For one year, University of Akron baseball teammates Keith Dambrot and Mike Birkbeck were roommates, inhabiting what Dambrot called “a junky old house over by Buchtel Field that I wouldn’t let any human beings live in.”
“I remember it very well, 422 Kling Street, at the corner of Kling and Wheeler. I lived there three of my four years, but we only allowed him to live there one year,” Birkbeck joked Thursday in reference to Dambrot, 53, who is two years older. “He was way too smart. He spent way too much time with his door locked studying.”
The hijinks must have been many, although unprintable, kept under wraps from the usually uncensored Dambrot.
It sounds as if one of their favorite pastimes was going from the fourth floor to the first without touching the ground, which apparently involved sliding on the banisters.
“Whatever it took,” Birkbeck said. “That was our competitive spirit.”
A former Zips third baseman and team captain who has been UA’s basketball coach for the past eight seasons, Dambrot called Birkbeck “the craziest guy you’ve ever met.”
“He played more jokes on me than I ever played on him,” Dambrot said. “As a roommate, he’s the funniest guy I’ve ever been around.”
Birkbeck’s sense of humor and easy-going personality have served him well during his 31 years in baseball. The Orrville native finds himself on the biggest stage of his 15 years as Kent State’s pitching coach, with the Golden Flashes set to take on Arkansas on Saturday as they make their first appearance in the College World Series.
Many involved in Kent State athletics believe the Golden Flashes (46-18) wouldn’t have reached Omaha, Neb., without Birkbeck, promoted to associate head coach in 2004, when he turned down the job held by coach Scott Stricklin. Last week, Stricklin called Birkbeck “the finest pitching coach in the country.”
“Ask anyone who knows college baseball about Mike Birkbeck and they’re going to glow because of the things he’s been able to do,” Stricklin said.
Former KSU Director of Athletics Laing Kennedy, who hired Birkbeck to assist then-coach Rick Rembielak (now at UA), shares that feeling.
“When I would travel with the team, it would be, ‘Your baseball team is really good and the thing that puts it a step above many of us is your pitching,’ ” said Kennedy, who retired in June, 2010. “We have a stable of really good, young pitchers, including those waiting in the wings. They know they’re going to get a good look and have an opportunity to play baseball at the professional level.”
Since he started at Kent State in 1997, Birkbeck has coached four Mid-American Conference pitchers of the year and produced 27 All-MAC honorees. Twenty-five of his pitchers have been drafted, 12 in the top 10 rounds, including first-rounders John VanBenschoten (Pittsburgh Pirates, 2001) and Andrew Chafin (Arizona Diamondbacks, 2011).
“I get more enjoyment out of helping those guys who are fortunate enough to go to the next level than they probably do,” Birkbeck said by telephone Monday from Portland, Ore. “We really work hard to try to make that dream come true for each and every kid.”
He remains close to many of them, attending their weddings when they don’t conflict with the summer recruiting season and texting them frequently.
“He’s a phenomenal pitching coach,” Chafin, now with the Advanced Class-A Visalia Rawhide in the California League, said by telephone Wednesday. “He was a big part of my success. He always knew what I was doing wrong. My mechanics, if they were off just a touch he would know what to say and tell me how to fix it.”
Stricklin said the key for Birkbeck is his communication skills, although he is not always a man of many words. Kennedy said he once asked Birkbeck what he said during a trip to the mound the previous day.
“He said, ‘I said, ‘coach Stricklin would be very grateful if you could throw a strike,’ ” Kennedy said. “He has a tremendous sense of humor. When you’re traveling with the team, Berkie is someone you’d really like to sit with because you enjoy his insights, his humor, his knowledge, love and commitment to the game. It’s incredible.”
Birkbeck realizes his pitchers have “different buttons that need pushed” and feels he must adjust to them, instead of the other way around.
“I don’t talk to Player A the same way I do Player B,” Birkbeck said. “It takes time to figure those guys out.”
Adding to Birkbeck’s credibility is 14 years in professional baseball, six in the major leagues. A fourth-round pick of the Milwaukee Brewers out of UA in 1983, Birkbeck suffered a shoulder injury that needed surgery during his rookie year in 1987. He spent 1986-89 with the Brewers and 1992 and ’95 with the New York Mets, going 12-19 in his career with a 4.86 ERA in 54 games, 51 starts.
One month into a stint in Yokohama, Japan, in 1995, Birkbeck had his career end when Shane Mack hit a line drive off his right fibula.
“The game was tied 1-1 with two outs in the top of the fifth and I had to beg to stick in the game because I had to get through that inning to have any chance of getting a ‘W,’ ” Birkbeck said. “The last hitter I got out was Hideki Matsui. And I didn’t get the win.”
Birkbeck said his wife, Suzanne, and 2-year-old son, John, now a freshman on the KSU team, had just landed at the airport in Narita, Japan, when he was injured.
“I didn’t figure out how to pitch the way I needed to to be successful until I was 31 or 32. Had I not been injured, I think things would have gone very, very well,” he said of Japan.
As he’s built his reputation at Kent State, what seems most striking is Birkbeck’s loyalty. Dambrot joked that he could have been hired as the UA coach “about 15 times.” Birkbeck said the closest he came to leaving was in 2004, when Rembielak wanted him to go with him to Wake Forest.
“At the end of the day, it just wasn’t something I was able to do,” Birkbeck said.
Not only could he have followed Rembielak, but he also could have pounced on the KSU job.
“At that point I wasn’t sure how I was going to be able to be the type of head coach that the program needed and also be the type of pitching coach I wanted to be,” he said. “It was a tough decision, but there were some really good candidates that I felt I could work with. Scott was certainly at the top of my list. I thought it was the best decision for everybody.”
He said he would never rule out any opportunity, but Birkbeck seems happy. He loves the relationships he’s able to build with his pitchers and almost seems fearful that wouldn’t be the same if he were in charge.
When the Golden Flashes take the field Saturday, one of their biggest assets will cherish every moment. When the game gets tight, Birkbeck might even lighten it. And no matter how far they go, Birkbeck will take no credit.
“It’s so surreal,” Birkbeck said. “You read the articles online and you see the pictures and you say, ‘Is that us? Is this really happening?’
“It is, and it’s to the credit of the kids. I thanked a couple of them for just letting me be a part of it because it’s special beyond words.”
Marla Ridenour can be reached at mridenour@thebeaconjournal.com. Read her blog at http://www.ohio.com/marla. Follow her on Twitter at http://www.twitter.com/MRidenourABJ and on Facebook at http://www.facebook.com/sports.abj.
