Tam has many well known alumni, including Tupac Shakur, Ann Killion, Beth Behrs, and many others, but one who is often overlooked is Bryan Price.
Price pitched for Tam’s varsity baseball team from 1977-80 and graduated as an All-State Pitcher and one of the best baseball players in Tam’s long and prestigious history. Price then went on to pitch at U.C. Berkeley and had a short playing career in the minor leagues. Price’s short playing career led him to pursue coaching, and he is now the Manager of the Cincinnati Reds, one of the first Major League Baseball Teams to be founded, in 1890. Even with all of his success, Price has not lost touch with his Mill Valley roots.
“My mother still lives in Mill Valley and has [lived] there since roughly 1957,” Price said. “I have always loved Mill Valley and try to get back at least once a year to hike Mt. Tam, have breakfast at Toast and dinner at La Ginestra and walk up Throckmorton [where I grew up] and down Cascade. I hope to return to Mill Valley as a resident once I retire.”
Price started his baseball career in Mill Valley Little league (MVLL) but didn’t take to it right away. “My best friend convinced me to go to the MVLL tryouts,” Price said. “I was tall for my age and was selected to play in the Majors. I had no real baseball experience at that point and really struggled to find success on the field. I wasn’t a very good player my first year. I was a little scared of the ball and was playing organized baseball for the first time with older kids. The next season I hit a home run on Opening Day and I got hooked on the adrenaline and the feeling.”
Price went on to Tam in 1976 but did not start playing baseball right away. “I began pitching at Tam during my sophomore year and we won the MCAL frosh/soph championship,” Price said. “It was at this time that my arm got really strong and I was really able to throw the ball faster than the other kids on my team and our opponents. That was when my career took off.”
After pitching at Cal, Price played professional baseball from 1984-89, until his arm gave out and he was forced to retire. “In 1989, my last year playing professional baseball [in the minor leagues with the Seattle Mariners], I knew my playing career was coming to an end. I knew my arm and body weren’t capable of holding up to the rigors of a longer career and I had already been through two arm surgeries with the need for another,” Price said. “Once I came to this realization, the transition into coaching seemed to resonate with me. I thought that at some point in my life I would teach in some capacity. My manager suggested to the Mariners front office that they hire me as a pitching coach, which they did. They sent me to Tempe, Arizona to be the pitching coach for the Rookie League team based there.
Price said he spent 11 years as a “below major league,” pitching coach, “before being hired as Seattle’s Major League pitching coach for the 2000 season,” Price said. “I spent the next nine-plus years as the pitching coach for the Seattle Mariners and Arizona Diamondbacks. I was then hired as the pitching coach for the Cincinnati Reds, which I was for four
years.”
Price was named the Reds full time manager on October 22 and could not be more excited about what is ahead for him and his team. “This is a huge honor and a greater responsibility. We have a huge following and a great legacy of successful teams and iconic Hall of Fame players,” Price said. “Currently, we have a talented team comprised of quality people. We believe that we can challenge for the post season and potentially a Championship. I am fortunate to have this opportunity and to be the manager of such a great group of people.”
“I owe a lot to the Tam community,” Price said. “I developed a lot of my baseball skills there and the coaches helped me develop as a player to help me get into [UC] Berkeley. My teammates and peers pushed to become the man I am today and I may not be where I am now if it wasn’t for the people at tam pushing me to be the best I could be.”