Bridgeport, CT - The Bridgeport Bluefish today announced that former Major League and Bluefish pitcher Pat Ahearne will be joining the coaching staff for the 2013 season. Ahearne will serve as Bridgeport’s Pitching Coach.
“We are very pleased to have Pat back in a Bluefish uniform,” says Bluefish general manager Ken Shepard. “He brings an incredible work ethic to the ballclub and the organization is excited about teaming him with manager Willie Upshaw for the 2013 season. Having a full time pitching coach fulfills a key missing ingredient for our club.”
Ahearne has spent the last four seasons as the pitching coach for the Czech National Baseball Team and also a player/coach for Draci of the Czech Baseball Extraliga from 2009-11. Pat, who played with Bridgeport for five seasons prior to heading overseas, was named one of the top 15 Bluefish players of all-time during Bridgeport’s 15th Anniversary season in 2012. He was one of the most durable starting pitchers in the history of the franchise and is also the only player to have two separate Major League organizations purchase his rights from the ‘Fish during two separate years. A member of the inaugural 1998 club, the California-native returned to Bridgeport the following season and dominated from the get-go. During his seven starts to begin the 1999 campaign, he went 6-0 with a stellar 2.53 ERA and 43 punchouts. This led to the Seattle Mariners purchasing his contract. The righthander then returned to the Park City in 2003 and once again dazzled on the mound en route to the Detroit Tigers purchasing his rights from the Bluefish later that year. Pat threw six complete games as a member of the Bluefish and owns 21 wins and a 3.52 ERA to go along with a team leading three shutouts.
The 43-year-old brings a wealth of baseball knowledge and experience to the clubhouse, having logged over 2,000 innings pitched during his professional career, beginning with his selection as a seventh round pick of the Detroit Tigers in the 1992 amateur draft. The hurler worked through the ranks quickly and made his Major League debut with the Tigers in 1995, appearing in four games for the club. Over the course of his minor league career, Ahearne owns 115 wins with a 4.04 ERA, 1,205 strikeouts, 30 complete games, and 10 shutouts over the course of 357 appearances.
