Mitchell, O’Connor were part of loaded Harrisonburg Turks team in 1990

Brian O’Connor, who has left Charlottesville for the bright lights of the SEC at Mississippi State, began his tenure as the head coach of the UVA Baseball program in 2004. But the introduction to baseball in Virginia began long before that for the native of Nebraska – O’Connor played for the Harrisonburg Turks in the Valley Baseball League in 1990.

“I drove out here with two of my teammates that I played with at Creighton,” O’Connor, 54, said in a 2020 interview.

The former Creighton pitcher would be part of a star-studded roster 35 years ago in Harrisonburg for long-time owner, GM and coach Bobby Wease.

O’Connor, who led the Cavaliers to the national title in 2015, is one of three players from that 1990 Harrisonburg squad that would take a team to the College World Series as coaches. The others are Kevin O’Sullivan, who guided Florida to the title in Omaha in 2017, and Tom Walter, who led Wake Forest to the CWS in 2023. A graduate of Georgetown, Walter coached the New Market Rebels in the VBL in 1994.

“That is pretty amazing there were three Division I coaches from that team,” O’Connor said.

But there were more than future coaches that summer in The Friendly City.

The Harrisonburg Turks’ roster included pitcher and Charlottesville native Larry Mitchell and catcher and Lynchburg-born Mike Hubbard – a pair of players from JMU who would make the Majors.

Mike Toomey, a long-time MLB scout for several teams, followed Mitchell and Hubbard while at JMU. “Two-pitch pitcher, a stocky kid,” Toomey said in a text about Mitchell. “Hubbard was hard-nosed throwback catcher. Hard contact gap hitter with accurate arm; led by example.”

A graduate of Charlottesville High, Mitchell was drafted in the fifth round in 1992 out of JMU by the Philadelphia Phillies. The right-hander pitched in 1996 with Philadelphia and he was 0-0 with an ERA of 4.50 in seven games out of the bullpen – the Phillies lost all seven games.

Mitchell made his MLB debut on Aug. 11 against the Houston Astros as he came in in the second inning for starter Mike Williams, a native of Radford who pitched at Virginia Tech. Mitchell got five outs and did not allow a run, but Houston won 10-5.

The last game Mitchell pitched was Sept. 2, 1996, and he went one scoreless inning against the San Diego Padres – retiring former Turks’ outfielder Steve Finley for the first out and getting John Flaherty, a standout catcher at George Washington University, for the third out.

Mitchell later played in the minors for the New York Yankees, Baltimore Orioles and Chicago White Sox before ending his career in 1998.

Hubbard, from Amherst County High, would be taken in the eighth round by the Chicago Cubs in 1992 out of JMU. He played in the Majors from 1995 to 2001 for the Cubs, Montreal Expos, Atlanta Braves and Texas Rangers.

He was with the Expos in 1998 and other catchers on the team that year were Chris Widger, who starred at George Mason in Fairfax, and Bob Henley, who became a coach for the Washington Nationals. Hubbard was part of a 2000 Atlanta team that included future Hall of Famers Chipper Jones and Tom Glavine.

Hubbard was with Texas in 2001 for his last season and a pitcher on that team was lefty reliever Mike Venafro, another JMU product. Toomey signed Venafro out of JMU when he was a scout for the Rangers. The regular catcher for that squad was Hall of Famer Ivan Rodriquez.

Another JMU pitcher, Doug Harris, almost played for the Harrisonburg Turks in 1990.

Harris was drafted that year by the Kansas City Royals. The right-hander reached the Triple-A level with the Orioles and Florida Marlins, then won a World Series ring as a front office member of the Nationals in 2019 under general manager Mike Rizzo – who was fired last week along with Nats’ manager Davey Martinez. Harris left the Nats a few years ago to focus on his battle with leukemia, which he has overcome more than once.

O’Connor had one more stint in Virginia before becoming the Cavaliers’ coach. He began his minor league career as a pitcher for Martinsville in the Phillies’ system, going 3-2, 4.38 in eight games with seven starts in 1993 in his only pro season.

Notes

• In games through July 7, five natives of Virginia have made their MLB debut this season: Zach Agnos (Haymarket, Colorado Rockies); Noah Murdock (Richmond, A’s); Ben Williamson (Fairfax, Seattle Mariners); Nic Enright (Richmond, Cleveland Guardians); and Zak Kent (Henrico, Cleveland). Eight natives of Virginia made their MLB debut in 2023, including JMU pitchers Nick Robertson (L.A. Dodgers, now Triple-A with Houston) and Kevin Kelly (Tampa Bay Rays), and Turner Ashby grad Brenan Hanifee (Detroit Tigers). That was the most debuts in one season from Virginia in nearly 30 years, according to baseballreference.com. Hanifee pitched a scoreless inning July 7 in a 5-1 win over Tampa Bay to lower his ERA to 3.56 this season in 38 games.
• According to baseballreference.com, Hubbard is one of 16 natives of Lynchburg to have made the majors. That list includes current Reds’ pitcher Andrew Abbott, a University of Virginia product. He is one of 10 pitchers on the list. The list does not include Clay Bryant, who was born in nearby Madison Heights and pitched for the Cubs; Ken Dixon, who was born in Monroe and pitched for the Orioles; Randy Tomlin, who was born in Maryland but grew up in Madison Heights; and North Carolina native Jim Bibby, a former minor league pitching coach in Lynchburg and a long-time resident of the city before he passed away there in 2010. Tomlin and Bibby both pitched for the Pittsburgh Pirates, with Bibby appearing in the World Series in 1979 against the Orioles.
• The pitching staff of JMU in 1993 included four future big-leaguers: Venafro, Scott Forster, Brian McNichol and Rick Croushore. For good measure, pitcher Casey Brookens played in the minors for the Cubs. McNichol pitched in the majors for the Cubs; Croushore is the former pitching coach at Division III Shenandoah in Winchester. The coach for that JMU team was Ray Heatwole, the former Turner Ashby High coach who is in the Virginia High School League Hall of Fame and the Virginia Baseball Coaches Association Hall of Fame, as well as the Bridgewater College Hall of Fame.
• Toomey also scouted Billy Wagner when the lefty pitcher and new Hall of Famer was at Ferrum. “Ran it up to the mid to upper 90s,” noted Toomey, the former baseball coach at George Washington University and for the Alexandria Dukes in the Carolina League. “Command was lacking at that time with varied release points. Quick abbreviated delivery and hard breaking ball was a work in progress. Fastball was heavy and tough to elevate (in the air). A fierce competitor and very athletic; was just a matter of time.” Toomey is in the GW Hall of Fame.

David Driver is a Harrisonburg native who played baseball at Turner Ashby, EMU and for Clover Hill in the RCBL. He is the co-author of “From Tidewater to the Shenandoah: Snapshots from Virginia’s Rich Baseball Legacy,” which is available on the websites of Amazon and Barnes and Noble and at daytondavid.com.