The Orioles’ relievers sprinted from the bullpen to join the celebration by the pitcher’s mound after the club clinched its first division title in nine years, the latest milestone in one of baseball’s fastest-ever turnarounds.
Tim Cossins ran right past it. The Orioles’ major league field coordinator and catching instructor found his longtime best friend, manager Brandon Hyde, for an extended and emotional embrace. They’ve been friends for decades, and they have coached together just as long. They were there for each other after each of the hundreds of losses the Orioles endured before things got good, mourned friends lost too soon, yet also shared life’s most special moments together. The weight of all that made this another one.
“It was just a flash-blur of all the things that you cherish now that you went through, that you finally get a chance to kind of reflect on,” Cossins said. “Brandon and I got into this a long time ago, together, with us both transitioning from our original dream of playing in the major leagues to cutting our teeth together coaching. Our friendship was growing rapidly at that point as we hopped into this, and it’s just been this very long progression through this together. Our friendships meshed; our families meshed. I consider him family, and to do it with one of your closest friends is just an incredible feeling.”
It’s from this position that Cossins views Hyde, a perspective that few get to see from a manager whose serious dugout demeanor and focus on the task at hand obscure the full view of the man Cossins has known his entire adult life.
“I don’t think that people get a chance to get to what he truly possesses, which is great empathy for people. He’s honest and extremely intelligent, and perceptive — but guys don’t see that,” Cossins said. “People see him standing in the dugout when he’s managing a game, and that’s the extent of it.”
That perspective has been decades in the making. Cossins, 52, and Hyde, 50, grew up in Santa Rosa, California, in an area known for its wineries with just 150,000 residents in the 2000 census, around when their paths began to intertwine. Hyde’s father used to take him to watch Cossins play high school ball; Cossins knew of Hyde the way older kids in high school know of the best athletes coming up behind them.
They both went to Santa Rosa Junior College to start their college careers, a couple of years apart, with Cossins going on to play at Oklahoma and Hyde eventually playing at Long Beach State. They trained at the school in the winter between minor league seasons and started to grow close. Both had great relationships with Sam Gomes, the assistant coach who worked with catchers there and died last year of ALS.
One winter, Hyde moved into an apartment Cossins shared with another friend, Mike Ledson — who died this year. It was across from a psychiatric hospital, and one night an escapee sought refuge in the apartment after Hyde left the door open.
As a pair, they put on camps and clinics to help make extra money. Cossins recalled one seven hours north of Santa Rosa that they conducted around a group of cows that wouldn’t leave the field.
“We were just trying to make some scratch money and survive,” Cossins said.
When their professional careers ended, a former coach of Cossins — Marc Delpiano — called to offer the pair opportunities to join the Marlins organization as minor league coaches. Their bond deepened as they uprooted their lives to Florida’s east coast.
Cossins was there when Hyde waded out in waist-deep water to a sandbar to meet his now-wife, Lisa, and for a time lived in her guesthouse. He was there when Hyde’s son, Colton, was born — ”something I’ll never forget,” Cossins said.
Through it all, Cossins was noticing Hyde’s growing aptitude as a coach and manager. He said it blew him away how differently Hyde saw the game, managed people and made decisions.
“It was fun to watch him grow from two guys figuring out how to coach to running a team,” Cossins said. “It was so cool.”
When Hyde became the Chicago Cubs’ farm director late in the 2012 season, he brought Cossins over to take his previous job of minor league field coordinator. As Hyde rose to the major league staff, winning a World Series on Joe Maddon’s staff and climbing to be his bench coach, Cossins stayed on the minor league side, also serving as catching instructor.
Cossins helped manage Hyde’s disappointment when he interviewed for and was passed over for several managerial jobs before Mike Elias hired Hyde to take over the rebuilding Orioles. He believed it was an “unbelievable opportunity,” one that not many would have the patience for but Hyde did.
Hyde had an early request to Elias in the winter of 2018, that he could bring Cossins with him. Cossins was in the dugout those first few years and saw the impact all that losing had on Hyde. The Orioles lost 105 games in 2019 and 110 games in 2021, on opposite sides of a 25-35 pandemic season.
“He took it to heart every single night,” Cossins said. “If he felt like he had a hand in that, it affects him greatly. He’s not a multiple mistake maker. He’s driven to not do that, so he was just gathering that experience and it was very difficult. It was very difficult to try and be positive with him, even though things were trending in a negative way. For me personally, I was trying to equalize that, by trying to be positive and yet, we weren’t always feeling positive. But we were definitely trying to build in ways to take what we needed from that. And there were some gritty nights, for sure.”
Hyde said: “I took losses hard, and I knew we weren’t as talented as other teams, but I just felt bad for the guys in the clubhouse. … It just eats you up.”
Cossins said Hyde didn’t rage, nor did he stew. He processed, dropped the disappointment, and came in the next day to help provide stability for those around him. Even if they didn’t win, they focused on preparation and process, and much of what they do now as 101-game winners is the same as it was back then.
All that is in service of providing Hyde and his staff with the best information and plan for those nine innings in the dugout. The magnitude of that responsibility is evident every time the camera pans to him. Hyde has joked recently that he wishes he smiled more. Cossins believes that “game face” both masks who Hyde is off the field and demonstrates who he is in the dugout.
“He’s a big, imposing guy, and he looks like he’s locked in,” Cossins said. “The thing that people don’t understand is that if he was in a room in a non-dugout situation, he’s the most charming guy in the room, and he’s the most engaging guy in the room. He treats people well. I don’t think people see that when they look at the game face.
“The thing that I love the most about him is that doesn’t matter to him. What matters to him is running a good game and having the respect of the people that work around him. That matters the most. It’s the dynamic of being good versus cool. Sometimes, you know, when the camera is on you, the instinct is to be cool. He’s not worried about that. He’s focused, and trying to be as good as he can in the moment — making decisions and handling situations and dealing with people and just being good at his job is what’s important to him.”
That’s what Cossins hopes a new audience learns about Hyde as the Orioles play on a national stage and bring back casual fans who lost touch with the club during its lean years: that Hyde has “thought about every situation that’s happened in detail, all the time, and that one of his biggest motivations is to not let people down.”
That extends off the field as well. Cossins recalled one year that Hyde was managing in Greensboro, North Carolina, as a hurricane was approaching the Jupiter area, where Cossins and Hyde’s now-wife resided. There was gridlock heading north, but Hyde was alone on the highway driving 10 hours south into an oncoming hurricane to be with those he cared about most.
“If there’s one thing that paints a picture of how he is, and who he is, it’s if there’s something coming at you, he’s coming for it,” Cossins said. “He’s not running away from it at all. He’s been like that from the beginning. He doesn’t run away from anything. He comes to help, and you can count on him when it’s coming.”
