Former Cleveland Indians player Coco Crisp looks forward to first managing role

CLEVELAND, Ohio (WOIO) - Coco Crisp never aspired to be a manager. His plan was much simpler than that. He just wanted to coach his kids.

“I’m grateful to have four kids that are all in baseball ... my daughter’s in softball ... that I can teach and stay mentally in the game with them, and through that, it just kind of evolved into coaching,” Crisp told me.

“You know, you want your kids to be good, you want them to, you know ... it’s a lot like ‘if you’re good, you have more fun’,” Crisp said.

“Now, moving up the ladder, it never was a plan to necessarily continue moving up that ladder from Little League, where I first started off with my kids. It just kind of evolved into that, and I’ve grown as a coach, manager, in some respects, and I’ve found kind of a passion for this side of the game as well.”

Crisp, who played 15 seasons in the majors, including two stints with the Tribe, would coach high school baseball, then college, and now, is manager of the Mahoning Valley Scrappers. A former minor league affiliate of the Indians, the Scrappers are now in the new Major League Baseball Draft league. The goal of this league? Just what the title says: to prepare players for the draft.

Sounds like it’s right up Coco’s alley.

“Sometimes, those guys, they feel like ‘what can I do to be seen, what can I do to get there (MLB), I love the game so much’,” Crisp says. “And there are guys coming out that have just graduated college, that are legit ballplayers, that just have been overlooked, and that happens. Right place, right time. To be able to bring all that together, with the talent level that’s gonna be there, it’s gonna be pretty special.

“You know, I enjoy baseball. I love the game. I love being around the it, I love teaching the game.

“It’s pretty cool. It’s an honor.”

Copyright 2021 WOIO. All rights reserved.