Technically, new Anchorage Bucs manager Matt Priess never played in the Alaska Baseball League, although he did make a road trip here once with a team from Hawaii.
Still, Priess' connections to the summer circuit for college players are legion.
Priess, 28, played catcher at Cal Poly San Luis Obispo in California when former Anchorage Bucs infielder and manager Mark O'Brien was an assistant coach there. He was a graduate assistant at Cal Poly when former Bucs manager Mike Oakland was an assistant there. He played on Cal Poly teams with Scott Kidd, who played summers for the Bucs and Anchorage Glacier Pilots, and Jon Macalutas, who played for the Pilots.
There's more. Priess spent the last college season as an assistant coach at Cuesta Community College in California, where he worked for head coach Bob Miller, the former Glacier Pilots manager. And when Miller guided the Pilots to second place in last year's National Baseball Congress World Series, the Pilots advanced to the championship game against the Fairbanks Goldpanners with a semifinal win against the San Luis Obispo Blues, who were managed by Priess.
"It was kind of funny,'' Priess said. "(Miller) eliminated me, then ended up coming to Cuesta. Baseball's a small world.''
The Bucs on Thursday conducted a teleconference at their Midtown offices to introduce Priess, who replaces Jim Yanko. Yanko managed the Bucs to a 73-68 record in three seasons, but the team went just 17-25 last season and general manager Dennis Mattingly said the Bucs' board of directors recently voted to hire a new manager.
Bucs general manager Dennis Mattingly said he wanted to quickly hire a new manager so recruiting for the 2004 season can begin immediately.
"I wanted him to be able to have all the time he needed to see all the players he wanted to see and talk to all the coaches he wanted to talk to,'' Mattingly said. "I just wanted to give him every opportunity.''
Mattingly said Priess was strongly recommended by Miller and O'Brien, among others.
Priess, who advanced as high as Class AA in the San Francisco Giants organization, is an engineer and is working on a master's degree in kinesiology. But Friday was his last day at his engineering job -- he begins work Monday as an assistant coach at the University of California.
"I'm an engineer in name only,'' Priess said. "My heart's not in it.''
Priess, who made a road trip to Alaska with the Hawaii Island Movers in 1996, said he is excited to manage in the ABL.
"I'm familiar with the caliber of players, which is why I wanted to manage there,'' Preiss said.
Daily News assistant sports editor Doyle Woody can be reached at dwoody@adn.com.
