Even the biggest of Braves fans have a hard time identifying at least one player in this photo from spring training 1994 in West Palm Beach.
The two in the middle are easy. Deion Sanders, wearing one of his favorite pieces of gold, looks like he is giving David Justice a lesson in how to give the infamous chop. On the far left is a very young Ryan Klesko, who would get his first full season in the majors that year and finish third in the voting for National League Rookie of the Year.
But who is the player on the far right?
Actually, he never pitched for the Braves in a major-league game but was a star for two seasons at Richmond, going 13-8 and 13-6 in two consecutive seasons. He is right-hander Mike Birkbeck, who signed with the Braves in the winter of 1992 as a free agent. Interestingly, he came very close to coming back to the South last year when the Georgia Bulldogs hired Kent coach Scott Stricklin.
At the time, Birkbeck was one of Stricklin’s assistants and one of the top college pitching coaches in the country. He had been at Kent for 17 years and was named NCAA baseball assistant coach of the year by Baseball America in 2012. Birkbeck even came to Athens to tour the UGA campus, but Kent held on to him by giving him a five-year contract and adding associate head coach to his title. They offered him the head job, but he wanted to remain with the pitchers, in part, because his son is pitching for the school.
“They had the Fab Five (in Atlanta back then), and I think the only two pitchers they called up those two years were Mark Wohlers and Brad Clontz,’’ said Birkbeck, who compiled a 14-19 record in the majors and spent 13 seasons in the minors, 10 at Class AAA. “I still really enjoyed my time in the organization, and I got close to coming to Georgia. But in the end Kent is my home.’’
