MUSTANGS NAME BILLY HORTON CLUB MANAGER

The Billings Mustangs today introduced their new 2023 field manager. He is Billy Horton, who has worked for three MLB clubs including the San Francisco Giants during their World Series Championship runs in 2012 and 2014. Horton replaces 2022 manager Jim Riggleman, a five-time major league manager who in 2022 led the Mustangs to the playoffs.                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                        
Horton, 49, served as a manager, hitting coach, fundamentals coach, and director of extended spring training during his eight years with the San Francisco Giants (2012-2019). During that time, more than two dozen Giants players who were drafted or signed as minor league free agents made their MLB debut. A utility player who played for multiple Independent League teams from 1997-2000, Horton has also worked in various capacities for the Arizona Diamondbacks (2001-2003, 2006) and Chicago White Sox (2003). More recently, he has served as a manager or field coordinator for teams in the MLB Draft League (2021) and Arizona Collegiate Wood Bat League (2020, 2022). In 2006, Horton founded Cactus Athletics, a company dedicated to training young athletes and coaches. He is familiar with virtually all the new technology used by MLB to find and train players, including Rapsodo, K-Motion, Hit Trax, Trackman, and Blast Motion. Over the past 17 years more than 10,000 players and coaches have participated in his camps, clinics, and baseball leagues.   

"This is a great opportunity, and I am so excited to be the Mustangs manager," said Horton. "I am friends with a lot of people who have played and coached in the Pioneer League over the years and all of them have told me how great Billings is. There is so much history in the Pioneer League and I am honored to don the Mustangs cap and lead our players in the 2023 season."                                                                                 
"The scouting, training and development of baseball players has changed so much in such a short time," said team owner Dave Heller. "Billy gets all of it. He will use every tool in the toolbox to unearth, train and develop the next generation of MLB players right here in Billings. As an independent club, we have the ability to control our own destiny, to go out and get the best players and give them every opportunity to show MLB they can be an important contributor. I'm confident Billy will find those players, bring them here to Billings, and help them develop their skills so they ultimately make their way onto a major league roster."          

"On behalf of the Pioneer League, I want to welcome Billy to our extraordinary roster of field managers and coaches," said Pioneer League president Mike Shapiro. "A key measure of the Pioneer League's ongoing efforts to develop young players who will move up through the ranks of professional baseball is the quality of managers in the league like Billy Horton. We are a much stronger and more viable league with Billy at the helm in Billings."

ABOUT THE MUSTANGS: Winners of the Pioneer League's Jim McCurdy Cup for demonstrated excellence on and off the field for the second time in three seasons, the Mustangs kick off their third season as an MLB Partner League club on Tuesday, May 23rd, at Dehler Park against the Missoula PaddleHeads. The season's first homestand continues through the Memorial Day weekend as the Mustangs host the PaddleHeads for six games, concluding with an afternoon game on Sunday, May 29th, when all veterans, reservists, guardsmen, and active-duty military will be able to attend for just $1.00. Visit billingsmustangs.com and follow the Mustangs on social media for ticket information, team news and more.

 About the Pioneer Baseball League: Since 1939, the Pioneer Baseball League has operated in the Mountain West region as an MLB affiliate league. Beginning in 2021, the PBL became an MLB Professional Partner League with clubs in Montana (Billings, Missoula, Great Falls, and Kalispell), Idaho (Boise and Idaho Falls), Utah (Ogden), and Colorado (Grand Junction, Fort Collins, and Colorado Springs). For more information go to www.pioneerleague.com.

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