Contact Fritz Hamburg
Saint Joseph's baseball's all-time leader in coaching victories, Fritz Hamburg is now in his 17th season as the head coach of the Hawks.
Since taking over the Hawk baseball program, the two-time Atlantic 10 Coach of the Year has guided the team to heights never before seen by the Crimson and Gray. Saint Joseph's has become a fixture in the upper echelon of the Atlantic 10 under Hamburg, and in 2023 earned the program's first-ever Atlantic 10 regular season championship. He has overseen a dramatic turnaround in more than a decade and a half at the helm, taking the program to the postseason on seven occasions and winning three Liberty Bell Classic titles; prior to his arrival on Hawk Hill, the Hawks had never reached the Atlantic 10 Championship nor won the Liberty Bell Classic.
Ranking fourth in career victories across all sports at Saint Joseph's, Hamburg led his squad to tie the school record for wins in 2012 before breaking it in both 2013 and 2014. The Hawks have gone on to post 13 consecutive full seasons of 20-plus victories, including a pair of 30-win seasons; prior to Hamburg taking over the program, SJU had reached 20 wins on just nine occasions.
An active and well-respected figure throughout the collegiate game, Hamburg was a member of the NCAA Baseball Rules Committee from 2017 to 2021; he also spent the final two years of his term as the committee's chairman.
Under Hamburg's guidance, Hawk student-athletes have earned...
• ...13 MLB Draft selections, including a program-record four in 2024
• ...two Major League debuts
• ...six All-America accolades
• ...two regional/district Player of the Year awards
• ...three Atlantic 10 Player/Pitcher of the Year honors
• ...eight Philadelphia Big 5 Baseball Player/Pitcher/Rookie of the Year awards
• ...18 regional postseason honors, seven of them to the First Team
• ...56 Atlantic 10 All-Conference selections, 15 of them to the First Team
• ...10 Atlantic 10 All-Academic nods
• ...11 Atlantic 10 All-Championship performances
• ...10 CSC Academic All-District honors, including a Second Team Academic All-America selection
Thirteen Hawks have heard their names called in the Major League Baseball First-Year Player Draft during Hamburg's tenure: Ryan Kemp and A.J. Holland in 2011, Jimmy Yacabonis in 2013, Brian O'Keefe and Jordan Carter in 2014, Deon Stafford, Jr., in 2017, Tim Brennan in 2018, Andrew Cossetti in 2022, Brett Callahan in 2023, and Matt McShane, Ryan Cesarini, Luke Gabrysh, and Ryan PIcollo in 2024. Yacabonis and O'Keefe became the third and fourth Hawks in program history to suit up for a Major League club, making their debuts with the Baltimore Orioles in 2017 and the Seattle Mariners in 2022, respectively.
Over the course of his extensive coaching career, Hamburg has guided a number of players to major regional and conference awards both before and during his time on Hawk Hill. Deon Stafford, Jr., was named the ECAC Player of the Year in 2016, while Andrew Cossetti nabbed NCBWA District 1 Player of the Year accolades in 2022. In 2014, the Hawks swept the Atlantic 10 Player and Pitcher of the Year honors, with Collin Forgey and Jordan Carter, respectively, bringing home the hardware; two years later, Stafford would be tabbed the league's Player of the Year as well. Hamburg himself was feted by his fellow A-10 coaches as the league's Coach of the Year in both 2014 and 2023.
Since Hamburg's arrival on Hawk Hill, Saint Joseph's has become the Philadelphia area's most consistent program; the Hawks were named the Big 5 Baseball Team of the Year on four occasions, while Hamburg was voted the Coach of the Year five times.
Prior to his stint with the Hawks, Hamburg was the associate head coach at Army West Point, where he helped guide Nick Hill to Patriot League Pitcher of the Year honors in 2004, 2005, and 2007 and catcher Schuyler Williamson to Patriot League Player of the Year honors in 2004. Hill and Williamson were among 11 Black Knights drafted during Hamburg's time at West Point. For his efforts, Hamburg was named the Baseball America/American Baseball Coaches Association Assistant Coach of the Year in 2007.
Before joining the program at West Point, Hamburg served as an assistant coach at Cornell, New Mexico State, Cal-Poly Pomona, Georgia and his alma mater, Ithaca College. He has also served as a summer league head coach in both the Northeast Collegiate Baseball League and the Valley Baseball League.
A native of Doylestown, Pennsylvania, Hamburg began his collegiate playing career at Virginia Tech before transferring to Ithaca. It was there that he earned All-America honors and helped lead the Bombers to a Division III national championship in 1988. The 1989 graduate then spent a year in the Philadelphia Phillies organization before embarking on his coaching career. In 2022, he earned a master's in Organizational Development and Leadership from Saint Joseph's.
Hamburg and his wife, Annemarie, have two daughters, Charlotte and Brenna. Brenna is a 2014 graduate of Saint Joseph's.
