January 28, 2021

By J.P. Antonacci

Canadian Baseball Network

The Victoria HarbourCats have added an MLB veteran to their coaching staff in their quest for the club’s first West Coast League title.

Greg Swindell joins the summer collegiate league team as bench coach to manager Todd Haney, his longtime friend and former teammate at the University of Texas.

“We just continue to add great people to the organization,” Haney said during an online press conference introducing Swindell to reporters and HarbourCats fans on Tuesday.

Haney said learning from Swindell and pitching coach Mark Petkovsek – himself a nine-year MLB veteran and a fellow Texas Longhorn – “can only help these college players who have a goal of playing professionally.”

Swindell pitched in 664 games over his 17-year major league career, including an all-star game appearance and a World Series title. Along the way he picked up some tips that he’s excited to share with the HarbourCats.

“It’s a great opportunity to pass on knowledge – to be able to talk to the young guys on the team,” Swindell said. “Not saying that we know everything, but we’ve been around the game a long time and we’re going to do our best to pass on the experiences that we went through.”

HarbourCats owner Jim Swanson said he was “overjoyed” to bring Swindell into the club’s fold.

“Our players are very fortunate this has all come together for us,” Swanson said. “Greg will have a lot to offer to all sides of the game, not just pitching, but clearly our pitchers have access to a wealth of knowledge and experience.”

Swindell and Haney – an infielder who played five MLB seasons – coached together last summer in the Constellation Energy League, an impromptu pro league based in Texas that arose after COVID-19 scuttled the WCL season. Swindell has also been a volunteer coach at the University of Texas and said he enjoyed watching young players absorb the knowledge he shared throughout the season and improve their skills.

“That’s the biggest thing I get out of it – just seeing the progression and maturity of these kids even over a two or three-month period,” he said.

“My big thing is, you tell them to play the game right, you have fun, and everything else will take care of itself. I gave up home runs in my career and laughed about it, because I should have made a better pitch. I didn’t let it get me down.”

Swindell joins a HarbourCats team that was one win away from a championship last season after posting 39 wins in Haney’s second year at the helm.

“Anytime you bring in an individual with so much passion for the game, so much experience, and just an absolute gamer, that will translate to the kids,” Haney said of adding Swindell to the staff.

“I’m thrilled that I get to coach with a friend of mine, but also the impact that he’s going to have in Victoria, for the city and the team.”

The WCL features top collegiate players in a wood bat league that this summer will expand to 15 teams, with the addition of the Edmonton Riverhawks, Kamloops NorthPaws and Nanaimo NightOwls to the existing 12 franchises in British Columbia, Washington and Oregon.

Notable WCL alumni include major leaguers James Paxton (Ladner, BC), Mitch Haniger and 2020 American League Cy Young Award winner Shane Bieber.

In light of the ongoing contraction of the minor leagues, Swindell said summer collegiate baseball is becoming even more important for players’ development.

“They’re cutting away so many minor league teams and cities, and with the pandemic, a lot of guys haven’t played in a year,” he said. “The more you play, the better you get. You can practice all you want. Game situation is the only way you’re going to learn. I think it’s a great opportunity for the kids to play the whole summer.”

Trading the Texas heat for a summer on Vancouver Island is a bonus, he added.

“We went and saw the stadium, saw the city, and fell in love it. It’s a beautiful place,” Swindell said of he and wife Sarah’s first visit to Victoria, a drop-in to see Haney on the way home from an Alaskan cruise.

“A summer there in such great weather helping players strive for improvement, working with close friends who are accomplished professionals themselves, is something I really look forward to,” said Swindell.

As things stand now, the HarbourCats will start their 54-game season June 1 with a road series against the expansion Riverhawks before coming home to Royal Athletic Park in Victoria on June 4 to face the Port Angeles Lefties. Of course, the COVID-19 pandemic could change those plans, but Swanson said they are proceeding as if there will be a full season and will adjust as needed based on public health guidelines.

“When we get into April and May, if that needs to be ramped back to follow the course of the pandemic at that time, then we’ll make those adjustments,” he said, noting that crowd sizes and the ability to cross the border remain up in the air.

“I think we’re all hoping to see a return to normalcy, or as close as we can get to it. If we find out on May 20 that we’re able to play, we’ll be ready to start a season.”

Swindell witnessed the healing power of sport firsthand as a member of the 2001 champion Arizona Diamondbacks, a World Series played in the shadows of the September 11 terrorist attacks on the United States.

He hopes baseball can serve a similar role when, with any luck, the global pandemic starts to wind down come summer.

“Baseball kind of brought the world back in 2001,” Swindell said.

“Right now, 20 years later, same type of situation, and if sports can bring people together to not worry and to just listen to the crack of the bat and the ball being thrown, that’s what people are going to want. To put them inside a baseball stadium for a few hours and take their minds off everything. I just hope everything clears up and we’re able to be back on the field in Victoria.”