The Seattle Mariners have hired Jason Kanzler as their new manager, it was announced today.
I do not believe I had ever heard of Jason Kanzler before today. Well, I had probably heard of him, because he was the Houston Astros’ hitting coach in 2022 and 2023, and so I presumably saw his name during that period of time. But it didn’t stick in my memory.
I think I would like a clarification as to the appropriate use of the phase “I have not heard of…”. Is it only to be used in instances when I am sure
I have literally never encountered this in my life? Or is it okay to use when I may have heard of or encountered this bit of information in the past, but that’s not definite, and either way, I don’t remember?
I think those situations are distinguishable from things that you have forgotten about, but you realize you probably were aware of at one time in the past — for example, I just went to the 1993 Texas Rangers B-R page, and saw that Steve Balboni was a member of the team. Three minutes ago, I would have bet my life that Steve Balboni never played for the Rangers. But, no, he was on the team, and appeared in two games.
I was drinking a lot and generally being an unsavory character at the time, but I was still following the Rangers very closely, getting the Dallas Morning News daily and reading all the baseball stuff. I was watching the games on TV, or listening to them on the radio. So I would have been aware, in September of 1993, that Steve Balboni was on the Rangers. I would have thought to myself, most likely, hey, I remember when he was good and hit a bunch of homers for the Royals! It would have entered my consciousness.
But at some point thereafter, it left my consciousness, and so seeing him on the 1993 roster prompted a feeling of surprise. Hey, I’d forgotten Steve Balboni played for the Rangers! But not, hey, I had no idea Steve Balboni played for the Rangers.
Anyway, Kanzler played in the minors for a few seasons after being drafted in the 20th round in 2013 by the Minnesota Twins — the same year the Rangers drafted Isiah Kiner-Falefa in the 4th round, and the Yankees’ drafted Aaron Judge in the supplemental first round. After leaving baseball he was a physics and chemistry teacher at Katy High School, as well as coaching their baseball team. He joined the Astros as a minor league hitting coach in 2019, joined the major league staff as hitting coach for 2022, and after the 2023 was hired by the Chicago Cubs as their farm director.
He does not appear to be related to Andrew Knizner.
Kanzler the Millennial is not the youngest MLB manager — that honor goes to Blake Butera, manager of the Nationals, who just turned 34 in August. He is the second youngest MLB manager, however.
