Ex-Texas Wesleyan baseball coach who was fired over an email is back as a manager
Mike Jeffcoat hasn’t changed the way he feels about what he said, but admits the infamous email that became an international story and got him fired was worded wrong.
It has been just over three years since Texas Wesleyan fired the former Texas Rangers pitcher as its baseball coach because of an email he sent to a high school baseball player from Colorado.
Today, Jeffcoat is the new manager of the Cleburne Railroaders independent league baseball team.
“I probably worded what I said in the email wrong. I was not trying to be malicious,” Jeffcoat said in a phone interview. “I wasn’t trying to claim there aren’t good kids from Colorado, or all of them use marijuana. Nothing like that.”
On March 1, 2018, TWU fired Jeffcoat for the following email he sent to a player: “Hi Gavin, Thanks for the interest in our program. Unfortunately, we are not recruiting players from the state of Colorado. In the past, players have had trouble passing our drug test. We have made a decision to not take a chance on Student-athletes from your state. You can thank your liberal politicians. Best of Luck wherever you decide to play.”
Jeffcoat felt the more appropriate response from TWU would have been to suspend him, or issue a public reprimand.
Those scenarios were never discussed. He said he was called into a meeting with the director of human resources, and the athletic director, who read to Jeffcoat a statement that said he was fired.
“They never gave me a reason,” he said.
Three years later, Jeffcoat is not a fan of marijuana.
“I still don’t think it’s good for our society. That’s my opinion and I’ll stick to that,” he said. “I know it’s going to be legalized in other states, and it may here eventually. I just think it affects people’s motivation to work. That’s all.”
He also said he received phone calls and messages of support from coaches all over the country.
“It totally blew up and it was blown way out of proportion,” said Jeffcoat, now 61. “It could have been an opportunity to have a discussion about the subject. I had people reaching out to me saying, ‘Thank you for saying that.’ People from Colorado.
“I had coaches agreeing with me because they were having the exact same problem.”
The specific problem was student-athletes failing drug tests because of marijuana.
Marijuana was legalized in Colorado in 2012. It is legal in 15 states, but Texas is not one of them.
Jeffcoat was hired by TWU in 2002, and was the school’s all-time winningest head baseball coach. The team was 11-2 when he was fired. The program made six postseason appearances under Jeffcoat, and won four conference titles.
The program has maintained similar success under his replacement, Bobby Garza.
After the shock of being fired faded Jeffcoat tried to land another college baseball head coaching position. He accepted a job as the Railroaders’ pitching coach in 2019.
Last year he was going to be the manager, but the season was canceled.
“All of that is in the past now. Things happen for a reason,” he said. “I had always wanted to manage in the minor leagues. I actually make more now than I did when I was at TWU. I don’t have to handle the recruiting, or field maintenance, or the fund raising.
“That [TWU] was a very hard job. I would not say I got too comfortable there, but I did get very frustrated in that I felt like I was beating my head against the wall. I never got the facilities, or the scholarships, to win [a NAIA] World Series.”
Going from the NAIA level to Independent minor league baseball may not be perceived as the most secure move. The Railroaders, however, appear to be a bit more secure than your average indy’ team.
The club recently announced that Texas Rangers chief operating officer and president of business operations Neil Leibman has joined the ownership group.
How Mike Jeffcoat landed with the Cleburne Railroaders is not the path he wanted, but he’s where he wants to be.
He has not changed his mind on the subject that got him fired, only that he could have worded it differently.
