John McLaren (baseball)

John Lowell McLaren (born September 29 1951 in Galveston, Texas) is the former manager for the Seattle Mariners in Major League Baseball, having replaced Mike Hargrove on July 1, 2007. Previously, he served as the Mariners' bench coach in the first part of the 2007 season and from 1998-2003, and as a coach for the Tampa Bay Devil Rays under Lou Piniella. Earlier, he was the Mariners' bullpen coach and then third-base coach.

He graduated from Westbury High School in Houston, Texas in 1970, and attended Blinn College, the University of St. Thomas and Houston Baptist University.

He was selected by the Houston Astros in the seventh round of the 1970 June draft and was assigned to the Covington Astros of the Appalachian League. McLaren hit a home run in his first professional game on June 30. He led Western Carolinas League catchers in putouts and assists in 1971, and in 1973 at Columbus led Southern League catchers in fielding. His best offensive season came in 1975, when he batted .270 with 13 home runs and 57 runs batted in for the Iowa Oaks and Dubuque Packers.

McLaren entered MLB as the third-base coach of the Toronto Blue Jays in 1986 after eight years as a skipper in the Toronto farm system. He coached for the Blue Jays through 1990, then was the bullpen coach for the 1991 Boston Red Sox before joining Piniella's coaching staff with the 1992 Cincinnati Reds. He followed Piniella to Seattle and Tampa Bay from 1993 through 2005. All told, McLaren spent 21½ years as a coach in major league baseball until he was elevated to the Mariners' managerial post. McLaren also served as the third-base coach for Team USA during the 2006 World Baseball Classic.

In 1991, McLaren was inducted into the Kinston Professional Baseball Hall of Fame. He was the manager for the Carolina League Kinston Eagles in 1981 and Kinston Blue Jays in 1982.

McLaren was fired as manager of the Seattle Mariners on June 19, 2008, largely because the Mariners had a payroll in excess of $100 million dollars, yet possessed the the worst record in baseball (25-47) at the time. His firing followed the firing of general manager Bill Bavasi by three days. Jim Riggleman, the bench coach, replaced McLaren on an interim basis. [cite web|url=http://sports.espn.go.com/mlb/news/story?id=3452336 |title=Mariners fire McLaren; bench coach Riggleman takes over|publisher=ESPN|accessdate=2008-06-19]

McLaren currently resides in Phoenix, Arizona.

Managerial record

Notes

ee also

* List of Major League Baseball managers in 2007
* List of Major League Baseball managers in 2008

External links

* [http://seattle.mariners.mlb.com/team/coach_staff_bio.jsp?c_id=sea&coachorstaffid=22910112549 McLaren bio on SeattleMariners.com]
*youtube|qr1NclalCOA McLaren's profanity laced news conference (clean)
* [http://seattle.mariners.mlb.com/NASApp/mlb/news/press_releases/press_release.jsp?ymd=20061019&content_id=1718116&vkey=pr_sea&fext=.jsp&c_id=sea Press release naming McLaren Mariners bench coach]
* [http://www.thenewstribune.com/sports/columnists/mcgrath/story/6339167p-5524773c.html January 2007 article]