. 1 in the country for the majority of the season.^[1] He has had 146 players go on to play professionally during his coaching career.^[2]

Coaching career

College of the Southwest

Birmingham's college baseball coaching career began in the late 1980s, when he was the head coach at NAIA school College of the Southwest and its new baseball program from 1988 to 1989. There, he had a 53–73 overall record.^[1] In 1989, the Mustangs reached No. 23 in the NAIA national rankings, won 33 games and advanced to the regional finals before losing to Dallas Baptist.

New Mexico JC

From 1990 to 2007, Birmingham was the first head baseball coach at New Mexico Junior College (NMJC). He had an overall record of 765–255–2. The program reached two NJCAA World Series during his tenure, winning a national championship in 2005 and finishing second in 2007. He won several Coach of the Year awards: NJCAA Division I in 2005, NJCAA Division I Region 5 in 2005 and 2007, and WJCAC in 1995, 1997, 1998, 2002, 2005, 2006, 2007.^[1]

Birmingham led NMJC to 17 straight winning seasons, and the Thunderbirds were a gaudy 378–88–2 (.805) from 2000–07. So successful was Birmingham at NMJC that the school held ceremonies on Feb. 2, 2008, to dedicate the newly renovated baseball field that bears his name. Under his leadership, New Mexico Junior College became known for its hitting prowess with six former players leading the country in batting and six teams hitting over .400. The Thunderbirds hit .416 as a team in 2007. The 2005 NMJC national championship team hit .411 during the regular season and .400 in postseason play. In 2001, the Thunderbirds displayed one of the most impressive offensive machines in college baseball history, batting .438 as a team. NMJC led the country in home runs (122) in 1998.^[3]

Several of Birmingham's later played in Major League Baseball, including Brendan Donnelly, Armando Almanza, Mike Vento, and David Carpenter.

New Mexico

Ahead of the 2008 season, Birmingham got his first Division I job when he replaced Rich Alday at New Mexico.^[4][5]

New Mexico had 30-win seasons in 2008 and 2009 and reached its first NCAA Tournament under Birmingham in 2010, when the team went 38–22 and finished second in the Mountain West. The Lobos defeated Stanford in the opening game of the Fullerton Regional, then lost consecutive games to Minnesota and Cal State Fullerton. New Mexico returned to the NCAA Tournament in 2011, 2012, and 2013, winning the MWC Tournament in 2011 and 2012. Birmingham was named the Mountain West Coach of the Year in 2012 and 2013. During the 2013 season Birmingham earned the 1,000th win of his career when the Lobos defeated the Air Force Falcons 19–5.^{[6][7][8][9][10]}

Known as one of the top hitting coaches in the nation, Birmingham has led the Lobos to five Top-10 national finishes in batting in seven seasons at UNM, including an NCAA-best .334 in 2013 and .363 in 2009. He also coached Justin Howard to an NCAA-leading .456 average in 2010 and D.J. Peterson to a .520 on-base percentage in 2012. In 2013 in addition to leading the nation in batting, UNM also ranked first in scoring (8.3 runs per game), on-base percentage (.422), hits (724), slugging (.504) and doubles per game (2.53).^[3]

Birmingham worked as the hitting coach for the 2014 USA Baseball Collegiate National Team that won the Honkbal-Haarlem Baseball Week Tournament. He helped guide Albuquerque native and LSU star Alex Bregman to Tournament MVP honors.^[3][11]

Between 2008 and 2014, New Mexico has had 24 MLB Draft selections, including future major leaguer Bobby LaFromboise in 2008. Its highest selection was D. J. Peterson, the 12th overall pick of the first round in 2013. In all, seven Lobos were chosen in the 2013 draft.^[12][13]

Hall of Fame

Birmingham has been elected to three Hall of Fames in his career. First, in January, 2011 he was elected to the National Junior College Athletic Association Hall of Fame. Then on Nov. 13, 2012, he was elected into the Lea County (N.M.) Hall of Fame not only for his work at both NMJC and College of the Southwest. Most recently Birmingham was inducted into the New Mexico Sports Hall of Fame on April 3, 2016. He also serves on the College Baseball Hall of Fame selection committee.^[3][14]

Head coaching record

Below is a table of Birmingham's yearly records as a collegiate head baseball coach. He was 53–73 at the College of the Southwest from 1988 to 1989, 765–255–2 at New Mexico JC from 1990 to 1987, and 240–174 at New Mexico from 2008 to 2014.^{[1][6][7][15][16][17]}

Notes

References

External links

• June 2014 Interview at Youtube.com