JUST IN: Tigers part ways with long-time member of coaching staff

0
4

The Detroit Tigers have announced that one long-time member of their organization will not be a member of new manager Ron Gardenhire’s staff moving forward.

For the first time since 2005, Gene Lamont won’t be a member of the Tigers. The team announced earlier today that they won’t retain his services for next season

“I’m sure I won’t be back there,” said Lamont. “He (Gardenhire) doesn’t need somebody like me. Ron doesn’t need an older bench coach like me.”

Although he would have preferred to remain with the Tigers, Lamont recognized that the team was preparing to move on without him.

“We did pretty well while I was there,” Lamont said. “Last year was a bit of a downer but we’d been pretty good for 11 years. It’s hard to keep it going nowadays.”

“They’ve got their people,” he said. “Not just coaching, but they’ve got their people. They spent quite a bit of money on analytics and stuff, so, hopefully they can get it going. It won’t be easy. Fans and everybody else will have to be real patient, I think.

“For me, it’s probably good to move on to a new challenge. We will see what happens.”

Lamont, who has been in baseball for over 50 years now, has no plans to retire as of yet and has already begun the process of reaching out to other teams. 

“I’m looking for a job, I guess,” he said. “I’m not sure what I am going to do.”

Though the coaching options available to him may be limited, Lamont sounded willing to take whatever position necessary to stay a part of the game he loves.

“Not necessarily just coaching,” he said. “Would I like to be a bench coach for somebody – yeah. I’d like to manage, too. But I am going to stay in the game. I don’t want to retire.”

Lamont was originally Detroit’s first ever draft pick, and also played two stints with the Tigers in the early 1970’s. Future Tigers skipper Jim Leyland, then the manager of the Pittsburgh Pirates, hired Lamont as his third base coach in 1986. Lamont also went on to manage the Chicago White Sox and Pirates and coached with the Boston Red Sox and Houston Astros before coming back to Detroit with Leyland in 2005.