Players for the Milwaukee Brewers baseball team who are accustomed to hollering into the dugout for “Coach Narron” will have to be more specific this season. Johnny Narron ’74 (right) joined the team in the offseason as the team’s hitting coach and will work alongside his younger brother, Jerry, who returns for a third year as the Brewers’ bench coach. If that sounds confusing, it would be even more complicated if the team needs a pitching coach and hires Johnny and Jerry’s nephew, Sam Narron ’03, from the Washington Nationals organization. And you definitely would need a scorecard if the Brewers need a team physician and hire Johnny’s son, Dr. John Narron III ’03 ’09. In fact, you could form your own baseball team with Narrons, a well-known family in the Goldsboro area with strong ECU ties, beginning with Johnny and Jerry’s cousin, Sam “Rooster” Narron ’70, a former minorleague catcher who was East Carolina’s first All-American; Rooster has owned the Sportsman’s World store in Goldsboro for many years. Also on the squad would be Rooster’s father, Sam, a catcher for the St. Louis Cardinals in the 1930s. Johnny and Jerry’s father, Randle, also was in the big leagues, as was their uncle, M.A. Narron. Such a team would have plenty of fans in other Narrons, including Rooster’s wife, Robin Cauthorne Narron ’73. Where did it all start? Probably with Johnny and Jerry’s mother, Vileigh Austin Narron ’40 (left), who lettered in basketball, soccer and volleyball. 46
Actually, this will be the third time that Johnny and Jerry Narron have worn the same uniform. They coached together with the Cincinnati Reds from 200507. They started out in pro baseball together as teammates on a Yankees rookie league team in 1974. That season they were known to opposing pitchers as “Big Poison” and “Little Poison.” Batting third in the order, Jerry was a talented catcher drafted straight out of Goldsboro High School; hitting cleanup, Johnny was a sure-handed first baseman who had been a key player on the 1974 East Carolina squad that won the Southern Conference championship. Johnny’s playing days ended a year later but Jerry played eight more seasons in the big leagues; he is remembered by many as the Yankees’ back-up catcher who was asked to fill the big shoes of perennial All-Star Thurmon Munson, who had died midseason in a tragic plane crash.
Working for his younger brother isn’t a problem, Johnny said. “I respect my brother tremendously as a man and as a baseball manager. He has more time in the big leagues than I have, so he and I have a very special relationship as friends and as baseball teammates.” Before joining the Brewers, Johnny Narron was an assistant coach for several seasons with the Texas Rangers, where he was instrumental in resurrecting the career of slugger Josh Hamilton, a native of the Raleigh area whom Johnny Narron has known since Hamilton’s Little League days.
“I take a tremendous amount of pride in East Carolina and the good memories I have,” Johnny Narron said. A business major, he was a member of the Accounting Society, the Law Society and the Pi Sigma Alpha honorary political science fraternity. “I credit everything about my career to having been part of a very strong baseball program there.” He added that the late Keith LeClair played an important role in his son’s life. “He played baseball his It certainly will freshman and be different than sophomore New York Yankees line up on the dugout steps at their first stint on years, but Yankee Stadium, their sleeves wrapped in black the same team. he became arm bands, during a moment of silence for Yankees “We had a great catcher Thurman Munson after he was killed in an interested in airplane crash. From left are, catcher Jerry Narron, time together” medicine, so he Yogi Berra, Don Hood, Mike Ferraro, Bobby Murcer, in their first year talked to Coach Charley Lau, and manager Billy Martin. in professional LeClair and baseball, Johnny Narron said in a recent together they decided that he should focus interview with MLB.com. “It was a very on medicine. He really touched Johnny’s life special time for both of us. We stayed in a that way.” His son now is in his third year single-wide trailer and got up every day and of residency at Penn State and remains a big cooked pancakes and watched “The Young ECU baseball fan. “He has season tickets and the Restless.” We had one car and rode and drives six hours each way to see them everywhere together.” play,” Johnny Narron said.
AP Photo/File
The Narrons and the national pastime
AP Photo/Tony Gutierrez
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