Kevin Hooper leaving as Wingnuts manager (+video)
The San Diego Padres weren’t on the short list of Kevin Hooper’s possible destinations, but only because he had no idea he was on theirs.
When that information was revealed, Hooper decided the Padres were attractive enough to leave the Wingnuts, whom he has managed for the last seven seasons. Ho
Hooper made the announcement during a Tuesday news conference at Lawrence-Dumont Stadium. The team also announced plans for $700,000 in renovations to the city-owned stadium, to be funded by a capital improvement plan.
Hooper last year was named a volunteer assistant for WSU’s softball team but won’t be fulfilling that role.
The Padres hired Andy Green as manager this offseason and revamped areas of their organization.
“I didn’t know anybody with San Diego personally,” Hooper said. “My name came up in a meeting and Andy’s face kind of lit up, and the rest of the history. They flew out and met with my wife and I for three hours and made an offer a couple days later.”
Hooper played at Lawrence High and Wichita State before reaching the major leagues with the Detroit Tigers in 2005 and ’06. He was an All-American infielder at Wichita State and he played in more than 600 Triple-A games.
He played for the Wingnuts in 2008, their inaugural season, winning the batting title before replacing Kash Beauchamp as manager a year later. Hooper led the Wingnuts to six division championships and the 2014 American Association championship.
“So he’ll be easy to replace,” Robertson joked.
Hooper will spend most of his time working with infielders for the Padres’ six minor-league affiliates, but he won’t move with his wife, Lindsey, and two daughters away from the Wichita area, and he said he’ll spend about 10 days at home each month.
“I’m looking forward to seeing these guys work to develop (players) into something special,” said Hooper, who said he would be involved in finding his replacement. “I don’t plan on this skipping a beat. These guys over here, they’re not going to let anything happen to my baby.”
Also Tuesday, the Wingnuts named former Newman coach Paul Sanagorski hitting coach, joining a staff with pitching coach Luke Robertson and bench coach Jim Foltz.
Stadium upgrades – Remodeled bathrooms, chairback seating throughout the stadium, expanded group seating and a new scoreboard are expected to be finished by May 1. By 2017, the Wingnuts plan to introduce grass-hill seating down the first-base line and beyond the outfield fences.
“It’s been a long time since this has had the upgrades that it’s needed,” Wingnuts general manager Josh Robertson said of the stadium, built in 1934.
The stadium has received minor touchups during the Wingnuts’ stay but nothing as substantial as the upcoming improvements that will include the departure of one of its longtime characters.
“The ‘Gertie the Goose’ manually operated scoreboard will be taken down,” Robertson said. “It’s served its time, for sure.”
In its place will be a larger video board which fans can view from a bleacherless stadium, as green chairback seats will replace the outdated metal bleachers which Robertson acknowledges are uncomfortable.
This story was originally published January 12, 2016 at 3:04 PM with the headline "Kevin Hooper leaving as Wingnuts manager (+video)."