Cobb County brothers reach 500-win milestone weeks apart

Weeks later, on March 7, Allatoona beat Cartersville 2-1, giving Keith his 500th career win.

Returning the favor, George, whose Mustangs played at Osborne earlier, hustled nearly an hour to be on hand for the Buccaneers’ final out. After the game, both brothers stood with more than 1,000 wins between them.

“I know there’s been some brother coaching combos with 1,000 wins,” said George, “but in those cases, it’s one with like 840 wins, and the other has 160. As far as both winning the same amount, I haven’t heard of that.”

Said Keith, “We’re a close-knit family, and we grew up in a very baseball-oriented household. Both of our parents loved the game, and showed up to our games. I don’t get caught up in numbers, but I was excited we got the win. There was some pressure (to get win No. 500) because Cartersville is a very tough opponent, and you don’t know if you’re going to win. It meant a lot, but I see it more as a product of the baseball community in Cobb.”

Both brothers said they owe a lot to the county, which has a reputation for being baseball-rich.

Former coaches Harvey Cochran (North Cobb), Donnie English (Osborne) and David McDonald (Wheeler), co-founders of the Georgia Dugout Club, are considered the “Godfathers of Cobb baseball,” Keith said. Among the three are 1,894 wins.

It was Cochran who gave both Hansen brothers their start in coaching. The brothers, five years apart and George five years older, played at North Cobb under Cochran.

After George graduated from Georgia, Cochran hired him as an assistant to run the JV team. George held the job from 1993 until his first head coaching job, Pebblebrook, in 1997.

Cochran hired Keith, who played at LaGrange College, to fill George’s spot, and Keith held the title until taking his first head coaching job, Alexander, in 2003.

Both George and Keith are their program’s only coaches. George founded Kennesaw Mountain baseball in 2001, and Keith did the same at Allatoona in 2009.

Both credit longtime assistants for providing program stability, with Rich Oria working under George for all of his wins, including 24 at Pebblebrook. Brad Strickland has worked under Keith for more than 450 wins, including some of the 114 at Alexander.

“We have our differences in coaching styles, but we’re both big loyalty people,” Keith said. “We’re not looking to go somewhere else.”

Said George, “This is a great area with some really fantastic baseball players. When we came here, we wanted a program that people respected, year in and year out, and we’ve been that for one-quarter of a century.”

There was a strong likelihood baseball would be a mainstay for the Hansen brothers. Growing up in Red Bank, New Jersey, 30 miles south of Staten Island, New York, they were raised by a father, also named George, who played baseball and had a tryout with the Brooklyn Dodgers before joining the Air Force, where he played football on its travel team in Japan.

The Hansens took an annual trip to Disney World in Orlando and always found time to include baseball, whether it was a trip to Kissimmee to see the Houston Astros in spring training, or time in the batting cages.

Credit: Courtesy of George Hansen

Credit: Courtesy of George Hansen

Their uncle was a former New York City police officer who later became New York Yankees owner George Steinbrenner’s personal driver, giving the Hansen brothers once-in-a-lifetime access to the Yankees.

“I would sit in the dugout with Rickey Henderson, Dave Winfield and Don Mattingly,” Keith said. “We would hang out in Steinbrenner’s office. He had two seats next to the dugout, his personal seats, and I got to sit in it for a game he wasn’t there. Everyone thought we were Steinbrenner’s nephews because no one got to do what we did.”

With their father owning a real estate company, and mother, Anita, a teacher, the family had the schedule flexibility for the brothers to attend any baseball camps they wanted, and they took advantage. It was at one of those camps that George was first bitten by the coaching bug.

“We were down in Florida for a camp hosted by the Doyle brothers,” said George, “and I did OK at first base, had a couple of hits and three RBIs. The next day, this monster of a first basemen comes in and smashes four home runs, and Denny Doyle told me I wouldn’t be playing first base anymore, but he handed me a lineup card and said he was too busy, asking if I would fill it out for him. In hindsight, he was thinking I’d make a good coach. I thought, ‘This strategy stuff is fun.’”

The brothers aren’t tracking just wins on the field as victories. George estimates he’s sent more than 120 players to the next level, most notably Tyler Stephenson, currently a catcher for the Cincinnati Reds. Keith claims over 150, most notably Clarke Schmidt of the Yankees.

When they Yankees play against the Dodgers in the World Series last year, Schmidt got Keith a ticket to one of the games in New York.

“To have a kid who played for me, as a coach, to watch him walk onto the mound of a World Series game, after growing up in the Yankees’ dugout myself, was a full-circle moment for me,” Keith said.

Neither Hansen brother is thinking retirement. Though both also say it’s not a reason for continuing to coach, a state championship eludes them. Kennesaw Mountain reached the championship in 2007, and Allatoona has been runner-up twice, to Pope both times, first in 2018, then in 2022. The Buccaneers were one out away in 2018, with Pope tying the game in the bottom of the seventh, then winning in the eighth.

“Is it disappointing?” Keith said. “Not really. I’d love to have one, but with all the good that’s come from being a part of this game, a championship would just be a byproduct of what we do.”

Said George, “I’d rather have a consistently respected program than a flash in the pan, then have to be coaching somewhere else five years later. If we can make a run, and the ball bounces our way, I certainly wouldn’t mind putting a ring on my finger.”

Despite both Allatoona and Kennesaw Mountain being in the same county, they’ve played only twice, when they were in the same region, the Buccaneers won both games.

Both teams are eying the playoffs this year. Kennesaw Mountain has graduated 23 players the past two seasons and is mostly young. The team is 8-3 but ranked outside of the MaxPreps Top 25 for Class 5A.

Senior-laden Allatoona, 9-3 and No. 8 in the MaxPreps 4A rankings, was mostly freshman when the team last played for a state title.

“These kids have been through the ringer, and I don’t think they’ll be afraid of anything,” Keith said.

“What we’re hoping is we put some of these growing pains behind us by the end of the season and make a run in the state playoffs,” George said. “We’ll have our eyes on getting hot at the right time, with the knowledge that the vast majority of our players are coming back next year with some real varsity experience.”