By Trey Williams
Johnson City Press Sports Writer

Former Milligan coach Danny Clark has been named the pitching coach for the Texas Rangers Single-A club in Spokane, Wash.

Clark leaves for the Rangers spring training in Phoenix, Ariz., on Feb. 28. He’ll remain there until the middle of May, when he’ll enter the dugout of the Spokane Indians, whose season runs through the first week of September.

By Trey Williams
Johnson City Press Sports Writer

Former Milligan coach Danny Clark has been named the pitching coach for the Texas Rangers Single-A club in Spokane, Wash.

Clark leaves for the Rangers spring training in Phoenix, Ariz., on Feb. 28. He’ll remain there until the middle of May, when he’ll enter the dugout of the Spokane Indians, whose season runs through the first week of September.

“Obviously it’s a thrill,” Clark said Wednesday. “Having not been a pro player, I never thought I’d have this opportunity.”

Clark wasn’t 100 percent sure he’d ever be in a dugout again when he resigned his Milligan position to enter the insurance business last summer. He quickly realized insurance wasn’t his calling. Texas pitching instructor Mark Connor evidently remembered what was.

Connor’s son Ryan played one year at Milligan under Clark, who had also worked with him at The Yard in Knoxville. Ryan played at Knox West.

Connor recommended Clark for an interview with the Rangers. From there, Clark had to sell Texas pitching coordinator Rick Adair and Texas player development director Scott Servais, the former Chicago Cubs catcher.

“After the interview process, Scott Servais offered me the job and told me to sleep on it,” Clark said. “I didn’t need to sleep on it. These past five or six months were tough. This was the first time in 17 years I wasn’t on the baseball field at the beginning of February.”

He said it was great getting to spend more time with his wife and daughter, who was born late last summer. But now he’s taken a big step toward providing a promising future to whom he loves by doing what he loves.

“It’s everybody’s dream to get to the Major League level,” Clark said. “But this is a great job. I’d be content if I was the Single-A pitching coach in Spokane the next 20 years.”

Clark was 202-147 in six seasons at Milligan after inheriting a program that’d had three coaches in three years. Milligan won the Appalachian Athletic Conference regular season title in 2001 and finished second three times.

The Buffs also won the 2003 league tournament and finished second three times. Clark’s teams made the NAIA regional five of six years and won a school-record 38 games in 2004.

Clark said Milligan athletic director Ray Smith, who manages the Elizabethton Twins, has been helpful as far as easing any anxiety about the move to the professional ranks. So has former Major Leaguer Ed Hodge, now a pitching instructor with Cincinnati.

Clark is confident that common sense, competitive desire and his experience communicating with young men will help him be effective.

“I’ve just got to implement their philosophy,” Clark said. “With Texas, I think one of the biggest things is being patient (with young pitchers). And they like to establish the fastball. I know that’s a cliche, but there’s a reason it is.”

Clark is a 1988 alumnus of Elizabethton High School. He played two years each for Harold Stout and Ken Campbell at East Tennessee State.

Clark was also an assistant at Brevard College after being the head coach at Morristown West three years.

“The Rangers have made me feel real comfortable,” Clark said. “I can honestly tell you I prayed and prayed about it and I feel like a door opened.”