Interview with Keith Madison, former Kentucky Wildcat baseball coach
By Danielle
Daniel Solzman: Of the 19 guys you coached that made it to the Major League level, which ones did you think had a chance when you were coaching or recruiting them?
Keith Madison: Well, I think Scott Downs was a guy that I felt good about because he had such great command of his pitches and he was also a tremendous competitor. When he first came to Kentucky, he was small and just didn’t have a lot of meat on his bones but he could really pitch. He got bigger and stronger while he was pitching here. He had a lot of success here and some great SEC competition. He got drafted and the rest is history.
Another guy that I have to mention is a guy named Terry Shumpert. Terry was an infielder for Kentucky back in the late 80s. He was from Paducah Tillman High School. Just a great athlete, an all-state basketball player came here to play baseball. He was such a tremendous athlete and had great speed. Great hands as an infielder. It was just a matter of time for him. In his second year, he really came on strong. It’s always mentioned that we had 2 guys play for Team USA but actually, Terry was the third. Terry played for Team USA in Europe for the summer and then came back. He became an infielder and just really lit up the eyes of the professional baseball form that year because of his base-stealing ability. I think he was either a second or third round pick. To me, he was a can’t miss guy and he had a long career in the major leagues. At the end of his career, he was the only player that really had a good career.
Another one is Joe Blanton, who was absolutely dominating SEC hitters as a junior. When you do that, you a guy has got a chance. He’s a different kind of pitcher now. When he pitched for me, he threw 93-94 mph so he could over power people with his fastball and devastating curveball. As he’s progressed through several years now in the Major Leagues, he’s developed a change-up, slider, breaking ball type of pitcher. He pitches at 90-91 but he’s had a good career. He has a rough stretch right now. I think 5 of his last 6 starts have been kind of tough but the start prior to last night, he pitched a complete game, only gave up 1 earned run, and I think 9 strikeouts. The entire Philly team seems to be struggling and he’s a part of that. One interesting thing about Joe Blanton is that his father and I were on the same high school team at Edmonton County High School, down in Brownsville, Kentucky. His dad was one of the catchers on my team so when Joe started emerging as a prospect, first at Edmonton County and then at Franklin Simpson. We think it was interesting that his dad came up on the same team that I played on.
Daniel, those are the three guys that I think are sort of can’t miss guys that I felt would really make it to the big leagues. You know, another one that I felt that way about was Jim Leyritz. He eventually made it with the Yankees. Mark Thompson, who became a second round pick by the Colorado Rockies. Then a guy, to be quite honest with you, that I thought was a can’t miss guy, never made it: Chad Green. Chad played for me in the 90s. He was the #8th overall pick in the country in his junior year (1996) and was a switch-hitter. He was the fastest player in college baseball, maybe the fastest player in all of baseball, period. They gave him a baseball speed in the 60 yard dash. He ran a 6.25, which is sort of Olympic type speed. He went through a lot of hitting coaches in the minors and he was one of those guys that, I think, the mental part of the game…and he just never could adjust to that. He was an All-American for us, a Team USA guy, and just a phenomenal player in the Southeastern Conference. We had a lot of players that nobody expected to make it to the big leagues that did make it and then we have a guy that even professional scouts said he was a can’t miss guy and he didn’t make it. That’s sort of the way sports go from time to time.
Daniel Solzman: You’re publishing Inside Pitch Online these days. When did you get the idea to do that?
Keith Madison: It was probably late last summer. I was originally going to just do a baseball magazine for the organization I work with (SCORE International). One of my former players told me to do a really sort of cutting-edge amateur baseball magazine. That’s what we did. We’ve been very fortunate to have some great people. Ray Tanner, coach of the South Carolina Gamecocks, is on the cover and gave us a great interview. They’ve won back to back national championships. We introduced Inside Pitch to magazine at the American Baseball Coaches Association convention out in Anaheim. The coaches out there just loved it—4,000 coaches in attendance and they gobbled them up. They loved the magazine. The second issue featured Andy Pettitte making his comeback bid. Andy was one of the guys on a mission trip with us to the Dominican Republic back in November. He’s been with us on 2 occasions down there and I’ve gotten to know him. He gave us a great interview about why he decided to make a comeback and that sort of thing. The third issue just came out this week and we sort of introduced that issue at the College World Series. That idea came about back last summer. We just want to be a resource for college coaches, college players, travel ball coaches and players, parents, high school coaches, players, and parents. It’s not only an instructional magazine but informational magazine and we also think it’s an inspirational magazine. It’s really been well received. Now, we just have to market it better and get the word out. The people that have read it love it. We just want to get the word out where people find out about it.
Daniel Solzman: Thanks again for joining us. Any final words for Big Blue Nation?
Keith Madison: It’s just one of the greatest legacy of sports in America. The Big Blue Nation that Kentucky has, especially basketball and all sports. I just feel blessed to have been a part of that and I just want to say that I’m so excited what the Kentucky baseball team did this year under Gary Henderson. I got to see Kent State play in the College World Series. Kentucky was a great team but they played against the hottest team in college baseball in the regionals and Kentucky was slopping just a little bit offensively. I’m very proud of them and Coach Henderson. A lot of his players are coming back and he’s got another great recruiting class that he’s put together that’s coming in. I expect another great run next year.