Leo Mazzone

Leo Mazzone got his start in professional baseball in 1967 after signing with the San Francisco Giants. Played in the Giants organization for eight seasons before being traded to the Oakland Athletics in 1974. During his time in the Athletics farm system he made it to Triple-A several times before retiring as a player in 1976 after 10 seasons in minor league ball. Two years later he turned his focus to coaching and landed a job as the manger of the Carolina League Kinston Eagles in 1978. The following year he became the pitching coach for the Atlanta Braves and served in that role until 2005. During his 18 seasons as the Braves pitching coach he mentored several future Hall of Famers, including John Glavine, Greg Maddux and John Smoltz and helped the Braves to 13 consecutive NL East titles and a World Series title in 1995. Mazzone headed to the Baltimore Orioles in 2006 and retired in 2007. He is widely considered to be one of the greatest assistant coaches of all-time, and was inducted into the Kinston Professional Baseball Hall of Fame in 1993. Since his retirement he has singed on as a color commentator for Fox and also serves as the co-host for Atlanta’s WCNN-AM morning show “The Rude Awakening”.