Wilmington, DE - The Kansas City Royals have announced their 2010 coaching staff and it does not include John Mizerock. The second-winningest manager in the history of the Wilmington Blue Rocks had been serving as manager Trey Hillman's bullpen coach in Kansas City. The Royals announced on Tuesday that Mizerock's contract was not renewed. A new bullpen coach will be hired at a later date.
General manager Dayton Moore said that the Royals decided they wanted a bullpen coach with a pitching background. Mizerock is a former major league catcher.
"John Mizerock has been a tremendous contributor to our organization, but from a philosophical change we wanted to have a pitching coach in the bullpen," Moore said. "Mizerock's expertise was in catching and we wanted a bullpen coach whose expertise was in pitching."
The Royals' relief pitchers finished last in the American League with a cumulative 5.02 ERA.
Mizerock, 48, had been in the organization since 1992 and managed at every level, compiling a 648-534 record in nine years while winning three league championships. He first joined the major league staff in 2002 and, for 13 games that season, served as the Royals' interim manager between the terms of Tony Muser and Tony Pena. Mizerock, who had a 5-8 record in that role, also was one of the candidates for the job that went to Pena.
He returned to the minor leagues after the 2004 season for two years as a catching instructor and one year as Wilmington's manager, the team's first season after re-affiliating with Kansas City. He returned to the major league staff in 2008.
Over four seasons of steering the Wilmington ship on the Riverfront (1995-97, 2007), "Miz" went 300-255 (.541). Mizerock and Jeff Garber (307-250, .551) are the only skippers to amass 300 wins with the Blue Crew. Garber managed Wilmington from 1999-2002. Mizerock's tenure included four half championships, two Northern Division titles and one Carolina League Mills Cup championship in 1996. During the summer of 2007, fans voted "Rock" as the manager for the 15th Anniversary All-Time Blue Rocks Team. Mizerock earned 49.2% of the fans' votes to beat out Garber (39.4%).
The Punxsutawney, PA native spent nine seasons as a manager in the Royals minor league system with stops in Eugene (1993; Class-A Short-Season Northwest), Rockford (1994; Class-A Midwest), Wilmington, Wichita (1998-99; Double-A Texas) and Omaha (2000-01; Triple-A Pacific Coast).
Selected by the Houston Astros in the first round of the 1979 draft, Mizerock was a catcher for parts of four seasons at the major league level (1983, 85-86, 89). He homered in his major league debut on August 16, 1983 at Cincinnati. After the 1986 season, he signed with Montreal in December, before signing with Atlanta in April 1987. He played for both Richmond (Triple-A International) and Atlanta before retiring after the 1990 season.
The Blue Rocks will open play in 2010 on April 8 in Myrtle Beach, SC against the Pelicans. The home opener comes on April 16 with the first of a record 15 fireworks shows at Frawley Stadium this season as the Blue Crew hosts the Potomac Nationals. Every Friday in 2010 will have post-game fireworks at Frawley.
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