Interview with Keith Madison, former Kentucky Wildcat baseball coach
By Danielle
Keith Madison, the former coach of the Kentucky Wildcats baseball team, spoke to Wildcat Blue Nation recently. Amongst topics discussed were Brandon Webb’s comeback.
Daniel Solzman: Thanks for joining Wildcat Blue Nation today. How are things treating you in Lexington?
Keith Madison: Everything’s going well. Everything’s going really well. I just got back from the College World Series earlier this week and, as you know, when you travel, you always get behind on things, but it was well worth it with the atmosphere out there.
Daniel Solzman: You resigned as head coach of Kentucky baseball at the end of the 2003 season. Have you regretted that at point in the last nine years?
Keith Madison: No, not at all. Not at all. I was the coach for 25 years and I knew the time was right for me. At the time, I didn’t know what I was going to be doing at all. I was taking a leap of faith that something would be out there for me. I spent about a year and a half to two years working in the development office with the university and I went on a short term mission trip with a bunch of other baseball guys down to the Dominican Republic. I still obviously have a passion for baseball and I love the kids down there. I kept going back on those trips. The founder of organization that hosted these trips offered me a position to do this full time with them, an organization called SCORE International. I’ve been doing that for the last 6 years or so. It’s just been a blast, just giving back, and this past November, we helped lead a group of 230 (baseball coaches, Major League players, Minor League players, and baseball fans) on a trip down there. We conducted free baseball clinics for about 8,000 kids in that country in 5 days. It’s just been a blast doing that.
Daniel Solzman: In your 25 years of coaching at Kentucky, what would you say your legacy is?
Keith Madison: Oh, wow. I think my legacy probably from a purely baseball standpoint would be building a program that was emphasized very little when I first got here. It was a part-time position. We were last in the Southeastern Conference, in budget, last in interest. I was 26 years old at the time so I sort of took the job by its horns and just was very positive, not torn up. Riding up, there were lots of smaller challenges…but in my first year at Kentucky, we broke the school record for wins. My third year, we broke the school record for wins again, and a few years later, we broke the school record for wins again. I think building a program from basically scratch and then, also, developing pitchers. Just about three years ago, the Wall Street Journal, in just about an introductory piece to the College World Series, said that Kentucky, for the past 15 years or so, was the best or was the third-best baseball program in America in developing pitchers. Of course, at that time, Brandon Webb was still rolling. Joe Blanton was doing well. Scott Downs was doing really well. So, we just developed a lot of real good pitchers. I think, during my tenure at Kentucky, we had about 19 players make it to the Major Leagues. Out of those 19, I think 14-15 were pitcher. So being a former pitcher myself, I take a lot of pride in just being able to help those guys develop and become Major League pitchers. In some cases, stars in the Major League. I think that those two things are my legacy and hopefully something that people probably don’t care as much they should or just don’t know about. One thing that is for sure: I really love my players. I even thought of them as family to me. I want to win, absolutely. I love winning. In most years, we were very competitive but I really love my players, just watching those guys develop and watching them coming in and leave campus as men, individually become good fathers…businesses in their community. That’s just something that I look upon as myself. Maybe the public doesn’t see that as much. That’s something that I really have a lot of fond memories of.
Daniel Solzman: Are you surprised at all by what John Cohen and Gary Henderson have been able to do with the program?
Keith Madison: Not at all. I’m not surprised in the least. Mitch Barnhart—he was sort of coming as I was going—I knew that he was going to make a commitment to all sports, not just basketball and football. He ran a well-rounded athletic program. I’m not saying this to come across negative or bitter or anything like that because I’m not. But the athletic directors prior to Mitch Barnhart really didn’t care very much about other sports. They sort of said they did because they had to say that but there just wasn’t a lot of emphasis placed on sports other than men’s basketball, football, and then later, women’s basketball. There was an emphasis there. Mitch Barnhart has done a phenomenal job in creating a winning culture in the entire athletic department. I give him a lot of credit. For sure, I give John Cohen credit, Gary Henderson credit, but you really have to give Mitch Barnhart credit because he gave them the tools to have success. They’re great coaches. They sort of took the ball and ran with it. So, no, I’m not surprised they—Kentucky’s a great university. When you put the right coaches in place and then you support those coaches, they are going to have success.
Daniel Solzman: Is Brandon still trying to make a comeback? I know he hasn’t done anything in the last few seasons.
Keith Madison: Yeah, he is. It’s funny you mention him because I thought about him all day yesterday. I wanted to give him a call but I just didn’t get around to it. The last time I talked to him, he was feeling great and he was beginning to throw bullpens on his own and he felt good about it. That’s been probably 3 weeks ago and he was hoping to hook up with a club sometime around the All-Star Break or something like that. You may know he’s had two surgeries and hasn’t pitched since 2009 but he’s a sinkerball guy. If he can get some of that velocity back and pitch without regular pain, he could still be very successful. I’d like to see the team like the Cincinnati Reds get him because of the ballpark. It’s a hitter’s park and you need sinkerball pitchers in that ballpark because the ball flies out of there so if he can get that game together, he could be a great fit for a team like the Reds. He was still trying that and we’re going pray that it happens for him.