PHILADELPHIA (KYW Newsradio) — The Phillies just hired a new hitting coach, Kevin Long, to replace Joe Dillon, who was Long's assistant hitting coach when the pair were with the Washington Nationals.
If Dillon was Long's protégé, did the Phils just hire a man with the same philosophy as that of the man they replaced?
Phils manager Joe Girardi suggested it doesn't matter — and his reasoning is raising some eyebrows. He used seven-time national championship-winning college football coach Nick Saban as an example.
"I'm not so sure how much of a philosophy change there's going to be, but ... there are a lot of proteges of Nick Saban that have never beat him," Girardi said.
"There's a lot of protoges, but there's one Nick Saban," Girardi said. "There's one Kevin Long."
"Wow ... I just got goosebumps," Long said in response.
After the Phillies offense spent the last season underachieving, the organization is pinning some high hopes on Long, an accomplished Major League coach. He was with the World Series-winning Yankees in 2009 — when Girardi managed the team. And he was the hitting coach for the Nationals for the last four seasons.
But despite that track record, the hire — and Girardi's implicit comparison to Saban — was eye opening.
And by the way, for the first time, one of Saban's proteges actually did just beat him. Jimbo Fisher's Texas A&M team upset Saban's Alabama squad 41-38 on Saturday night.
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