Former Arizona baseball star Brian Anderson named interim coach at Northwestern

It certainly wasn’t the way he probably wanted it to happen, but Brian Anderson is in charge of a college baseball program in only his second year of coaching.

The former Arizona and MLB outfielder has been named interim coach at Northwestern, which fired Jim Foster on Thursday in the wake of reports he’d created a hostile work environment in his lone season in charge of the Wildcats.

Anderson, 41, joined Northwestern in late March after coaching at Pima Community College. He was an undergraduate assistant with the UA during the 2022 season, his first coaching gig, working with the team’s outfielders and serving as the Wildcats’ first base coach during games.

An All-American and all-conference player at Arizona, Anderson played from 2001-03 and holds the school record with a 26-game hitting streak as a junior, then was taken in the first round of the 2003 MLB Draft to the Chicago White Sox. He made his big-league debut in 2005, playing for Chicago and the Boston Red Sox over five seasons.

Northwestern went 23-27 this past season, finishing tied for 8^th in the Big Ten with a 10-14 league mark. The Wildcats have not made the NCAA Tournament since 1957.