Goodman thrilled for opportunity with Mavs

By JAMES TUBB on January 14, 2023.

Mark Goodman can’t wait to soak up the atmosphere at Athletic Park this summer.

Goodman was named the head coach of the Medicine Hat Mavericks for the 2023 season and is ready to coach some winning baseball while having fun with players and fans.

“That’s why we’re doing it, I love games with rowdy fans,” Goodman said. “I’m not a guy who gets too over emotional one way or the other. Having experiences in Northwoods League when there’s 6,500 fans on the road, you kind of get used to that. Those are the more fun, bigger games and the more people are there to give them what they’re looking for and they were fun experiences. I want them to have just as much fun as we do.”

Goodman is the pitching coach at the Colorado School of Mines, a D2 NCAA school. He has coached 16 seasons of college baseball including stops at the Juco, NAIA and NCAA levels and has spent five seasons in summer college baseball, including three seasons in the Northwoods League. He describes his coaching style as a mix between old school and new school.

“I like to have fun, especially in summer ball, the guys have to have fun, if you’re having fun, you’re winning,” Goodman said. “Winning and having fun to me, goes hand in hand. I love to laugh, let’s have fun. I’ll participate in mid-inning activities if that’s what the crowd wants and the team needs. I’m not going to go out there and get thrown out of a game, I’ve maybe been thrown out a handful times. That’s not who I am. I’m about having fun.”

The Mavericks season gets started with a home-and-home series against the Lethbridge Bulls. The Mavs are in Lethbridge May 26 and have their home opener at Athletic Park on May 27.

Goodman played at the University of South Dakota in the NCAA D1 and Bellevue University in the NAIA before pitching five seasons at the pro level with time in the Northern League and American Association.

Besides having fun, Goodman’s philosophy revolves around hard work and hustle from first pitch until the final out. He’s not going to work up any big speech to encourage his Mavericks players, he says it will come from his attitude on a daily basis.

“For those three hours between those lines, we’re going to play hard and we’re going to play fun and that’s just my style of baseball from day one,” Goodman said. “Once we can accomplish that, everything else will be fun, but I need those three hours hard between the lines. I will stress that all summer, you don’t have to have the best talent, don’t have to be the best player, if you’re hustling and working hard between those lines for three hours, good things are going happen for us.”

Owner and general manager Greg Morrison says he is excited for Goodman to bring his leadership and experience to Medicine Hat and share his philosophies around the game and pitching.

“When you have that playing professional experience, you’ve been around former big leaguers and high level guys that know what it takes to win, I’m excited that I can lean on that with him,” Morrison said. “Now it’s just about recruitment, we’re going to try and build out that squad.”

Morrison says they are aiming to still add a hitting and pitching coach to aid and supplement what Goodman brings but would be comfortable letting him be the head coach and pitching coach if need be, because of his experience.

One of Goodman’s strongest philosophies with pitching is limiting walks and free base runners. His Mine’s team came in second in the country for walks allowed last season.

“We’re not walking and guys can go out there and you give up hits, that’s OK, keep pitching, but we don’t walk,” Goodman said. “Once we walk, that’s when your time is usually over.”

Goodman will be able to speak from experience when it comes to throwing strikes, he struck out MLB hall-of-famer Rickey Henderson in his first professional appearance.

“He was my second hitter of the day and he came up, first pitch I threw a fastball inside and he swung out of his absolute shoes. He turns around and he points at me and he goes, ‘you don’t throw Rickey that pitch,'” Goodman said. “I’m 22 and my catcher behind the plate is an Olympic gold medalist. He won a gold medal with U.S.A. team way back in the day. So the next pitch I threw he calls a curveball, I throw it right out over the plate and Rickey shakes his head no to another curveball. He calls another curveball in the dirt, I throw another curveball, swinging strike three.

“It was the end of the inning and I got to walk it off and as I’m walking off, I couldn’t believe I just struck out a Hall of Famer.”