NORFOLK, VA (WTKR)- In his first season with the Orioles' organization, the team waved Jeff Ware around third and sent him home to the 757.
"When I first heard from the Orioles, I knew it was going to be an upper-level pitching position," he said. "It didn't dawn on me that if it was going to be in Norfolk.. that it would be in Norfolk."
Sure enough, Ware was named the Tides' pitching coach, sending him back to Hampton Roads. He grew up in Virginia Beach and attended First Colonial High School, meaning he now once again has plenty of familiar faces in the seats. Due to his schedule, however, that may be the only place he gets to see them.
"They're long days so it does make it a little bit tougher to have some family time or friends time and everything," he noted. "But I'm around great people, got a lot of support so it's been really great being here."
"Him and I have kicked off kind of from the get-go," added Norfolk pitcher Trey Gibson, who is also from the area, graduating from Grafton High School. "I think he's got a great personality, I think he really cares about us as players and as people so he's done a lot for me so far."
Ware took the ball for Old Dominion in college, pitching his way to being a first round draft pick by the Toronto Blue Jays in 1991. He has plenty of memorable moments in the silver and blue, but never got the chance to pitch for the Monarchs at Harbor Park, something he had seen past players get the opportunity to do.
"Old Dominion would come here and play the Tides early on in the season," he recalled. "I remember being at Old Dominion kind of bummed that those couple of years, we didn't get to do that."
Ware's professional career had its share of ups and downs. He battled injuries throughout his playing days, but was able to climb to the Major Leagues, taking the mound for Toronto in parts of the 1995 and 1996 campaigns. When he hung up his spikes, he entered the coaching ranks.
"He's been in baseball for so long, he's seen everything there is to see in the minors and probably in the majors," Gibson noted. "He's very supportive as us as players."
"I wish I could've been a little bit healthier and things like that," said Ware. "Maybe I would've been on the field a little bit more, but I'm proud of what I did and at the end of the day when I look in the mirror, I knew I worked as hard as I could to get where I did and now I'm doing it on the coaching side, trying to get these young guys back to the big leagues."
Among his professional playing experiences was being on the wrong side of an historic home run. Ware gave up one of three big flies hit by Michael Jordan during the former NBA star's Minor League Baseball stint. He pointed out that he was mad at the time, but some of his following pitches hit 96 miles per hour, so maybe His Airness gave him the spark he needed.
"I end up taking off," he remembered. "Next year I go 7-0, get to the big leagues, so I can thank Michael for that. The next day was pretty cool. I got to talk with Jordan out in left field that day. He was great."
Now, coaching is Ware's calling. He was most recently the Blue Jays' bullpen coach in 2023 and 2024 before being hired by the Orioles prior to this season. The Virginia Beach product says that he hopes to one day be a pitching coach at the Major League level, but in 2026, he'll get as much satisfaction helping others realize their big league dreams.
"We feel the happiness and the excitement that the players are feeling, too," he said. "It's really cool to watch those guys go up to the big leagues."
The Tides' are in Durham this week and fell in the series opener Tuesday afternoon, 4-3 in 10 innings. They'll return home next week to host Memphis for a six game set.
Click here to see how we use AI at WTKR News 3.
