Coaching staff feels at home in playoffs
COMSTOCK PARK, Mich. - The Cedar Rapids Kernels have not appeared in a championship series since they claimed the Midwest League title in 1994, but the men leading the Kernels against West Michigan this week are no strangers to the championship series environment.
Manager Jake Mauer, hitting coach Tommy Watkins and pitching coach Henry Bonilla all have competed for minor league titles as players and/or coaches.
Watkins was part of the Appalachian League championship team at Elizabethton in 2000 as a player. A year later, Mauer’s Rookie team at Elizabethton fell in the championship series when he was a player as well.
“We lost on a balk," Mauer said Wednesday. "Unfortunate it ended that way.”
Watkins and Bonilla played for the Rochester Red Wings when they fell in the finals of the Triple-A championship series in 2006.