Even people who aren’t into baseball at all are aware that the Seattle Mariners weren’t exactly looking like champs in their last season. In true sports club form, this meant that it was time for a new coach.

Today the M’s announced their new coach: Hood River, Oregon, native Don Wakamatsu who now becomes the fourteenth full-time manager for the Mariners and the first ever Asian American to manage a Major League ball team.

Wakamastu’s most recent past job was bench coach for the Oakland A’s; his career history includes a stint as catcher for the 1991 White Sox and six years of coaching in the American League West. He spent seven years as a player after four years of college ball and has coached since then. [For an excellent summary of his career check out this story by Doug Miller of MLB.com.]

Wakamatsu will be wearing number 16 on his uniform but hopes to turn the M’s into a number one team.