Eastern Michigan Athletics
Baseball
- Title:
- Assistant Coach
Chris Hoiles is in his second season as the assistant baseball coach at Eastern Michigan University.
Hoiles, an EMU alum, is one of the greatest players in program history. He earned three varsity baseball letters from 1984-86 and was drafted his junior season by the Detroit Tigers as a 19th round pick in the 1986 Major League Baseball (MLB) Draft. He was traded to the Baltimore Orioles in 1988 and went on to spend 10 years in the major leagues. Since his retirement in 1999, Hoiles has been involved in personal business and has also spent the past three seasons as a volunteer assistant baseball coach at Bowling Green State University.
During his EMU playing days, Hoiles set EMU records for single-season RBI (70 in 1986), home runs (19 in 1986), and also for career home runs with 34. He batted .340 as a freshman, .372 as a sophomore and .342 as a junior to turn in a career batting average of .352. His No. 32 jersey was retired in 1994 and he was inducted into the EMU Athletics Hall of Fame in 2000.
After signing his first professional contract with the Tigers, Hoiles went on to become a starting catcher for the Orioles from 1988-98. His most outstanding season for the Orioles came in 1993 when he was voted the Most Valuable Oriole while hitting .310 with 29 home runs and 82 RBI. That 29-home run season was the best ever by an Oriole catcher and he became just one of five catchers in MLB history to hit .300 or better with 25 or more home runs. The other catchers were Mike Stanley (N.Y. Yankees, 1993), Carlton Fisk (Boston Red Sox, 1977), Yogi Berra (N.Y. Yankees, 1950) and Bill Dickey (N.Y. Yankees, 1937, 1938).
The 40-year old Hoiles (3-20-65) is a native of Elmwood, Ohio and graduated from Elmwood High School where he was a standout baseball, football and basketball player. He currently lives in Wayne, Ohio with his wife, Dana, and three sons, Dalton, Derek and Drew.
