Mike Birkbeck

Michael Laurence Birkbeck (born March 10, 1961) is a college baseball coach and former baseball pitcher. He is the pitching coach at Kent State University.

Birkbeck attended Orrville High School in Orrville, Ohio and played college baseball at the University of Akron. Birkbeck's professional career was plagued by injury played for the Milwaukee Brewers, New York Mets, and the Yokohama BayStars of Nippon Professional Baseball. It was with Yokohama that Birkbeck suffered a broken fibula on a comebacker from Shane Mack which effectively ended his career. He retired as a player in 1996.

In six MLB seasons, Birkbeck had a 12–19 win–loss record, 54 games pitched (51 started), two complete games, $270 1/3$ innings pitched, 319 hits allowed, 158 runs allowed, 146 earned runs allowed, 27 home runs allowed, 93 walks allowed, 149 strikeouts, four hit batters, eight wild pitches, 1,196 batters faced, four intentional walks, 12 balks and a 4.86 ERA.

Birkbeck was hired as the pitching coach for the Kent State Golden Flashes in 1997 and was later promoted to associate head coach. In 2012, he was named the ABCA/Baseball America Assistant Coach of the Year.