JIM ESCHEN

SUFFERN HIGH SCHOOL

CLASS OF 1967

Coming from a family that produced two major league baseball players, Jim Eschen had large shoes to fill but certainly gilded the family legacy with a solid 10-year pro baseball career reaching the Triple-A level and starring at Double-A. A standout two-sport athlete at Suffern High School and All-ACC shortstop at Wake Forest, Jim returned to pro ball almost a decade after his last game as a player to manage, coach and scout in the Mets minor-league farm system.

Jim enters the Rockland County Sports Hall of Fame just two years after his father, Wil Eschen – his baseball coach at Suffern – was inducted posthumously into the Hall. Jim’s grandfather, James “Jimbo” Eschen, played in 15 games for the Cleveland Indians in the 1915 season, and his uncle, Larry Eschen, played briefly for the Philadelphia Athletics in the 1942 season.

Jim (also known as Jimmy) played for seven years in the Detroit Tigers organization and three years in the Kansas City Royals system. A switch-hitting middle infielder, Jim thrived during his five seasons in AA ball. He played his final three years with Kansas City Double-A affiliate Jacksonville in the Southern League. His best year was the 1979 campaign when, batting in the No. 3 spot in the lineup, he was among the league leaders in batting (.290), hit 8 home runs and drove in 70 runs in just 370 at-bats, and was team MVP.  During that season Jim was called upon to play six different positions – second base, shortstop, third base and all three outfield positions. “I thought I would be a utility infielder that year,” Jim recalls. “I was 28 and there were quite a few young prospects coming up. But we were hit with a lot of injuries, so I became a ‘regular irregular’ and played all those positions.”

As a scrappy leadoff hitter, Jim earned MVP honors in the 1975 Southern League playoffs, leading the Tigers’ AA affiliate Montgomery to the league championship. The following season he was promoted to AAA Evansville and played in 132 games as the team’s starting second baseman. At the highest rung in the minor-league ladder, one step below the majors, Jim acquitted himself well, stealing 21 bases, drawing 81 walks, striking out just 29 times in 547 plate appearances, and finishing with a .366 on-base percentage. He played for Evansville during the 1976 and 1977 seasons, and finished his last three years at Jacksonville. Among the many highlights of his minor league career was playing two seasons for future MLB Hall of Fame manager Jim Leyland (“a great guy to play for”), at Class A Clinton in 1973 and Class AA Montgomery in 1974.

Budding Star at Suffern

 Jim developed his athletic skills on the playing fields of his native Suffern. He was a three-year starter for his dad on the baseball team, playing second base as a sophomore and shortstop his last two years. Jim batted over .300 during his varsity tenure, helped lead the Mounties to the RCPSAL co-championship (with Clarkstown) in 1966, and made All-County shortstop both years, second team as a junior and first team as a senior. He also served as Suffern’s team captain in ’67. The championship team of ’66 rode the strong right arm of senior Clyde “Rocky” Powell, who pitched every game against the Rockland teams, posting a 10-4 record. The following season, “without Rocky Powell we fell back to 8-6 and were losing some close, high-scoring games,” Jim remembers.

In basketball, Jim’s scoring wizardry came to full fruition. A 5-foot-11 shooting guard, he attained his ambitious goal of leading the RCPSAL in scoring his senior year, averaging 20.4 points per game. The highlight for Jim was pouring in 31 points in back-to-back games against Pearl River and County co-champ Spring Valley. He sank 18 straight free throws in the Pearl River game and sported an 87.5% shooting percentage (112 of 128) at the charity stripe. Jim was duly recognized for his hoops mastery as a unanimous first-team All-County selection and being named to The Daily News All-Star team for metropolitan New York.

Having been a two-year starter and captain his senior season, Jim helped engineer a turnaround from a 4-10 team in 1965-66 to a competitive 8-6 club in 1966-67, Suffern’s first winning record in several years. The Mounties went 6-1 at home, bowing only to powerful Clarkstown. “Teams didn’t like coming to Suffern to play,” he says. “We had a small gym and it was always packed with full crowds. It was a fun atmosphere to play in.” Jim noted that a bevy of juniors from that 1966-67 squad came back the following season to lead Suffern to the RCPSAL title. Bobby Short, Randy Vilord and Dave Shuart were among those returning juniors who carried the momentum of the previous year forward.

Diamond Dandy for the Demon Deacons

After graduating from Suffern, Jim headed south to attend Wake Forest University and get a taste of the high-octane competition in the Atlantic Coast Conference against the likes of Duke, North Carolina and North Carolina State, among others. Although he wasn’t offered a scholarship upon enrollment, Jim earned one with his notable two-way play, excelling at third base as a sophomore and junior and making All-ACC shortstop as a senior, when he was also the Demon Deacons team captain. Jim got his opportunity at short when his predecessor, future major leaguer Craig Robinson, was drafted by the Phillies. The Eschen connection at Wake Forest expanded in Jim’s senior year, 1971, when his younger brother Richie made the team as a freshman. Like Jim, Rich later received All-ACC acclaim, as a third baseman.

Jim’s basketball career at Wake Forest was short-lived but he did get to play briefly with a pair of future NBA players in Charlie Davis and Gilbert McGregor. Jim’s freshman season was cut short after just four games due to an emergency appendectomy. He then decided to concentrate his athletic pursuits on baseball.

While attending Wake Forest, Jim spent two summers playing for the Yarmouth (Mass.) Red Sox in the Cape Cod Baseball League for collegians. The highlight of his stint there was making the 1970 all-star team and playing against the Atlantic Collegiate Baseball League (ACBL) all-stars at Yankee Stadium. “We played before the Yankee game that night,” Jim recalls. “We went into the locker room, the dressing room. Playing in Yankee Stadium was a thrill.”

Teaching and Coaching in Jacksonville

Jim graduated from Wake Forest with a bachelor’s degree in history, with a minor in mathematics. After retiring from baseball, he put his undergraduate degree to good use, teaching geography and world history (along with some math) for close to 30 years at a pair of high schools in Jacksonville, Fla. – Wolfson and Mandarin. At Wolfson, Jim coached numerous sports, including baseball, girls’ basketball and boys’ basketball. His baseball teams went 163-89 over nine seasons, including the district and conference championship team of 1985, when Jim was named district, conference and city Coach of the Year. During his six-year run as girls’ basketball coach, his teams went 84-46, and won two district titles and one regional crown.

Meet the Mets, Meet the Mets…

 After teaching and coaching for nine years at Wolfson, Jim took a break from academia to accept a managing position in the Mets’ minor-league system. He compiled a 78-71 record over two seasons, the first year (1989) at Kingsport, Tenn., in the summer collegiate Appalachian League, and the second at Pittsfield, Mass., in the Class A New York-Penn League. He led Pittsfield to a second-place finish that season. Jim managed future major leaguers Jeromy Burnitz, Alberto Castillo, Kyle Washington, and Pete Walker. Jim followed up his two-year managerial stint with a one-year assignment as third base coach for future major league manager Clint Hurdle at Williamsport in the AA Eastern League. He completed his tenure with the Mets as a scout in the AA Southern League, scouting all 10 teams in that circuit.

Jim, who is 74, moved to Jacksonville with his wife, Nancy, when he began his pro baseball career some 52 years ago. They loved the area so much that they never left. Nancy continues to work as a math professor at Florida State College at Jacksonville, while Jim enjoys playing golf – including with several of his former baseball players at Wolfson who live in town – and works part-time at a local country club. The Eschens have two children – Brian, 42, and Stephanie, 40 – along with three granddaughters and one grandson, ages 11, 9, 9 and 7.

A Suffern High School Hall of Fame recipient in 2010, Jim Eschen joins the Class of 2024 in the Rockland County Sports Hall of Fame. Bravo, Jim!