C.R. pitching coach Wilson glad to be back in game

?

CEDAR RAPIDS - Believe it or not, Trevor Wilson missed the bus rides and the hotel rooms. The late nights eating fast food.

He must be nuts, right?

“It's been good to get back on the road,” the Cedar Rapids Kernels pitching coach said before last night's 5-3 win over Dayton at Veterans Memorial Stadium.

Wilson spent the previous three seasons mentoring pitchers for the parent Los Angeles Angels' Arizona Rookie League team. Guys there stay in the same hotel all summer and play night games because of the extreme heat.

No one comes to watch them play for that reason. It doesn't feel much like professional baseball.

“That's a whole different deal, a little different baseball,” Wilson said. “They're all commuter trips, you're playing with nobody in the stands, it's 110 degrees every day. It's different.”

Wilson pitched parts of eight seasons in the big leagues for the Angels and San Francisco Giants, compiling a 41-46 record and 3.87 earned run average in 169 games, 115 starts. His career ended after the 1999 season.

“My career was OK. Blue collar,” the Oregon native said. “Happy to be there, yeah. Selfishly, I wish I would have pitched another 10 years. I miss hitting, I miss all that stuff. Just playing the game.”

Wilson, 45, said he figured baseball would be part of his future after his playing days concluded but had no idea how. It became clearer after a conversation with buddy Dusty Baker, then the manager of the Giants.

“I just told him ‘Hey, Bake, I'm done' He said ‘Well, what do you think about coaching?' I was like ‘I don't know. You think you've got the right guy?'” Wilson said with a laugh. “I told him he was like the fourth person to say that, so I guess I'd better try it. Eleven years later ...”

He began coaching in the Giants system before joining the Angels and has done a nice job with a Kernels pitching staff that is performing at an increasingly improving level. For instance, starter P.J. Jang allowed just one hit his first six innings.

“It's been great for me, especially,” said Kernels reliever Dakota Robinson. “Being left-handed and being in the bullpen and learning from someone who did that at the major league level.”

The Kernels (11-11 second half) have won five straight. The teams play again today at 2.