FORT WORTH, Texas - Former major league player and manager Toby Harrah has agreed to join the Texas Wesleyan baseball coaching staff as a special consultant and hitting instructor, head coach Mike Jeffcoat announced on Thursday. Harrah, who also serves as a bench coach for the Fort Worth Cats minor league baseball club, will assume the role immediately.

“We’re extremely excited and honored to be able to offer our players the chance to learn from such a high-caliber coach,” said Jeffcoat. “I’ve played with him and for him, and I know that having him around is going to make this team better.”

The move reunites Harrah with Jeffcoat, who first met as teammates on the 1983 Cleveland Indians squad. Harrah was the third baseman when Jeffcoat made his major league debut in August of that year. They also worked together for several years as part of the Texas Rangers organization. Harrah was the manager at triple-A Oklahoma City when Jeffcoat spent time there in 1987 and 1988, and both were with the major league club from 1989-1992. Harrah served as an assistant on Bobby Valentine’s staff until June of 1992, when he replaced Valentine as manager for the remainder of the season.

Harrah has spent the last 35 years in professional baseball. He began his major league career in 1969 as a shortstop with the Washington Senators before moving with the team to Texas in 1972. He spent eight seasons in Arlington before being traded to Cleveland (for Buddy Bell), where he played from 1979-1983. After one year as a New York Yankee, Harrah returned to Arlington for two seasons, where he retired following the 1986 campaign.

Harrah stayed with the Rangers organization for eight more years, serving as a minor league manager and major league coach, before compiling a 32-44 record as manager of the Rangers during the second half of the 1992 season. Despite the hiring of Kevin Kennedy as manager the following season, Harrah remained with the club through 1994 as the hitting coach. In 1995, he accepted the manager position for the New York Mets triple-A club, where he earned the International League Manager of the Year award for leading his team to an 86-56 record, a division title, and an appearance in the league’s championship series.

The following year he would return to the major leagues as a hitting coach, working with the Detroit Tigers for two seasons and the Cincinnatti Reds for one, before joining Buddy Bell’s staff in Colorado as a bench coach for the 2000-01 seasons. This year, wanting to be closer to his family in Fort Worth, Harrah joined the Fort Worth Cats as a coach on Wayne Terwilliger’s staff.

“It’s great to be back here,“ said Harrah, who makes his home in Fort Worth and once attended Winter classes at Wesleyan while playing with the Rangers. “The Rams finish up their season right about the time the Cats get started, so it really works out well for me. Mike has some good young players here, and I’m looking forward to coming in and helping out.”

The Rams open the season on February 11 at home against Oklahoma City University, who finished the 2002 season as the second-ranked NAIA team in the nation. In an agreement with the Fort Worth Cats, all Wesleyan home games this season will be played at LaGrave Field, the multi-million dollar facility located on the bank of the Trinity river just north of downtown.

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