Heritage Coach 'Connects' for Milestone
By
Paul Costanzo
Special for MHSAA.com
May 2, 2017
Baseball has always been a big part of Bob Andrezejewski’s life.
“I was one of those guys that would sneak a radio in his bed when he was younger to listen to the Tiger ballgame,” Andrezejewski said. “This was back when I was 8, 9, 10-years old. I’ve always been a big baseball fan.”
Half a century later, the enthusiasm for the game is still there for the Saginaw Heritage skipper, who recently became the fourth baseball coach in state history to reach 1,000 career wins.
“I haven’t really tried to stay in coaching to try and get a certain number,” said Andrezejewski, who began his career in Bridgeport in 1970 before coming to Saginaw Heritage in 1996. “There are more positives than any kind of negative that comes up with coaching. Even though I’ve been coaching for a long time, every year is a new year. There are new players, a new direction – that’s just part of the challenge, and it’s exciting.”
Win No. 1,000 came on April 22, when the Hawks – who are now 11-2 on the season – defeated Beal City 12-3 in the Midland Dow Tournament. He entered the season with a 996-440 career record, and joins Pat O’Keefe of Grand Ledge, Larry Tuttle of Blissfield and Frank Sumbera of Grosse Pointe North in the state’s 1,000-win club.
While Andrezejewski said he hasn’t taken the time to think about reaching the milestone, his players certainly knew it was coming up and were excited to be part of the team that helped their coach reach it.
“It’s an honor to be part of the team that got that win for him, but I pitched in that game, so it was even more memorable for me to be able to contribute like that,” Heritage senior Brendan Jackson said. “To do it in that fashion, it really made it even more special.”
Andrezejewski was born and raised in Saginaw and attended Saginaw Arthur Hill High School, where he played football, basketball and baseball. He attended Central Michigan University before coming back to the Saginaw area and joining the Bridgeport baseball coaching staff as the junior varsity coach in 1970. He stayed in that position for three seasons before taking over the varsity position.
In more than 20 seasons at Bridgeport, through the spring of 1994, Andrezejewski had a 449-257 record.
“Then I took a year off – I wanted to concentrate more on my family,” he said. “I took a year off, and the opportunity came and they wanted me to try out for the head baseball job in Heritage, since I lived in the community. I said, ‘OK, I’ll do that for a year or so.’”
Twenty years, 558 wins, five Saginaw Valley League titles, six District titles, three Regional titles and three MHSAA Semifinal appearances later, Andrezejewski is still at Heritage, and still going strong.
“He’s definitely an old school guy, but in a good way,” Jackson said. “He’s a great leader, and he’s able to motivate his players to get things done, as you can see. He’s able to connect with his players.”
During a career that has spanned more than 40 years, Andrezejewski has plenty of special memories, but didn’t want to single any out as favorites. Instead, he said, it’s the relationships he’s made at both schools that really stick out to him. He still communicates with players he coached in the 1970s, and it’s things like that which stand out more than championships.
“We’ve had teams that were very, very good that went a long ways, and we had teams that were very, very good that didn’t get out of the Districts,” Andrezejewski said. “We’ve had teams that were maybe mediocre that had things click at the right time. That’s what makes baseball so much fun, because it’s so unpredictable. Just because you have a real good team or an average team, it doesn’t mean you’re going to come out on top or make it through. One game should not make the season.”
Perhaps that’s why Andrezejewski’s rallying cry isn’t to go out and win the game, but to go out and play your best. It’s something that has stuck with his players.
“He doesn’t care about winning or losing, he cares about us going out and playing our hardest,” Heritage senior outfielder and pitcher Noah Marcoux said. “He just wants us to go out and give it our best, and winning or losing, that will come.”
It’s a message that has resonated generation after generation for Andrezejewski. So even though he’s coached through five different decades, he’s still reaching and motivating his players.
“I’m a firm believer that baseball is really a timeless sport, and being able to connect through that is really the key to getting your guys fired up and ready to go,” Jackson said. “He has so much baseball wisdom with the experiences he’s had and the teams he’s coached, you can’t not give the guy respect. And even beside that, he’s just a great guy.”
Paul Costanzo served as a sportswriter at The Port Huron Times Herald from 2006-15, including three years as lead sportswriter, and prior to that as sports editor at the Hillsdale Daily News from 2005-06. He can be reached at [email protected] with story ideas for Genesee, Lapeer, St. Clair, Sanilac, Huron, Tuscola, Saginaw, Bay, Arenac, Midland and Gladwin counties.
PHOTOS: (Top) Heritage coach Bob Andrezejewski reached 1,000 wins as a high school baseball coach April 22; here he instructs Devin Sutter before his at bat against Flint Carman-Ainsworth on April 24. (Middle) Andrezejewski was selected to be part of the coaching staff for the first North/South Baseball Classic with high school players from Bay City and Saginaw taking on players from Flint on July 15, 2015, at Dow Diamond. (Photos by Lamont Lenar/Township View).
Fish's Powerful Record Pursuit Helped Set Stage for College, Pro Achievements
By
Steve Vedder
Special for MHSAA.com
August 27, 2026
Many of the home runs were prodigious, some of the balls landing on the tops of schools, crashing onto car roofs, into clumps of trees, empty parking lots and neighboring practice fields.
Two of Zach Fish's record-setting clouts, in fact, landed on the I-94 expressway and in the middle of a cemetery.
But it wasn't the variety of locations that made his homers remarkable. It was their number.
As a senior at Richland Gull Lake in 2011, Fish set the state single-season home run record with 24. The total not only broke the record of 23 set by Morley-Stanwood's Jim Willison in 1998 and Drew Henson of Brighton in 1997, but no hitter since has even made a serious run at breaking Fish's mark. The closest has been 15 homers by Zach MacDonald of Portage Central in 2021.
"There were some fun ones," Fish said of the homers.
Fifteen years later, Fish, now a corporal for the Granbury, Texas, police force, said he looks at his record-setting season much the same as he did during the final three months of his high school career. He remembers feeling a sense of accomplishment, but also relief as the Blue Devils, which would finish 38-2, could now switch focus from Fish's record to the drive of winning a state title.
Fish said when he thinks back over his career, it's not only the home run chase he remembers but also cherishing a leadership role on a young Blue Devils club. Fish also remembers the 5 a.m. offseason workouts designed to strengthen his 6-foot, 200-pound frame, and always seeking new ways to hone his special talent for recognizing and adjusting to how high school pitchers were trying to get him out.
As for the record, Fish also recalls the torrid late-season stretch it took to surpass Henson and Willison. Just when it looked like he could fall short, Fish slammed 16 homers over his final 17 games, including his last three in the Regional tournament to break the record.
Fish said an overlooked part of the 24 homers – and something which was probably a benefit – was that aside from local media, no one was clamoring for stories each step of the way. There was minimal distraction outside of the Gull Lake community as Fish approached breaking one of the most sought-after state records.
"There wasn't any social media back then. Not much hype or noise around it," he said. "And I got a lot of positive reinforcement from the people around me. No one said anything if I came back to the bench without hitting a homer or getting a hit. The important thing was we were winning as a team. I think my success was a product of how successful the team was.
"I stayed within the mindset of the team. With all the people around me, I never got too high or too low. That helped me focus.”
The 24 homers closed out a remarkable career for Fish, who after his senior season was taken by the Texas Rangers in the 24th round of the 2011 MLB draft. Fish, who hit .561 with 82 RBIs as a senior, was named to the Rawlings, Baseball America and MaxPreps All-America teams. He would be recruited by Michigan, Clemson, Vanderbilt, Louisville, Washington and Georgia Tech before signing with Oklahoma State, where he would become the Big 12 Player of the Year as a junior.
Fish's story from growing up playing in a Kalamazoo recreation league as a grade schooler to being taken by the Chicago White Sox in the 11th round (318th overall) of the 2014 draft and spending two years in pro ball includes, by his own admission, an extraordinary drive to succeed.
"Bordering on obsession," he said. "Baseball was more than a passion with me. I loved baseball and what it stood for. It's America's pastime for a reason."
Growing up, Fish actually showed minimal signs of becoming a nationally elite-level player. He played rec ball in Kalamazoo and later hooked up with the Midland Braves travel team for three seasons as a 16, 17 and 18-year-old. He played two seasons at Kalamazoo Central where he batted .291 with five homers as a freshman and then .423 with six homers as a sophomore.
Family obligations led him to transfer to Gull Lake as a junior, where he quickly blossomed. He hit .473 with 12 homers, 57 RBIs and 27 stolen bases.
"Coaches would help me," Fish said of his power. "They said just swing hard in case you hit it. I truly believed that. The first two years in high school I was kind of sporadic in terms of hard contact. A lot of that was in my approach."
Fish's junior season set the stage for his sensational final year. He barely had double digits in homers by midseason before catching fire in the second half. But with 21 homers heading into the Regional, he was still two short of tying the record. He climbed to within one when he homered during a 12-2 Regional opener win against Sturgis, then slammed two more in a 13-2 Regional Final victory over Hamilton to set the record.
With the achievement accomplished, Fish said he remembers returning to the bench after the second homer against Hamilton with mixed emotions.
"At first I came back like it was just another homer," he said. "I was in the dugout, put my (catching) gear back on and I had this moment of what I did. But at the same time, I was glad it was out of the way and now we could focus on the team and winning a state title.
"The last three weeks was a good stretch, but I was able to swing the bat because the guys in front of me were getting on base and pitchers had nowhere to put me."
In a 6-5 Quarterfinal win over Grand Rapids Catholic Central, Cougars pitchers virtually refused to pitch to Fish. Amid a flurry of intentional walks, Fish saw only one strike, which he smashed for a bases-loaded triple. The team concluded its season with a 6-1 Semifinal loss to eventual Division 2 champ St. Clair as Fish flew out twice and was safe on an error in his final high school at-bats.
According to MaxPreps, the 24 homers ties Fish for 27th place nationally, just six behind the all-time record of 30. His 82 RBIs as a senior ties him for 26th place. Fish finished his prep career with 47 home runs, 23 behind the state record of 70 hit by Henson from 1995-98. Fish's 203 career RBIs are second behind Henson's 290. The 24 homers in 116 at-bats means Fish hit a homer an incredible once every 4.8 at-bats.
Former Gull Lake coach Bill Blakely said Fish was always striving for perfection as a hitter. He recalls Fish would often come back to the bench following a home run lamenting his swing could have been better. As for the record, Blakely said he would occasionally move Fish around on defense, including making use of his 90-mph fastball on the mound, to keep his mind off hitting. Blakely reasoned Fish could get a break from the pressure of the home run chase if he had to focus on defense.
"Externally, he didn't show that it bothered him," Blakely said of the chase. "We had lots of kids who could keep him loose. It was a light atmosphere. We would count the homers as they came along, but he didn't go into any slumps as he got close.
"As for the record, it wasn't if he was going to set it, but when, barring an injury."
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PHOTOS (Top) At left, Gull Lake's Zach Fish follows a drive during his senior season in 2011, and at right Fish is now an officer in Granbury, Texas. (Middle) Fish takes the field as part of the Rookie-level Great Falls Voyagers. (Below) Fish mans the catcher position for Gull Lake during a Division 2 Semifinal against St. Clair in 2011. (Granbury and Great Falls photos courtesy of the Fish family. Hitting photo by Gary Shook. Catching photo from MHSAA archives.)