Jim Stoeckel
From BR Bullpen
- School Harvard University
Jim Stoeckel has been a longtime baseball coach and scout.
After graduating Harvard, Stoeckel was recruited by the Pittsburgh Pirates but instead played pro football in the Canadian Football League with the Hamilton Tiger Cats.
Stoeckel has been head baseball coach at Davidson College and Piedmont College. He has been an assistant coach at Harvard University and Indian River Community College. He has managed in the Cape Cod League and other summer collegiate leagues. Stoeckel has worked in Organized Baseball as pitching coach of the Vero Beach Dodgers (1983-1987 and 1998-1999).
Stoeckel came to the Dutch national team in 1981 and guided them to a title in the 1981 European Championship, re-establishing the Dutch squad over an Italian national team that dominated in the 1970s thanks to the aid of Italian-American players. He then guided the team to 6th place in the 1982 Amateur World Series, the best showing by the Netherlands to that point in an Amateur World Series.
From 1989-1991, Stoeckel again managed the Dutch national team. He led them to their first World Port Tournament title in 1989. He led them in the 1989 European Championship and 1991 European Championship, but they lost to Italy each time. They just missed the quarterfinals in the 1990 Baseball World Cup.
While coaching Davidson College, Stoeckel recruited Robert Eenhoorn, one of his players on the Dutch national team. Eenhoorn became the only major leaguer from Davidson in the latter half of the 20th Century and would later replace Stoeckel as manager of the Netherlands national team.
From 1990-1998, he was international scouting coordinator of the Los Angeles Dodgers.
In 2007-2008, he was director of International Operations for the Cincinnati Reds. Stoeckel was the bullpen coach of the Dutch team in the 2009 World Baseball Classic, after which he succeeded Bert Blyleven as their pitching coach.
He scouted Luke Prokopec, Brad Thomas, Matteo Pizziconi, Luca Panerati, Donald Lutz, Yen-Wen Kuo and Mariekson Gregorius among others.
