Former Major League Baseball superstar and Boston Red Sox Hall of Famer Reggie Smith will join an expert team of US coaches coming to Auckland next month to co-host a weekend of clinics designed for New Zealand’s growing roster of club coaches.

The International Sports Group (ISG) is a non-profit organisation based in the United States that for more than 25 years has hosted coaching programmes around the world, bringing together some of the most respected coaches in the world with up-and-coming baseball nations like New Zealand.

This first visit to the country’s shores, orchestrated and co-hosted by Baseball New Zealand, will be led by former USA National Baseball Coach Peter Caliendo, along with 48-year coaching veteran Tom O’Connell (current president of ISG), and former (Boston) Red Sox, (St Louis) Cardinals, (Los Angeles) Dodgers, (San Francisco) Giants and Yomiuri (Japan) Giants All Star outfielder Smith.

“International Sports Group is honoured and proud to be working together with Baseball New Zealand in hosting the coaches educational programme, because of the incredible progress the country has made to develop the sport internationally,” said Caliendo, who will be visiting New Zealand for the first time.

The experienced coach runs his own company, Caliendo Sports International, a worldwide baseball organisation that trains individuals, teams, coaches, parents and deals in professional baseball operations worldwide.

Caliendo’s company takes teams, coaches, players and parents all over the world to experience international and cultural exchanges through the sport of baseball, bringing unmatched experience and expertise to the development of baseball skills to players and coaches. “We have the same philosophy that coach’s education helps develop the grass roots and as a result increases the sports participation,” he said by email recently.

Joining Caliendo is former MLB superstar Reggie Smith who played for four different MLB teams over 16 years, before finishing his career with a two-year stint in Japan. Smith was a seven-time All Star, won the world Series in 1981 with the Los Angeles Dodgers and was inducted into the Boston Red Sox Hall of Fame in 2000. Smith most recently served as hitting coach for the USA National team at the 2008 Beijing Olympic Games and runs his own baseball academy in California.

Baseball New Zealand CEO Ryan Flynn has admired the work of this group from afar for some time and is delighted they are coming to New Zealand. “His (Caliendo’s) vast knowledge and worldwide presence has earned Peter immeasurable respect within the baseball community and to have someone of Reggie Smith’s stature coming here is just fantastic.

“Growing up in the U.S. I followed Reggie’s career closely and admired his immense talent”—even though, as Flynn recalled, “his Dodgers beat my beloved Yankees in the ’81 World Series—and to now get the chance to bring and have such a legendary baseball figure to New Zealand to guide our coaches is really special and should be a huge boost to dozens of our top club and regional coaches at the start of an important season.”

The final member of the group is Tom O’Connell, a 48-year coaching veteran, largely in Wisconsin coaching High School teams who is also a three-time USA Coach of the Year.  O’Connell has also authored three books on baseball coaching and has served as the lead envoy coach in Germany for Major League Baseball since 1993 – spending fifteen of his summers developing players and coaches – while also scouting for the Dodgers, Reds, Phillies and Orioles.

The three days of clinics and courses will run from 22 to 24 September and will be held in Auckland.