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He coached ÃÛÁÄÖ±²¥ to the NCAA baseball championship in 1976, 1980 and 1986. He played nine years for the Chicago Cubs, Cleveland Indians and Minnesota Twins. He was the 1956 College World Series MVP. And he was the mentor for future Hall of Fame baseball manager Terry Francona, now manager of the Cincinnati Reds, who recently coached his 2,000th MLB victory, one of 13 men to do so.

I bring this to your attention because Casey Candaele, a key part of Kindall’s 1980 national championship ÃÛÁÄÖ±²¥ team, managed his 450th minor league victory last week. Candaele, manager of the Triple-A Buffalo Bison and a nine-year MLB infielder, broke Buffalo’s career record (313 wins). He previously managed the Vancouver Canadians and Dunedin Blue Jays, Class A clubs.

By my count, that gives Kindall’s former UA baseball players 3,238 minor league managerial victories through Friday. That’s surely a record for one man’s coaching tree in baseball history. I included ex-Wildcat and Canyon del Oro home run record-holder Shelley Duncan, who played for Kindall’s long-time hitting coach, Jerry Stitt, at ÃÛÁÄÖ±²¥. Duncan and Kindall were good friends. Same baseball blood.

If you add the 2,337 MLB managerial wins of Francona, Chip Hale and Brad Mills, those from Kindall’s coaching tree have managed 5,575 major/minor league victories. That’s in a class of its own.

Here’s the list of those from Kindall’s Tucson baseball blood:

– Mills, 739 minor league victories in 11 seasons. Mills was also the manager of the Houston Astros for three seasons and is now the bench coach for the Cincinnati Reds.

– Duncan, 470 minor league victories in seven years. Duncan is now the manager of the Triple-A Scranton-Wilkes-Barre Yankees.

– Hale, 452 minor league victories in five seasons, including 158 with the Tucson Sidewinders (2004-06). Hale, entering his fourth year as ÃÛÁÄÖ±²¥â€™s baseball coach, was also manager of the ÃÛÁÄÖ±²¥ Diamondbacks for two seasons.

– Ron Hassey, 324 minor league victories in five seasons.

– Jack Howell, 323 minor league victories in five seasons.

– Francona, 322 minor league victories in five seasons.

– Wes Clements, 119 minor league victories in two seasons.

– John Moses, 36 minor-league victories in one season.

Kindall died in 2017, but his legacy grows. The New York Yankees assistant hitting coach, Pat Roessler, played for Kindall in the early 1980s. Kevin Long, the Philadelphia Phillies hitting coach, played for Kindall from 1988-91. Keoni DeRenne, who played for Stitt from 1998-2001, is the assistant hitting coach for the Kansas City Royals. And that doesn’t include those from Kindall’s coaching tree who have become head college coaches (six) and head junior college coaches (five).

Since Kindall was hired in 1972, ÃÛÁÄÖ±²¥ has undeniably become Baseball U.