As the Mobile BayBears approached the final game of a 23-year run in 2019, the club was naming an All-Time BayBears Team — 28 players plus key off-field figures — and the man at the top of the managerial list was a South Alabama product: Satsuma native and former University of South Alabama star Turner Ward.
Back-to-Back Titles
After three seasons as Mobile’s hitting coach, Ward managed the BayBears in 2011 and 2012 and delivered back-to-back Southern League championships. In 2011 he was named Southern League Manager of the Year while the BayBears were chosen Minor League Team of the Year by Baseball America. The next season he managed the Southern League All-Star Game and coached in the All-Star Futures Game.
From Mobile to the Majors
Ward’s coaching career carried him straight to the big leagues: he coached for the Arizona Diamondbacks from 2013 to 2015, then served as hitting coach for the Los Angeles Dodgers from 2016 through 2018 — a stretch in which the Dodgers won back-to-back National League pennants — before taking over as hitting coach for the Cincinnati Reds.
Before all of it came a 12-year major league playing career in which Ward appeared for the Cleveland Indians, Milwaukee Brewers, Toronto Blue Jays, Pittsburgh Pirates, Diamondbacks and Philadelphia Phillies. Selections for the All-Time team were based on each player’s or coach’s overall career rather than only their time in Mobile, with members revealed one at a time as the BayBears neared their September 2 finale.