UNM baseball coach Ray Birmingham to retire at season’s end
ALBUQUERQUE, N.M. (BVM) — The winningest baseball coach in the state of New Mexico is calling it a career after 43 years. The University of New Mexico announced Sunday that head coach Ray Birmingham will retire at the conclusion of the 2021 season after 14 years with the Lobos.
Birmingham, whose coaching career dates back to the late 1970s, has led UNM to 406 victories, including four regular-season titles, three Mountain West Tournament titles and five NCAA Regional appearances. Prior to leading the Lobos, he coached College of the Southwest and New Mexico Junior College, compiling an impressive 818-328-2 record at the two institutions combined and winning the JUCO World Series with NMJC in 2005. Birmingham has a total of 1,224 wins in his college-coaching career.
Birmingham was inducted into the NJCAA Baseball Hall of Fame in 2011 and the New Mexico Sports Hall of Fame in 2015. He’s worked professionally for the Cleveland Indians, Oakland A’s and Kansas City Royals and also served as USA Baseball’s hitting coach for the collegiate national team in the summer of 2014. Between the three collegiate teams he’s coached, 167 athletes of his athletes have reached professional baseball, including 39 while at UNM.
“I want to thank the people of New Mexico for being so good to me for so long,” Birmingham said in an official statement. “I have always believed that New Mexico kids can do just as much as anybody else in the country, and I have committed my entire life to prove that and helping them prove that. I have always believed in leaving it better than you found it, and I feel good that I have done that.”
