BASEBALL DIGEST
ALL STAR EDITION
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A Special Publication of Arnall Golden Gregory LLP
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By Abe J. Schear
July 2011
Since 1987, the Northside Youth
Organization (NYO) has been an
important part of our lives. Both of our
children played baseball and basketball
there, both of us have coached there and
we have spent countless hours watching
children play in the various leagues.
Throughout those years, Randy Rhino
has nurtured hundreds of kids with his
coaching and his steady hand.
Randy coached his sons there, likely
winning more games than anyone ever
at NYO, and he continues to teach and
coach the very talented twelve year old
travel team. You’d just never know that
coach Rhino is one of Georgia Tech’s
most renowned athletes as he instills
self confidence into these very malleable
players.
Randy understands as well as anyone
that you can either lead or follow and
that we all need to be good at both. His
players always understand that their time
with him is special and, when they grow
older, often critical in their development.
As are hundreds of others, I am for sure
an unabashed fan of Randy and all he
has accomplished.
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Abe J. Schear is an attorney with Arnall
Golden Gregory LLP. He is the chairman
of the firm’s Leasing Practice Group as
well as the Inbound Foreign Business
Team. Contact Abe at 404.873.8752 or
[email protected].
I Remember When, a book which includes
the first 35 interviews in this series, is
available for $20. A check should be made
payable to Abe Schear and mailed to him at
Arnall Golden Gregory.
Randy Rhino
“All American Coach”
Abe: I’m here with my good friend,
Randy Rhino, and we are discussing
why Randy loves baseball. Randy,
you are Georgia Tech’s only threetime, first-team All-American football
player and you played baseball at Tech
for four years, finished up with a .368
average, and graduated on time. How
competitive were you?
Well, not as competitive as the woman
I’m married to. I thought I was pretty
competitive until I met her. You know,
I grew up in a family of five children,
and typically most people who grow
up in a large family end up being pretty
competitive. I get that question asked a
lot of times by dads when they call me
and want me to work with their child, and
they say “Coach, I need you to – he’s not
real competitive”, or “He or she is not real
competitive, can you teach him how to be
season and maybe you played a little bit
of summer baseball, maybe another 10
games, and then you moved on to the next
sport, so I would move from baseball to
football to basketball and then just the
same cycle every year, over and over.
Thank goodness we didn’t have the travel
baseball.
No lacrosse, no soccer?
My dad coached me and back then you
didn’t start as young. My grandson just
started baseball at four years old, and my
mom and dad just look at me like “Y’all
are crazy”. I don’t think we even had
T-ball. I think when we finally played it
was seven, eight, nine years old. I don’t
even think I played T-ball to tell you the
truth. My dad coached me in every single
sport from the time I could remember
which is probably eight, nine years old,
until the time I went to high school.
“ I think we’re born competitive or not
competitive.”
competitive?” and I’ve never been able to
do that. I think we’re born competitive or
not competitive.
Tell me your first memories of
baseball.
Well, my first memories of baseball
were growing up in Charlotte, North
Carolina. I came from that generation
of kids born in the ‘50s, baby-boomers.
Baseball was 10-15 games in the regular
Did your dad teach you how to play
baseball?
Yes. My dad was a great athlete and
so I was very fortunate to inherit my
athleticism from him, and you know
typically an athlete that’s born as an athlete
doesn’t really have to be taught. You start
throwing with him and he’s able to do it,
so I don’t remember being taught how to
play baseball. I just remember starting to
A r n a l l Go l d e n G r e g o r y L L P | July 2011
play and my dad was my coach.
What position did you play?
I was always the centerfielder. My
brother and I were only 11 months apart
and so we were always on the same team
and my brother was a very, very, very
good pitcher. I was not. I wasn’t blessed
with a real strong arm, he was. We played
little league, which was the only thing
that you played back then. My dad would
always say he would start me and hope he
could get through three innings with me
and then bring my brother in. He’d pitch
three innings and strike out nine guys. He
was that good. My dad was just trying to
get through the three innings with me.
What about hitting, were you a
power hitter or a slap hitter?
No, no, I was – I was a little young kid.
I was a probably a number 3 hitter, and hit
around the children in the cages?” And
the other lady said, “No, I don’t know, but
I know who you’re talking about.” And
Jane had to interrupt and said “Surely
you’re not talking about Coach Rhino?”
And they said, “Yeah, yeah, that’s his
name. The old man who hangs around
the kids in the batting cages.”
When you first started coaching, I
bet it was about 1985?
Yes, it would be just with my sons
Kelly and Randy.
Randy, and then came Kelly. My
first team I think Kelly was on, I was an
assistant coach with my two brother-inlaws, Mike Espenlaub and Kent Levison.
We coached a T-ball team.
I can’t even imagine what happened
to those kids.
That is a lot of
competitiveness on one T-ball team.
“An athlete that’s born as an athlete doesn’t
really have to be taught.”
homeruns as a young kid. As I grew the
little that I did grow, speed-wise I became
quick. Then I started gravitating to the
lead-off hitter and probably from the time
I was 14 or 15, I became a lead-off hitter,
stole a lot of bases and was a singles,
doubles and triples kind of guy.
Were you an easy kid to coach?
Yeah, yeah. My personality is to please
and, you know, I always wanted to please
my coaches so those are the kinds of kids
you love to coach.
You’d like to coach yourself right
now on your 12-year-old team.
That’s right. Most of my kids are
like that with me. When I get them on
the Titans, as many years as I’ve been
coaching, I bet you I couldn’t think of
four kids that I disliked.
You’ve been coaching baseball over
at Chastain Park for 100 years?
A hundred? Well, you’ve got Jane
Wilkins, and then there’s me. Jane tells me
this story, this happened like almost 10
years ago. She had overheard two young
mothers talking and she knew they had
kids who were maybe in T-ball or youth
baseball, and one of them said something
about, asked the other one, “Do you know
who that gray-haired man is who hangs
Then, I helped coach Randy’s team. I
think Randy was maybe nine or ten so it
would’ve been 1984 or 1985.
Going backwards a bit, how hard was
it to move from one sport to another?
To go from baseball to basketball?
For me? It was something that – it was
just my life. I didn’t need a whole lot
of transition. I remember in high school
going from the basketball team I played
on South Mecklenburg – and we went to a
state championship and won it. I remember
winning the state championship and then
playing a baseball game the next day, so I
normally didn’t need much transition.
You remember what uniform to wear
when you went to play?
Yes. It didn’t take a whole lot of time
in between.
Did you follow sports, read the papers
or publications or listen to them, or did
you just really play?
My wife keeps up with the Braves
and the professional sports here locally,
and tells me what’s going on. I used to
say that I was a participator in sports,
now I’m a coach of sports, except if it’s
Georgia Tech. Georgia Tech football is
something I’ll watch from beginning to
end but I very seldom will sit down and
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watch a baseball game from beginning to
end or a basketball game from beginning
to end.
What was your favorite team, major
league team, growing up?
The New York Yankees, you know,
Mickey Mantle. I certainly knew all of
those guys, even then, though I didn’t
get up and look at the box scores. When
the Braves came to Atlanta, I remember
making trips down from Charlotte, coming
down here because my grandparents lived
down here, and going to a Braves game,
seeing Joe Torre, that era.
Did you collect baseball memorabilia
at all, baseball cards?
I did. I collected baseball cards. The
thing about baseball cards that I remember,
and only men in their 50s, from the 50’s
and 60’s will remember this, but it used to
be that you would take baseball cards to
school and you would gamble with them.
You would flip cards with one another –
you remember this, Abe?
Yes.
And here’s the competitive part in me
coming out: I practiced so much that I
developed a fail safe way to win. I can
make that card do whatever I want it to. I
practiced so hard. I would go to school
and I would wipe kids out, and I got in
trouble one time. Some lady called my
mother because I wiped a kid out of his
cards and then sold them back to him
for his lunch money. He spent his lunch
money to buy his own cards back and then
I think I wiped him out again. I was so
good that I could take somebody and say,
okay, I’ll match your ten, and he would
do ten down there, and he might do, you
know, five or six tails. I was so good
that I could tease him by doing five in a
row of the one, and he’s looking at that
saying, “Oh, there’s no way he can do it
now”, and then I would rattle off exactly
what I wanted. I bet if you gave me some
cards, Abe, that I could take your cards
from you still.
(Laughing)
I didn’t save the cards for, you know,
investment purposes like my sons did.
Did you, follow guys like the Pete
Roses and the Bob Gibsons and the
Don Drysdales?
I didn’t follow them, but I certainly
knew all of them and I would have to
say, you know, if you asked me who my
BASEBALL DIGEST by Abe J. Schear
favorite player growing up was, being a
centerfielder, it was Mickey Mantle. I
was always No. 7. That was my number.
I was guessing Mickey Mantle or
Willie Mays were your favorite players.
be the state champions my senior year.
There were three co-captains; one stays
at South, one gets shipped to Myers Park,
and I get shipped to Olympic High School.
But there were enough players that South
“I think I wiped him out again.”
Sometimes with my teams, you
know, some parents think that if you
put their child in the outfield that it’s a
lesser position and if anybody ever said
something to me about, “Well, how come
my son doesn’t play in the infield?”, it’s
something that I take very personally and
I usually am very stern with them and I tell
them that I take that as an insult because I
never played another field position in my
entire life but the outfield.
Now, your dad played football at
Tech.
Football and baseball. My dad’s in the
Hall of Fame in baseball here.
Was it a foregone conclusion you
were going to go to Georgia Tech?
No. I grew up in Charlotte, and it
became apparent that I was good enough
in football, that it was possible I could
play at the next level. What happened to
me was in 1970, I got transferred from
South Mecklenburg to Olympic High
School my senior year. I tell people
that the movie “Remember the Titans”,
they could have done that about my high
school. It was a court-ordered bussing
plan that became a case in the Supreme
Court because Charlotte was a one-county
city, not like Atlanta.
Mecklenburg County was Charlotte.
Because this county was so big, they were
able to take kids and ship them half-way
across the city, and it was a tough time in
Charlotte and they re-districted, and I got
sent from South Mecklenburg. Here I’m
going into my senior year, and I get sent to
another high school! South Mecklenburg
was a very successful high school and
won state championships. Bobby Jones
was a great basketball player from South
Mecklenburg, Walter Davis, all Hall of
Famers, all went on to Carolina to play
basketball. We had a great football team.
We were going to be pre-ranked to
Mecklenburg lost that were shipped over
to Olympic, and Olympic probably never
won more than two or three football games
in their existence. Well, what happens is
we got to be pretty good at Olympic and
actually go to the state championship
game. I ended up getting all the carries,
and it was a situation that could have
turned into something very tough.
What was it like to play two college
sports?
It was great because I only had to go
through one spring practice of football in
my entire career. Back then you could
do it. Football players ran track. We had
several football players that played some
baseball. I think I was the only one that
was allowed for my entire career. A lot
of guys say, after their football playing
was done, maybe their senior year, played
baseball, but it wasn’t that tough. Back
then football wasn’t a full-time, all year
job. We still went home for the summer
and I got to play American Legion
baseball and at the same time would be
working out for football. So it just wasn’t
quite as specialized. You could play three
sports or two sports.
Did you go watch the Braves play
when you were at Tech?
I think we had some kind of deal. If
we went to Coach Luck, he had an in
at the Braves and he could get us four
tickets. Sometimes, we would just go to
the game.
There weren’t many people there.
How did you get involved in NYO?
[Note: Northside Youth Organization
plays at Chastain Park in Atlanta]
Well, my brother-in-law was the
President of NYO, and I think we
actually spent one year at Sandy Springs.
I lived out in Cobb County, and I don’t
think Kelly played, but I think Randy
played one year in Sandy Springs, and
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my brother-in-law kept telling us about
this great organization that he was a part
of where you could play basketball and
football, and they also had baseball, and
so he talked us into coming over.
And I’m curious, you’ve been
coaching these kids for a long time. Do
kids still have the same sparkle in their
eye for baseball as they did 25 years
ago?
Yes. Kids have not changed a bit. You
know, a 12-year-old is a 12-year-old and
that’s why I love 12 year-olds. They’re
the same. I coached mine when they
were 12, my whole coaching staff now
are kids that I coached when they were 12
years old, and they’re exactly the same.
Now, they say they’re not and they kid
me, they say I’m getting soft, and that I
treated them a lot rougher than I treat this
group, these groups now, but you know
it’s not true.
Well, speaking not of 12 year-olds,
but of 9 year-olds, you in one of your
great coaching successes, taught our
daughter to pitch and to hit, and she
turned into a pretty good pitcher. I’m
curious, how much does attitude play
into being successful in sports?
It doesn’t have to be sports. It could be
any endeavor, work, your relationship with
your spouse, I think attitude is the whole
package, you know. If your spouse has a
bad attitude towards you, your marriage is
not going to be good. I tell people all the
time when I work with kids on a private
basis, that the first time I work with them,
I have a lot of patience and that if there’s
a skill that you have to learn to become
a good hitter, then I’ll take however long
it takes. I’ve got a lot of patience, but I
don’t have patience with you if I sense
that you are here because somebody else
wants you here, that they’re making them
come to this and I can tell that within 10
minutes of working with a kid that they’re
here because somebody else wants them
to be.
Randy, is baseball essentially a team
sport or an individual sport?
It’s certainly more of an individual
sport than football. In fact I was talking
about that to somebody the other day.
You can take my Titans. I get them next
Monday and our first tournament will start
next Friday. I really only have them four
practices before we start a tournament.
A r n a l l Go l d e n G r e g o r y L L P | July 2011
father, who would it have been?
I guess this is because I know him
personally, but Dusty Baker played at
Montreal the same time I was playing
for the Montreal Alouettes, and he and I
crossed paths several times in Montreal.
Then I followed his coaching career, and
really like the way he coached. He was
a player’s coach, very similar to Bobby
Cox, and those are really my kind of
“Kids have not changed a bit.”
coaches. I played for Marv Levy. Marv
Levy was the – probably the ultimate
“player’s coach” so I’d have to say Dusty
Baker, or Bobby.
I thought you might say Bobby Cox.
The only reason I chose Dusty was
because he and I knew each other, and I’d
known him when he was a player.
But they’re both very different.
I mean, Bobby Cox had a set lineup every day and Dusty Baker has
a different line-up every single day.
Maybe it’s just that he can’t remember
what his line-up is at this point, but
they do coach differently and players
love both of them.
Yes they do.
“All American
Coach”
Randy Rhino
54th EDITION  
BASEBALL DIGEST
171 17th Street NW
Suite 2100
Atlanta, Georgia 30363
If you had a choice between offensive
drills in baseball and defensive drills,
which are the most fun?
I love to hit, I mean that’s a no-brainer.
And kids, you know, you have to learn
defense and that’s part of the game, but
any player will tell you that he first starts
to play baseball to hit. Even my 4 yearold grandson, watching him in small ball
this year, he loves to hit. Not one of them
wants to put a glove on. My kids started
when they were 7 and 8, never really seen
a 4 year-old. None of them wanted to put
the glove on, they don’t want to practice
fielding but they do want to hit.
If you could have played for one
baseball manager other than your
If you could have hit against one
pitcher, who would you have really
liked to take a swing against?
Take a shot at?
Yes.
I would have to say I would loved to
have stood in there against Nolan Ryan
and to have seen what his fastball was
like.
If you could have played baseball,
pro baseball in one era, from the 1900s
to the present day era …
That would have been the 60’s and
the Yankees. No question, that would’ve
been the era.
If you could watch or be involved in
a 1-0 game, or a 12-to-11 game, which
would you prefer?
12-to-11.
Why?
Well, 12-to-11, that means there’s
probably a lot of triples and doubles being
hit and, you know, close plays at third
base on a triple and probably some great
outfield play versus two guys striking
everyone out and everybody else standing
around watching the pitcher strike guys
out. You know, that’s just from being a
centerfielder and a hitter’s perspective,
not a pitcher.
I don’t have any more questions.
This was just perfect.
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You couldn’t do that with a football team.
Certainly there is some team thing and
team plays that we have to put in, but,
you know, the hitting is a one-on-one
between a kid, a player and that pitcher.
The pitcher is one-on-one with that hitter.
It is a lot of tiny little skirmishes in a big
battle. That’s the best way to explain it.
The team that wins the battle is the team
that wins the most skirmishes.