DENVER – A familiar face has joined the MSU Denver baseball program.
 
Joe Strain, father of Roadrunners coach Ryan Strain and the son of the former MSU Denver men's basketball coach of the same name, has joined his son's staff as an assistant coach.
 
Joe Strain has been an area scout and national crosschecker with the San Francisco Giants since 1990, part of a 42-year career in professional baseball that included three seasons as a major league player. 
 
"I haven't been able to see (Ryan Strain) coach much because I've always been on the road scouting, so it's real fun to watch him learn and grow as a coach," Joe Strain said. "We're from a coaching family, and I'm real excited for him."
 
A 1972 graduate of George Washington High School in Denver, Strain played collegiately at Northern Colorado, helping the Bears to the 1974 College World Series in Omaha, where they pulled an upset of Arizona.
 
A four-year starter at shortstop who hit over .300 each season, Strain also played for the USA's silver-medal winning Pan American Games team in 1975. He was a second-team academic All-American, and he is a member of Northern Colorado's Athletics Hall of Fame.
 
After signing with the Giants in 1976, Strain reached the major leagues in 1979 and second base for both the Giants and the Chicago Cubs. He continued playing through 1983, and he then managed in the Giants' minor-league system from 1984 through 1989 and again in 2003 and 2004.
 
At MSU Denver, he'll be working with the hitters and with the infielders defensively.
 
 "When my dad told me he was going to retire, I asked him if he'd be interested in working with me," Ryan Strain said. "As we started to talk, he thought maybe he could help me with recruiting, but I eventually talked him into coming on the field. It should be fun."
 
As a manager, Joe Strain worked with some of the youngest players in the Giants' system, and helped develop players such as shortstop Royce Clayton. As a scout, he's credited with discovering pitcher Sergio Romo of Colorado Mesa, a 23^rd-round draft pick who has spent 11 seasons in the big leagues and pitched for the World Series champions in 2010, 2012 and 2014, frequently as the team's closer.
 
Joe Strain also taught at Cherry Creek High School from 1983 through 2003, where he was also the boys basketball coach from 1986 through 2002.
 
Joe Strain's father, Joe Sr., is a member of the MSU Denver Athletics Hall of Fame.
 
Joe Strain will help make up for the eventual departure of another former major-leaguer from the Roadrunners' staff: Kevin Kouzmanoff will be departing to take a job in the Oakland Athletics' system next month.
 
"Any time you have a big-leaguer, the kids always want to listen, or ask what they think or what it was like," Ryan Strain said. "My dad adds another aspect to it. He coached for so long and managed professional baseball. To have two guys who played in the major leagues to come in and help our players, there's just not many teams – especially in Division II – around the country that can have that on their staff."
 
MSU Denver opens the season Feb. 1 with the first of a three-game series at Cal State San Marcos.