Grizzlies baseball names managers

The Glacier Grizzlies of the newly formed Mount Rainier Professional Baseball League put another piece of the puzzle into place as Grizzlies general manager Bob Lockman named Mike Goss field manager for the inaugural 2015 season on Thursday.

Goss joins the Grizzlies from the San Angelo Colts of the United League — an independent baseball league in based in Texas — where he was the hitting coach under manager Doc Edwards.

“(MRPBL Commissioner Mike Greene) kind of left it up to me to make the hire, but I wanted to rely on his expertise and qualifications,” Lockman said.

“We had references from another coach in the league who knows him really well and had high praise for him as well. I talked to several coaches, but we decided to go with (Goss).”

Former Colts assistant Joseph Brown, now managing the MRPBL’s Oregon City Mud Turtles, coached with Goss in 2012 and gave Lockman the recommendation.

“I’m pretty excited right now,” Goss said.

“It still doesn’t feel real to me right now because I’ve been waiting to get this opportunity for a while. I’m very excited.”

Goss, an 11th-round draft pick by the Boston Red Sox in the 2002 June MLB Amateur draft, was acquired by the Arizona Diamondbacks in the trade that sent Curt Schilling to Fenway in 2004. With Arizona, Goss played for the AA El Paso Diablos in 2004, the highest level of professional baseball of his career.

 The last eight seasons of Goss’ playing career were in various independent leagues including the Northern League, the Can-Am League, the Golden League and the United League. His experience with independent baseball, Lockman noted, was a selling point for the new hire.

“It’s a lot of fun baseball and a lot of good baseball because you have a lot of kids who, for some reason or another, got released or put on waivers, but they still have that drive,” Goss said.

“That’s what I like about independent ball. They still have that drive and that dream. We understand independent ball isn’t affilated (with MLB) but you have kids that didn’t get the big bucks to sign a contract so it’s a different mentality. It’s ‘I need to go out there and push myself to get where I need to be.’ It’s a lot fun to watch.”

In 12 professional seasons, Goss’ lifetime average sits at .301 with 19 home runs and 293 RBIs in 679 games.

The 35-year-old, a native of Jackson, Mississippi, played college baseball for hometown Jackson State University. He currently resides in Corpus Christi, Texas with his family.

The Glacier Grizzlies will play home games at Memorial Field in Whitefish.