Mark Connor

Mark Peter Connor

• Bats Right, Throws Right
• Height 6' 3", Weight 195 lb.
• School Belmont Abbey College, Manhattan College
• High School Chaminade High School (Mineola)

• Born May 27, 1949 in Brooklyn, NY USA

BR Minors page

Biographical Information

Pitcher Mark Connor played in the Minnesota Twins farm system in 1971 and 1972 before his career was ended by an arm injury. He went 4-5 with 3 saves and a 2.78 ERA for the 1971 Auburn Twins, with 57 K in 55 IP. The next year, he had a 5-2, 3.83 record in 32 relief appearances for the Wisconsin Rapids Twins.

After his playing days ended, Connor was the pitching coach at the University of Tennessee from 1974 to 1978. He was the pitching coach for the independent Paintsville Highlanders in 1978.

He hooked on with the New York Yankees organization in 1979, serving as a scout for the first year. Next, he was the pitching coach for the Greensboro Hornets (1980-1982) and Columbus Clippers in 1983. The next few years proved to be messy as owner George Steinbrenner changed managers and coaches frequently. Connor started 1984 with the Clippers, but was promoted to pitching coach of the Yankees on June 18th. He returned to the Yankees to start 1985 before being dismissed on August 2nd and demoted to pitching coach for the Fort Lauderdale Yankees. Connor took on a new role to start 1986 as a minor league pitching instructor, but this did not last long. He returned to the Yankees on May 17th as the team's pitching coach and managed to retain that position all the way through the 1987 season.

In 1988 and 1989, Connor was head baseball coach of the University of Tennessee.

Connor returned to the Yankees as bullpen coach (1990 and 1993) and the third stint as pitching coach (1991-1992). Moving to the Toronto Blue Jays organization, Connor was pitching coach for the Knoxville Smokies in 1994-1995.

Hooking up with the new Arizona Diamondbacks, Connor was the team's pitching coordinator in 1996 and 1997, scouting and preparing for the expansion draft. He was pitching coach of the big league Diamondbacks from 1998 to 2000 under Buck Showalter and held the same post with the Toronto Blue Jays in 2001 and part of 2002. Connor resigned in early June after manager Buck Martinez was fired.

Connor next joined the Texas Rangers as bullpen coach in 2003, and in 2006, Connor became the team's pitching coach. He was fired from this position on August 1, 2008, but stayed with the Rangers as a Player Development Consultant for the 2009-2010 seasons. In 2011, he again worked under Showalter, after doing so in Arizona and Texas, becoming his pitching coach with the Baltimore Orioles. He resigned on June 14th of that year, citing personal reasons, and was replaced by bullpen coach Rick Adair. Less than three months later he was hired by the Texas Rangers as a Special Advisor to Baseball Operations. From 2012-2018 (and possibly 2019) Connor served as a Minor League Special Assistant for Pitching with the Rangers.

Blue Jays Pitching Coaches
Previous	Current	Next
Dave Stewart	Mark Connor	Gil Patterson
	2001 to 2002