St. Pierre Announced as new Pitching Coach

By Randy Wehofer / Burlington Bees
From www.gobees.com

Burlington, IA (December 15, 2006) - The Burlington Bees and Kansas City Royals announce that there has been a change in the Bees field staff for 2007. Bobby St. Pierre has been hired and assigned to be the Bees' pitching coach next season. Steve Luebber, who had been announced earlier as returning for a second season as the Bees' pitching coach has been promoted to become the pitching coach for the Wilmington Blue Rocks in the Carolina League. This announcement leaves Manager Jim Gabella as the only returning member of the Bees field staff for next year.

St. Pierre joins the Royals organization after working the past several seasons as both a manager and pitching coach for the Silver Springs-Takoma Thunderbolts of the Cal Ripken, Sr. Collegiate Baseball League. The wood bat league runs throughout the month of July and attracts some of the best collegiate talent in the country. He also has been working as a private instructor during the winter months the last several years in the Washington, D.C. metro area.

St. Pierre was a seventh-round pick of the New York Yankees in the 1995 June Free Agent Draft. He pitched four seasons in the Yankees system with Oneonta, Tampa, and Norwich. He played both baseball and football at the University of Richmond and was named a Summer League First-Team All-American in 1994 as well as a Colonial Athletic Conference All-Star. He currently resides in Washington, D.C.

Luebber leaves the Bees after just one season as pitching coach. Under his guidance, the team posted a solid 3.47 ERA for the year. It was the first time since 1998 that a Bees staff posted a team ERA under 4.00 for an entire season and the best mark for a Bees staff overall since 1990. Luebber will work with Wilmington manager John Mizerock and be reunited with Athletic Trainer Mark Stubblefield and Strength and Conditioning Coach Bryce Stone, who were also part of the Bees staff in '06 and have been assigned to Wilmington next year. Patrick Anderson, the Bees' hitting coach for the last five seasons, will be the hitting coach for short-season Idaho Falls next year.

General admission season passes, Buzz Club memberships, Teen Tickets, and Bonus Books for the 2007 season are in and available for purchase in time for the holidays. For more information on season tickets, fans can contact the Bees' front office at (319) 754-5705 or take advantage of the on-line order forms on the team's official website at www.gobees.com.


Copyright MiLB.com, 2006.