Page 151 - 1975 BoSox

144 ’75—THE RED SOX TEAM THAT SAVED BASEBALL
the backup for All-Star catcher Gary Carter. In his nal major-league game, on May 17, 1983, Blackwell was called upon to pinch-hit in the 14th inning. He ied out to right. (Montreal won the game, 3-2.) Fourteen days later, the Expos released him. As re- ported in the Ottawa Citizen, Blackwell commented, “I’m only 30 years old I’m not through yet.”
Indeed he was not. On June 20, 1983, Blackwell put his John Hancock on a California Angels contract. e Halos placed him at Triple-A Edmonton (Paci c Coast League) for the rest of the season. For the Edmonton Trappers, Blackwell had 192 at-bats and hit .245 with 24 RBIs.
After 1983 Blackwell took up coaching as a catching instructor and minor-league manager. In 1985 he piloted the Clinton Giants (Midwest League), a San Francisco Giants Class A a liate, to a 71-69 record. For the Mets, he steered the 1989 Pitts eld club (New York-Penn League) to the playo s and garnered Manager of the Year hardware. In 1990 Blackwell directed the Mets’ Florida State League club, St. Lucie, to the playo s with a 76-58 record. e following season he managed Columbia (South Atlantic League) to an 86-54 overall nish and won the playo championship.
Manager Blackwell caught the eye of the independent leagues and in 1994 Mike Veeck’s St. Paul Saints (Northern League) hired him as their eld chief. e ’94 Saints were playo champs. After two seasons in independent ball, Blackwell resumed managing in the affiliated minors, in the Baltimore, Colorado, Milwaukee, and White Sox systems.
In 1995, with the Baltimore-a liated High Desert Mavericks (California League), Blackwell’s team nished 10th with a 46-94 record. Yet in 1996 the Orioles assigned him as the skipper for the Class A Frederick Keys (Carolina League) and in the course of the season moved him up to their Double-A Bowie Baysox (Eastern League) club.
In 1997 Blackwell piloted the Colorado Rockies’ Arizona League club to a 22-34 record for a sixth-place
nish. e Rockies in 1998 placed him with their Double-A New Haven Ravens (Eastern League). Blackwell steered the Ravens from the circuit’s base- ment with a 59-83 record for a ninth-place nish.
Blackwell landed in the Milwaukee chain courtesy of his old Red Sox teammate, Cecil Cooper. In 2002 Cooper, then a special assistant to the Brewers’ GM. successfully lobbied for him. Blackwell took the reins of Milwaukee’s a liate in Odgen (Pioneer League) and brought them to the 2002 playo s. In 2003 Blackwell managed the Brewers’ Class A a liate, the High Desert Mavericks (California League). e club closed out the year with a 10th-place ranking and 42-98 record.
Blackwell returned to independent baseball in 2006 as the pitching coach for the San Diego Surf Dawgs of the Golden Baseball League. On January 19, 2007, the league announced that Blackwell had been signed by the Chicago White Sox to manage the Class A Winston-Salem Warthogs (Carolina League) for the coming season. Blackwell directed the team to a 64-74 record which tied them for fth place in the Carolina League.
In 2008 he managed the Warthogs to a winning 71-68 record and fourth-place nish. Winston-Salem made it to the league playo s but lost in the rst round.
Sources
orn, John, Pete Palmer, and Michael Gershman, with Matthew Silverman, Sean Lahman, and Greg Spira, Total Baseball, 7th Edition (Kingston, New York: Total Sports Publishing, 2001.)
Conversations with Cecil Cooper, June 8, 2005, Queens, New York, and John Kennedy, June 24, 2005, New Haven, Connecticut.
baseballlibrary.com. mwlguide.com. retrosheet.org. thebaseballcube.com.
Notes
1 Dave Langworthy, “Tim Blackwell: He used to collect auto- graphs, now his own is in big demand,” Christian Science Monitor, August 29, 1974, 9.