Update: New Whitecaps manager Larry Parrish glad to be back 'with family'

COMSTOCK PARK, MI –Larry Parrish, a 15-year major league veteran and former manager of the Detroit Tigers, has been named manager of the West Michigan Whitecaps, the Tigers announced today.

Parrish, 58, who managed the Tigers at the end of 1998 and all of 1999, succeeds Ernie Young, who was fired on the final day of the season.

Parrish was out of baseball last season. He last served as the Atlanta Braves’ hitting coach in 2011.

A two-time All-Star (1979, '87), Parrish was a .263 career hitter with 256 home runs and 992 RBIs with Montreal (1974-81), Texas (1982-88) and Boston ('88). Parrish played two seasons (1989-90) in Japan before ending his playing career at age 34.

In 1992, Parrish was hired by the Tigers as manager of the short-season Class A Niagara Falls Rapids. A year later, he led that team to the New York-Penn League championship. After three seasons in Niagara Falls, he was named as the Tigers’ minor league roving hitting instructor. In 1996, he was named the manager of the Double-A Jacksonville Suns, where he won the Southern League championship.

In 1997, Parrish joined the Tigers as bench coach, a position he held until mid-1998 when he was named to replace Buddy Bell as manager. Parrish managed the Tigers through the 1999 season, the team’s final season at Tiger Stadium, and compiled an overall 82-104 record. After Phil Garner was named manager in 2000, Parrish remained in the Tigers organization as a scout.

Parrish returned as manager of Triple-A Toledo in 2003 and was named Minor League Manager of the Year in 2005 by The Sporting News after leading the Mud Hens to the first of back-to-back International League titles.

He remained in Toledo through the 2010 season before becoming the Braves’ hitting coach in 2011.

The Whitecaps also announced hitting coach Scott Dwyer will return to the team, along with Athletic Trainer T.J. Saunders, while longtime pitching coach Mark Johnson has been assigned to Class A Short Season Connecticut for the 2013 season. A replacement has not yet been named for Johnson.

Young compiled a 142-137 record as Whitecaps manager in 2011-2012.



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