James Rowson, New York Yankees hitting coach and Mount Vernon native, was honored on Aug. 29 with a proclamation by the city for his outstanding achievements and contributions to professional baseball.
Fittingly, the recognition took place at Brush Park, where Rowson played baseball growing up in the '80s and early '90s.
" ... I'm being honored here by the city of Mount Vernon and I'm incredibly humbled for that, but once again I really want to point out the true heroes are here," Rowson said.
"The true heroes are the community. The heroes are the people that are here every day, helping build you to get to where you want to be and you can't forget that," Rowson continued, asking for a round of applause for those people.
Rowson, who was drafted by the Seattle Mariners in 1994, played as an outfielder in minor league ball with the Mariners and Yankees for four seasons, reaching as high as Class A, but not the majors. He also played in 1998 with the independent Cook County Cheetahs.
Rowson then became a minor league hitting coach with the Los Angeles Angels from 2002 to 2005. He then spent six years as a hitting coach in the Yankees system before becoming the Chicago Cubs' hitting coach for the end of the 2012 season after Rudy Jaramillo was fired.
Rowson then returned to the Yankees as a minor league hitting coordinator in 2013 and was hired to be the Twins’ full-time hitting coach prior to the 2017 season.
That was followed by stops as a bench coach with the Miami Marlins in 2020 and assistant hitting coach with the Detroit Tigers in 2023. In November 2023 Rowson was announced as the New York Yankees' hitting coach, starting with the 2024 season.
"I didn’t really know if I wanted to coach. A friend of mine thought I might be pretty good at it, so I gave I try," Rowson said in a 2018 interview with the Journal News. "It was pretty cool. When you play, you’re only worried about yourself. When you coach, you have to worry about 12 or 13 other players at the time. It’s a chance to put yourself second and put other people first."
Players of the Mount Vernon RBI Baseball and Mount Vernon Little League teams were present at the welcoming, with Rowson leading a batting tutorial for them.
