JEFFERSON CITY, Tenn. – Carson-Newman head baseball coach and Assistant Athletic Director for Coaching Development Tom Griffin has been announced as part of the next class set to be inducted into the Tennessee Baseball Coaches Association Hall of Fame.
Griffin will be inducted on January 20th at the TBCA's annual clinic. He will be joined by Butch Chaffin, Eddie Bassham and Wayne Hardison in the TBCA Hall of Fame class.
"I'm very appreciative and it's an honor to be part of that group," Carson-Newman head baseball coach Tom Griffin said. "I've been part of that clinic as a member and been able to speak there, it's a great organization. It's definitely an honor and its honoring the coaches, but really the people in our lives. It's honoring the coaches we've had, our family, our friends, the players, other coaches that you coach against and learn from, and administrators. All those people were a part in our lives to help us do we what we do for this many years. So, that's what I really think it is a celebration of, for the people in our lives."
Griffin is thought of as one of the premier catching and coaching minds in the game, authoring an instructional catching baseball video, "Catch It, Block It, Throw It". It can be found on his website, catchblockthrowit.com. He has been a regular at many coaching clinics and camps, and has been a featured speaker at the American Baseball Coaches Association convention multiple times as well. Coach Griffin has been an annual teacher and speaker at the TBCA clinic for more than 20 years.
"Well, this organization that Pat Swallows and others put together, all these coaches are teachers, in a classroom and then on the field," Griffin said. "We get to use the baseball field as a vehicle. And a reason I got into this organization is because of the coaches I had in high school and growing up, and I wanted to be a part of this as well. Using the sport to teach life lessons. Being able to compete and all the things we learn from playing sports. That's the biggest thing is passing on. It was passed on to me, hopefully we are passing it on to the players and coaches that we now have, to make them the most productive citizens, fathers and husbands they can be when they get done with college."
The sixth head coach in the modern era of Carson-Newman baseball has been coaching baseball for more than 30 years. He has won 685 career games as a head coach and secured win No. 500 at Carson-Newman this past season.
"35 years of coaching, there's a lot of mentors," Griffin said. "Anytime I have been working at a camp, baseball game sitting around with other coaches, any conventions like the ABCA, anytime I even pick up the phone or talk to someone, I am constantly trying to ask questions to figure out what I can do to be better in the X's and O's and the fundamentals. What can I do better with the relationships of my players, that's a constant and something I learned very early on from my parents. I think when we think of coaches we think, it's across all levels high school through professional levels. I've been fortunate to have been in a lot of different places. I try to listen more than I talk and to ask more questions to better myself."
When Griffin leads C-N on the baseball field this coming spring, it will be the skipper's 19th season managing the Eagles.
