Orrville’s Birkbeck still makes a living in the game he loves

Another baseball season is upon us, which means another year of work for Mike Birkbeck — except that it’s not work when you love what you do.

Ever since he could walk, give or take a couple years, Birkbeck has been involved in baseball. It became his vocation in 1983 after being drafted out of the University of Akron by the Milwaukee Brewers in the fourth round of Major League Baseball’s amateur draft.

He debuted with the Brewers on Aug. 17, 1986. He’s also the last Wayne Countian to play in the majors, throwing his last MLB pitch in 1995.

Birkbeck, a 1979 Orrville High graduate, went on to pitch in six MLB seasons, finishing with a 12-19 record over 54 appearances, 51 of them starts, with a 4.86 ERA in 270 big-league innings. He has since gone on to be pitching coach and associate head coach at Kent State University, where he has worked more than two decades, the last 10 years or so in the associate’s role.

“I feel very blessed,” Birkbeck said. “I’ve been very blessed. There’s no question. And I couldn’t have asked for anything more. The game of baseball has been just a gift for me.”

It’s one he jokes about needing, saying he’s not qualified to do anything else. The fact is Birkbeck stays active in the sport because he’s very good at what he does.

In 2012 he was named the ABCA/Baseball America Assistant Coach of the Year, and his name is well known in baseball circles as being among the top pitching coaches in the nation. He has worked with more than 50 eventual professionals, among them Wadsworth graduate Andy Sonnanstine, who went on to start a World Series game for the Tampa Bay Devil Rays.

Still a young 63, Birkbeck is not exactly counting down the days until the end of his career. He said he’d like to continue for as long as possible.

“As long as I’m healthy enough to contribute and try to do my job, I don’t see an end in sight,” he said. “It’s not like I’m trying to get to any certain age or anything like that. I’m just kind of like a player. I’m trying to have a lot of good days, just taking it day by day.”

Birkbeck’s last days as a player were in 1996 in Japan. His last pitches as a major leaguer came a year earlier for the New York Mets.

After becoming the only All-American baseball player in Akron history as a two-way player, Birkbeck’s professional career spanned 14 seasons and included stints in the Minor League for most of 1991-95 including a season in the Cleveland Indians’ system. He made 21 appearances for the Canton-Akron Indians (now Akron RubberDucks) in 1991.

Despite not suiting up for a game for almost 30 years, Birkbeck still gets that itch, and like every player who’s ever played and then stopped, he would love to do it just one more time.

“That feeling will never go away,” he said. “I tell the guys all the time, there will be a particular day or a particular situation, and you’ll go, ‘I would give anything to have one more at-bat,’ or ‘I would give anything to throw an eight-pitch sequence of pitches like 40 years ago.’ There was no question about it.”

With his parents still living in his boyhood home, Birkbeck said he gets back home as much as possible, which he hopes is at least once a week, though that can be hectic at this time of year. His most recent trip had a little extra bonus added to it.

“It was pretty cool; the other day I drove by Orr Park,” he said. “I think it was opening day for the Red Riders, and they were out on the field, and I didn’t stop but, man, did it bring back memories and holy smokes.”

Birkbeck’s son John had a solid career as a pitcher at KSU after being a second-team All-Ohioan at Canton GlenOak. The younger Birkbeck and his wife recently made Dad a grandfather for the first time. That, in turn, has given Birkbeck something besides baseball to occupy his time when needed.

“You try to be as involved as you possibly can in that,” he said. “Other than that, I don’t do anything. I don’t hunt, I don’t fish and my golf game stinks now.”

As for baseball, Birkbeck said the changes to the sport have been minimal in the more than half-a-century he’s been involved, but the ones that do happen get magnified, such as pitch counts, some game situations and personnel management. Overall, it’s still three strikes and you’re out.

“I haven’t really changed my philosophy much at all because the scoreboard still tells you everything that you need to know,” he said.

Birkbeck coaches through life lessons as much as any technique or analytics, which are all the rage these days. People who have lived and breathed baseball — and maybe sports in general — know how many lessons there are to be learned from it. Those are the things he wants his charges to grasp as much as possible.

“The thing about it is when I was growing up and as a youth in Orrville and throughout high school and college, so many people gave so much to me throughout athletics and in particular baseball. It’s just a passion of mine to try to give back a little bit to this generation,” he said. “Every day is different. You’re watching the landscape of college athletics in general, and every day is just a different challenge. You’ve got to be on your toes, and it keeps you young.”