Jim Lett

James Curtis Lett (b. January 3, 1951 in Charleston, West Virginia) is the hitting coach of the South Atlantic League's defending North Division Champion West Virginia Power.

He is a 1969 graduate of Winfield (WV) High School, where he played baseball, football and basketball. He earned all-state honors in hoops as the top scorer in the state and All-America honors in football as a quarterback. He is a 1973 graduate from the University of Kentucky, where he was selected to the All-Southeastern Conference baseball team in 1971. He also was a quarterback on the Wildcats football team. Lett earned a B.S. degree in Geography.

Lett has worked in professional baseball as a player, coach, manager and front office executive in each of the last 32 years, having spent 24 of those years within the Cincinnati Reds organization (1973-1996).

He began his career as a player with Bradenton (Reds Rookie) in 1973. After playing three years of minor league baseball (1973-1975) and compiling a .256 batting average, six home runs and 110 RBI in 313 games, Lett began his managerial career with Shelby in the Western Carolinas League in 1977. He was selected as the leagues Manager-of-the-Year in 1978 after guiding the club to a second-place finish and a 75-64 record.

Lett was a minor league manager in the Reds' chain from 1977 to 1985. He was the Reds bench coach from 1986 to 1989 and again in 1996. He managed in the minors again in 1990, coached for the Nashville Sounds in 1991-1992, and spent 1993-1995 as the Reds' minor league field coordinator.

In 1981, Lett managed Tampa to a first place finish in the Florida State League, but lost in the first round of the playoffs. After four more years of managing in the minors, Jim joined Cincinnati's major league staff as Bench Coach in 1986, a position he held through the 1989 campaign.

Lett returned to managing in 1990 and captured the South Atlantic League crown after leading Charleston (WV) to a 77-66 record and a first-place finish. He was also a coach with Nashville (Reds AAA) for two years (1991-1992) before serving the Cincinnati organization as its Minor League Field Coordinator from 1993-95. His final season with the Reds came in 1996 when he was Bench Coach at the major league level under Manager Ray Knight.

Leaving the Reds, Lett was a member of the Toronto Blue Jays coaching staff from 1997 to 1999. He was the Blue Jays' assistant director of player development in 2000.

Lett was named Pittsburgh's Bench Coach on November 1, 2005. He was also a part of Manager Jim Tracy's staff in Los Angeles; as Bench Coach in 2005 and Bullpen Coach for the previous four seasons.

In his role with the Pirates, Jim coordinated the day-to-day activities of the uniformed personnel with the manager, coaches, trainers and front office staff. He also acted as the clubs catching instructor.

When the Pirates fired Tracy in October 2007, Lett was encouraged to seek other forms of employment. Lett was not retained by the Pirates and subsequently was hired by the Milwaukee Brewers organization to coach for his hometown team, the Class-A West Virginia Power. The team plays its home games in downtown Charleston at Appalachian Power Park.

While overseeing the Dodgers bullpen, Los Angeles relievers ranked second in the major leagues with a 3.06 ERA in 2004. The year before he helped guide the pen to a major league low 2.46 ERA, the lowest mark by any bullpen since the 1990 Oakland Athletics posted a 2.35 ERA.

In his tenure as a coach in the majors, Lett has worked with four Cy Young Award recipients; Toronto's Pat Hentgen (1996 winner), two-time winner Roger Clemens (1997-98) and Eric Gagné (2003).