A.J. Hinch was born in Waverly and spent part of his childhood in Nashua. Next season, he'll be guiding a major league baseball team for the second time in his professional career.

On Monday (September 29, 2014), the Houston Astros introduced Hinch as their new field manager. He's taking charge of a team that just finished the 2014 season in fourth place in the American League West Division with a 70-92 record.

"I couldn't be more excited to be the manager of the Houston Astros," Hinch said at his introductory news conference. "We have a lot of work to do to bring winning back to the city of Houston and Astros fans everywhere. I can't wait to get started toward that goal today."

Hinch is replacing Bo Porter, a former baseball and football star at the University of Iowa, who was fired on September 1st. Tom Lawless ran the team on an interim basis for the rest of the season, which ended on Sunday.

Hinch is taking over a team that made a 19-game improvement over 2013 to end a streak of three straight 100-loss seasons. The Astros' roster features American League batting champion Jose Altuve.

This is the second major league managerial job for Hinch, who compiled an 89-123 record while guiding the Arizona Diamondbacks from May 2009 to July 2010. He took an executive position with the San Diego Padres in September 2010, serving as the team's vice-president of professional scouting for nearly four years. Hinch resigned the position in August 2014.

Hinch has spent most of his life in baseball. Born in Waverly in 1974, he lived in Nashua until age eight, when his family moved to Oklahoma. Hinch played collegiate baseball at Stanford University and won a bronze medal for the United States at the 1996 Olympic games in Atlanta.

The 40-year-old is a former catcher who spent seven seasons in the majors with the Oakland Athletics, Kansas City Royals, Detroit Tigers and Philadelphia Phillies.

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