Rich Tandy begins his sixth season as NJCU’s hitting instructor during the 2005 campaign after being hired in September 1999. Additionally, Tandy serves as the team’s third base coach, and will help the team work on its base running.
In the last few years alone, his tireless efforts to improve the hitting fundamentals among Gothic Knight hitters can be seen in the team’s progressive batting average from .279 in 2001 to .309 in 2002. That average jumped to .321 during the 2004 season.
A familiar face in Northern New Jersey amateur baseball, Tandy spent eight years as the hitting coach at Rutgers-Newark before joining the NJCU staff. He also spent five years as the fall and summer baseball coach at Bergen Catholic High School in Oradell.
He has had success coaching high school-aged players on other levels, and was named to the coaching staff of the American Amateur Baseball Congress National team in 1994. In 1991, Tandy earned Regional Coach of the Year honors after leading a Connie Mack team to the North Atlantic regional championship. Elsewhere, he helped guide a team to the New Jersey State Sandy Koufax League championship. He also coached two years for the semipro Lodi (NJ) Orioles of the Metropolitan Baseball League.
Born June 7, 1946 in Queens, NY, Richard Tandy, Sr., currently resides in Oradell, NJ with his wife, Louise. The couple has three sons, Rich Tandy, Jr., a graduate and former baseball player at Boston College, Rob Tandy, who played at St. Peter’s College in Jersey City, and Ryan Tandy, a graduate of Five Towns College. Tandy has worked for the New York Daily News for the past 35 years. When not coaching, he also enjoys skiing, duck hunting, and spending quality time with head coach Ken Heaton, whom he lists as his idol.
