The Saarloos mentality: The long road from player to newest coach for TCU baseball

The search for TCU baseball’s new head coach was over almost as soon as it began when Kirk Saarloos was promoted to the position last June, a few weeks after the end of the season.

During his first season as head coach, Saarloos and TCU baseball are ranked 18^th in the Division 1 NCAA standings with a record of 35-18. TCU won the Big 12 Conference Regular Season Championship and will start the Big 12 Tournament as a No. 1 seed.

But before Saarloos coached baseball, he played it. He fell in love not only with the game, but also with every little thing that went into practice, both physically and mentally.

This story was based on an interview conducted with Kirk Saarloos in April 2022.

Small town boy to big league player

Raised in sunny Southern California, Saarloos recalled being a kid with so much pent-up energy, it seemed like he never got tired.

Every evening, from as young as he could remember, Saarloos was outside, glove and ball in hand waiting… waiting… and waiting until his father Larry came home from work.

The two would play catch or practice picking up ground balls until Saarloos’s mother was practically yelling at them to come inside for supper.

By the time he was around 14 years old, Saarloos felt burnt out from baseball. He was tired of playing nearly 100 games in the summer heat.

But he kept up with the sport during his early teen years, playing under one of his father’s former teammates, Lee Williams.

During his senior year of high school, he was offered a scholarship to play at California State University Fullerton by then-head coach George Horton.

Horton was another former teammate of Larry Saarloos and the two, along with Williams, had played for Cerritos College in the early 1970s.

When he started playing for Cal State Fullerton, Saarloos felt he had a leg up from the other players because Horton used the same terminology and teaching practices as Williams.

But that wasn’t enough.

Saarloos pitched all four years, including playing for various summer leagues. But it wasn’t until his senior year that he truly stood out to the scouts.

Saarloos recalled the day he was drafted in 2001.

There were no social media. There were no smartphones. When the 2001 Major League Baseball draft was happening, Saarloos was busy practicing on the field where there was no Internet.

From left to right, the Saarloos brothers' great grandmother, Kirk Saarloos and Keith Saarloos. (Courtesy of Keith Saarloos)

Kirk Saarloos. (Courtesy of the Houston Astros)

It was the last practice before the team headed to Omaha for the College World Series and a reporter broke the news to Saarloos: he had been drafted in the third round by the Houston Astros.

Kirk Saarloos' portrait with the Houston Astros. (Courtesy of the Houston Astros)

Oakland Athletics starter Kirk Saarloos throws to the Minnesota Twins in the fourth inning of a baseball game on Friday, June 2, 2006, in Oakland, Calif. (AP Photo/Marcio Jose Sanchez)

After missing out on being drafted his junior year, Saarloos was excited to start the next journey of his life in Houston, Texas.

Although his time in Houston was short-lived, Saarloos helped create history when he and five other pitchers threw a no-hitter against the New York Yankees. The last time the Yankees had suffered from a no-hitter was in 1958. This group of Astros pitchers also set the record for the most pitchers used in a no-hitter in MLB history (the Seattle Mariners have since tied it).

Now, all six pitchers from that night in 2003 are in the National Baseball Hall of Fame.

After only two seasons with the Astros, the Oakland A’s were finally able to sign Saarloos after they missed out on him in 2001.

It would later come out in the book “Moneyball” that Billy Beane, the general manager of the A’s, wanted to change the way scouts recruited players in Oakland, particularly in a way that allowed Oakland to sign good players without having to spend money they didn’t have.

Beane used his assistant, Paul DePodesta, to do just that. But, at first, Grady Fuson, the A’s head of scouting, wouldn’t listen.

“Grady and his scouts had ignored Paul when he said they ought to check out a college pitcher named Kirk Saarloos. Saarloos was a short right-hander with an 88-mile-per-hour fastball. Why waste time on a short right-hander? (Because, Paul would be able to say less than a year later, Saarloos is one of only two players from the 2001 draft pitching in the big leagues.)”
Page 19 of “Moneyball” by Michael Lewis

In 2004, the A’s signed the pitcher.

Saarloos would then play for Oakland for most of his career (with a brief stint with the Cincinnati Reds) before retiring in 2009.

Kirk Saarloos talks to the pitcher in a game against Texas Tech University on April 16, 2022 in Fort Worth, Texas. (Brooke Gianopulos/Copy Editor)
Kirk Saarloos talks to the pitcher in a game against Texas Tech University on April 16, 2022 in Fort Worth, Texas. (Brooke Gianopulos/Copy Editor)

LETS GOO @kirk_saarloos https://t.co/yBejvWyoU3
— Gray Rodgers (@Grayrodgers13) June 15, 2021

An “Open Letter” written to @JDonati_TCU - hoping these words come across with the humility and sincerity intended. Grateful to be a @TCU_Baseball alum. pic.twitter.com/mgZ6Is84qv
— Mitchell Traver (@Mitchell_Traver) June 10, 2021

Great person, great family, great hire. Congrats Kirk!
— George Horton (@G_Horton8) June 16, 2021

Kirk Saarloos at his family's winery, Saarloos and Sons, located in Los Olivos, California. (Courtesy of Keith Saarloos)
Kirk Saarloos at his family's winery, Saarloos and Sons, located in Los Olivos, California. (Courtesy of Keith Saarloos)

Coaching more than just a sport

A year after retiring from the big leagues, Saarloos decided to return to Cal State Fullerton and finish his degree, during which he became an undergrad assistant coach. The next year, he was a full-time coach for Fullerton, and, the year after, he was hired at TCU.

Saarloos quickly became a beloved coach at TCU. After only two seasons, in 2014, the baseball team ranked in the top six for all major categories for pitching, including the best ERA in the nation that year.

Initially hired on as a pitching coach in 2012, Saarloos was soon promoted to recruitment coordinator. Nine years later, he became head coach of TCU baseball.

𝐓𝐡𝐞 𝐬𝐡𝐨𝐰 𝐠𝐨𝐞𝐬 𝐨𝐧.

Allow us to reintroduce @kirk_saarloos, head baseball coach. #FrogballUSA | #GoFrogs pic.twitter.com/mdSYSgcHpS
— TCU Baseball (@TCU_Baseball) June 15, 2021

Serving as head coach at TCU had always been in the back of his mind, Saarloos said. Even when given the opportunity to leave and join another baseball staff, including at Rice University and Stanford University, Saarloos stayed at TCU.

Many current and former TCU players rooted for Saarloos to get the job.

TCU baseball alumnus Mitchell Traver wrote an “open letter” to Jeremiah Donati, the director of intercollegiate athletics at TCU, stating his support for both Saarloos and Bill Mosiello for the head coach position.

Traver got to know the type of person Saarloos is in the summer of 2012.

Saarloos, then the newly hired pitching coach, drove to a small town outside of Houston where Traver was recovering from surgery.

The two barely talked baseball. Instead, Saarloos and Traver spent several hours getting to know each other.

That’s who Kirk Saarloos was and is.

When he played and his team lost, he’s the type to put the blame on himself, said Keith Saarloos, Kirk’s brother. But when they won, he would say that his team won, not him.

Johnny Doskow, a radio and TV broadcaster for the Sacramento River Cats, said Saarloos had “one of the best personalities” he has seen in his 21 years working for Sacramento. Saarloos played for the Oakland affiliate before he was called up to play for the A's.

He’s the guy who refuses to give up and works hard every single day, Keith Saarloos said. He’s the guy who has a sense of will so strong, as a child, he would shoot three-pointers until he didn’t miss a single one, just so he could play with his brother who’s three years older. He’s the guy who wakes up every day wanting to be better and do better than the day before.

Kirk’s leadership qualities stood out when he played as well.

“It just doesn't surprise me that he's doing what he's doing, because you knew he would make a good coach, good pitching coach and manager someday,” said Doskow. “I'm not surprised that he's the head coach there because he's such a good leader."

The Saarloos family often says the phrase “push a rock” to symbolize making progress. Whether they push their rock one inch or six inches, they strive to make progress every day.

But their family motto isn't just about having a strong work ethic. It’s a mentality that they try to live by.

Family plays an important role in Kirk’s everyday life. He said that his greatest accomplishment in life was having “three amazing kids and a wife that's equally amazing.”

“Kirk is a family person that loves his wife, loves his kids, loves his mother, loves his brother and would do anything for them,” said Keith. “And he has that same mentality with his work. There isn't a work Kirk and there isn't a home Kirk. There's Kirk and it doesn't change.”

Keith said Kirk’s wife, Kristen, is a large part of that family mentality both on and off the field.

The Saarloos family would often host barbeques for new recruits on their porch, welcoming them to the TCU baseball family, because that’s what it is: a family.

“Kirk is, with those young men, a mentor. He's a father figure and this is the first time these guys are not living in their home with their mom and dad,” said Keith.

Kirk hopes to help these young men grow in more ways than just baseball.

“He definitely is going to help these kids, not only for baseball, but for life after baseball. He's going to help them as men go through life,” said Doskow.

The Saarloos brothers’ familial values and overall drive were instilled in them by their parents.

Linda Saarloos, Kirk and Keith’s mother, attends every baseball game and has become an active part of the TCU community, whether that’s walking around campus or making lasagna for people.

Their father died two years ago, but the Saarloos brothers continue to embody and pass on the lessons he taught them.

“When he passed away, we really had two choices. Our choices were post traumatic dissension where something bad happens to you and you lose it. Or, we use the term post traumatic ascension,” Keith Saarloos said. “The guy who used to hold the shield for us, so we could go out and conquer, is gone. And now, we have to hold the sword and the shield, and be better than the person he was, and be better than the person that we you know. After losing my dad, and that job came open, Kirk, he went after that thing with everything he had. That was my dad's dream to see my brother in that position.”