A year after putting the wraps on his playing career, Tip Fairchild has moved on to the second phase of his life in baseball by diving headlong into teaching and coaching the game.

For the first time in five years, Fairchild isn’t being paid to play baseball, but the game is still his bread and butter. Released last year by the Houston Astros after a minor league career in which he posted a 19-19 pitching record in the Astros’ chain, he has established “Tip Fairchild Baseball Clinics,” and has been busy working with pitchers in Maine and Rhode Island.

While he occasionally misses playing professionally, Fairchild, the son of former longtime Oak Hill baseball coach and current athletic director Bill Fairchild, thinks he has found his true calling.

“I love doing it,” he said. “I always knew that this would be something I wanted to do as much as I possibly could.”

Now living in Rhode Island, the former Monmouth Academy and University of Southern Maine star has also started a baseball school with outlets in Providence, Warwick and northern Rhode Island.

“Rhode Island is 20 minutes you can get wherever you want to go,” he said. “And the population is so dense down here that it’s not a problem getting kids.”

The goal is to ultimately expand the clinic’s reach throughout New England and the rest of the country, Fairchild said.

Fairchild’s clinic and school staff consists of a number of former college and former and current professional players, including former Deering star Ryan Reid, who is now pitching for the Tampa Rays’ Double-A affiliate in Montgomery, Ala.

“He’s my main man up in Maine,” Fairchild said. “When he comes back in the fall and the winter, he’s going to be busy.”

Fairchild is delegating more responsibilities — for a long time his name was all over the organization chart, president, CEO, CFO, marketing, web site designer — which has allowed him to take up managing a three-team AAU program.

“I’m still learning how to teach, but I’m learning that teaching is the easy part,” he said. “I’m a better teacher than manager.”

Bill Fairchild recently came out of coaching retirement and acted as his son’s assistant for a game (their team lost on a walk-off home run). He said Tip will get better at the managing part with more experience.

“You don’t really become a good coach until you get the player out of you,” Bill Fairchild said.

“He is a tremendous teacher,” he added. “His patience is unbelievable and his attention to detail is super.”

As for his desire to toe the rubber again, Tip Fairchild said his playing days are in the rearview mirror. He said he’s attended a couple of games this year, a Red Sox game at Fenway Park and a minor league game in Durham, NC, but hasn’t followed the sport that closely except to check in on ex-teammates.

“I realized that I don’t even really watch the game because I’m used to talking during the game when I was playing,” he said. “Watching a whole nine-inning game is a pretty long ordeal if you don’t have any conversation going. Seeing a couple of buddies up there playing, that’s the only time you miss it.”

He said he makes it back to Maine once or twice a month, usually to do a clinic and spend some time with his family. He regularly hears from people back home via his Web site, www.tipfairchild.com, and loves to get e-mails from people “even if it isn’t about the clinic, if they just want to talk baseball.”

Bill Fairchild said he’s proud of the transition Tip has made to his post-playing life.

“I think he’s attacking this part of his life the same as he did as a ballplayer, trying to outwork everybody. I’d probably hire him,” Fairchild said with a laugh.

To supplement his own ventures, Fairchild, who has a business degree from USM, recently started selling apparel for Turfer Sportswear, an outerwear company. Reflecting on his playing career, he said he sees it as an avenue to the opportunities he has now, and he feels fortunate to be making the transition many former athletes struggle to make. 

“Basically, everything I’m doing is tied into the fact that I played professional baseball, and all of these paths have opened up because of it,” he said. “That’s how it should be for everyone who’s playing.”