Tracy enjoys new role back "home" with the Clippers

Andy Tracy is at ease as he reports to his office.

"What's up guys?" Tracy asks a few Columbus Clippers as he walks into the Huntington Park indoor batting cage as a few Clippers wait to begin batting practice prior to the team's day game against the Indianapolis Indians.

For Tracy, he is finally home.

"I get to wake up with my family," Tracy said. "I get to see them at night when we are on our home stands."

Tracy is in his first season as the Clippers hitting coach. He and his family already have a permanent home here in Central Ohio with roots down since the late 1990s. This makes it easier easier to watch his kids play baseball, including today before sitting down to chat with 13abc.

"We got a lot of rain so they bumped all of their games back," Tracy said. "So I got to see two games last night. They played until 11:30 p.m. Woke up this morning, took 'em there. We had a nine o'clock and then watched about an hour and a half of it and came over here to start this one off."

It wasn’t so easy to do this the last seven years for Tracy. Sure, Columbus was still home but he worked in the Philadelphia Phillies organization where he was everything from the Single-A manager to the assistant hitting coordinator with the farm system.

"Basically you'd go out for 12-15 days and have any affiliate from the Dominican all the way up to Triple-A," Tracy said. "Make your stops at different affiliates and then come home for three, four or five days. And then go back on the road."

Tracy grew up in Bowling Green and even played baseball for the Falcons. He spent 16 years playing pro ball with 149 big league games on his resume. But Tracy spent a large chunk of time in Triple-A.

His goal now is to never see his players again because either they make it to the Indians or another Major League Baseball club.

"In pro ball, you could be having a really good year at Triple-A and a lot of guys know that and you don't get called up," Tracy said. "The guy struggling is the one that gets called up. It is just something out of your control. You can't control everything so continue to develop."

Tracy says like others in baseball, he has always wanted to be a MLB manager. Whether or not the opportunity presents itself, he is happy to be home in the Buckeye State.