Garrido Tries to Recapture Lone-Star Status at Texas

AUSTIN, Texas — Augie Garrido looks a little out of place deep in the heart of Billy Bob-twang country, standing in front of the Texas dugout at Disch-Falk Field when they play “The Eyes of Texas Are Upon You.”

Except for those three years he was away at Illinois, Garrido has nearly always been a Californian, the bon vivant baseball coach who lived in Newport Beach, hung around with his movie star pal Kevin Costner, and led Cal State Fullerton to three College World Series championships in three decades.

But when Texas tossed a $1.68-million, six-year contract in his direction last summer, Garrido quickly saddled up.

So tell us, Augie, how’s the new home on the range?

“It’s sort of like I’ve got me a baseball rodeo going on,” Garrido said, smiling. “I’m trying to stay on the bull, but he bucks me off about every half-inning. I’ve worn out six pair of blue jeans and about 12 shirts trying to ride this monster. It’s been a pretty rough ride.”

Garrido is only half-joking.

The ride has been rough enough that Texas probably won’t be in the NCAA playoffs for the first time since 1978. Worse still, the Longhorns aren’t one of the six teams to qualify for the Big 12 Conference tournament, which decides the automatic bid.

Texas had a mathematical chance to make the conference tournament in the last weekend of the regular season but could win only two of three against Nebraska and finished 29-22. That probably won’t be good enough for an at-large bid. The Longhorns were seventh in the conference at 12-15. Sixth-place Missouri, which won two of three games from Texas in late April, was 15-14 after a sweep of Iowa State last weekend.

Texas got off to a good start, winning 18 of its first 22 games and sweeping a three-game series at home against Miami, one of the nation’s top teams, but then went into a nose dive and lost 12 of its next 17.

“We hit our rough spot at exactly the wrong time,” Garrido said. “What happened? We went on the road and starting playing better teams. Really, that was a part of it. The ball starting going faster, farther and was harder to catch.”

It has been particularly troubling to Garrido. “I’m pretty intense,” he said.

Garrido took over a program that had started to wither under longtime coach Cliff Gustafson. Recruiting had dropped well below Texas standards in the last couple years. Gustafson’s last team was a far cry from the 17 that made trips to the World Series in Omaha in his 29 years at Texas, even though it won the final Southwest Conference regular season title. Gustafson retired last summer during a controversy over the misuse of funds from his summer baseball camp.

“I’m not sure Augie realized how far it had slipped before he came here,” said Bill Little, Texas assistant athletic director.

But he does now.

Garrido compares this season to his first at Illinois.

“We got off to a good start there too, but when things start to go sideways, inexperienced players don’t know how to recover,” Garrido said. “That’s when the insecurities start to rage and flare up. And when no one is familiar with your program, you don’t have the kind of leadership on the team to settle things down.”

The losing even brought a few negative letters in the Austin newspaper, and some grousing on the sports talk shows. “There wasn’t any outright booing at the field,” Garrido said with a smile. “But if you’re not approved of, the fans here will sure let you know. They really care about this thing.”

Tommy Harmon, who had been Gustafson’s assistant for nine years before he was hired by Garrido, says the Texas players have had to adjust to Garrido’s style.

“Coach Gus liked to scrimmage a lot while Augie is more into development drills,” Harmon said. “And Gus put a lot of his emphasis on the pitching and the defense, while Augie is more into the offense. They both have their own way of doing things.

“The people Augie worked with at Fullerton were accustomed to the way he wanted everything, but our players haven’t been as successful at doing some of the things he likes to do, like the bunting game. There probably has been some over-trying on the part of the players too.”

Shortstop Kip Harkrider agrees.

Harkrider, the only regular back from 1996 and a member of last summer’s Olympic team, says he knows Garrido’s patience has been tried. “We haven’t played up to standards, but he’s done a marvelous job,” Harkrider said. “I know he’s helped me a lot personally this year with the mental aspects of the game. He’s the best coach I’ve ever had.”

Pitching coach Burt Hooton, the former Dodger, also is in his first year in college baseball after spending eight years coaching in the minor leagues.

“It’s been an adjustment for all of us,” Harmon said. “Augie and I had never worked together before, and we’ve all gone though a learning process.”

But Harmon thinks it’s only a matter of time before Garrido has the program back as a national power.

“I’m glad Texas hired him,” Harmon said. “I applied for the job, but I told my wife that if I don’t get it, I hope Augie does. When he gets his system in place, it will be an exciting brand of baseball.”

Garrido sees this season as no more than some agonizing growing pains.

“When you look at it in general, I think we’ve had a lot of success,” Garrido said. “If you look at the team’s record, then it’s not very successful compared to what they expect and what they’re used to having. But it’s been a time of change. This is a program in transition. All this is about change.”

It didn’t take long for Garrido to do something about the talent drought.

Garrido and his staff have signed 13 high school players, a recruiting class that is regarded as among the nation’s best. Eight are from Texas, where the Longhorn recruiting effort had been floundering.

And that group doesn’t include Darnell McDonald of Cherry Creek High in Englewood, Colo., who has signed to play football at Texas. McDonald also would play baseball, but that’s only if he doesn’t sign a major league contract for a big bonus. There already is speculation that the offer likely will top $2 million.

“He’s unbelievable,” Garrido said. “He’s probably the best high school athlete in America. Since his junior year, he’s hit a home run in every five at-bats, and he throws the ball 95 miles per hour when he pitches. And, he also has 6.5 speed in the 60.”

But McDonald isn’t the only Texas recruit being watched by major league scouts. Garrido calls Vernon Wells, an outfielder from Arlington, Texas, “just one notch below Darnell,” and says outfielder/catcher Cade Johnson of Baytown, Texas, also could be a high draft choice.

“All the others seem to be really committed to coming to school here,” Garrido said. That group includes three high school players from Orange County--pitcher Phillip Seibel of Cypress, pitcher/infielder Mike Kolbach of Mater Dei and pitcher Jim Munroe of Servite--along with arguably the No. 1 players from Florida and Illinois.

If they are as good as Garrido thinks they will be, there will be a lot of new faces in the Longhorns’ lineup next season.

That team had better be ready quickly. Garrido already has elevated Texas’ nonconference schedule for next season by about a mile. Instead of playing opponents such as Texas Arlington, Oral Roberts and Sam Houston State, Texas will play USC, Stanford, Louisiana State and Miami, as well as midweek games against Houston and Texas Christian. He’s also leaving the door open for some future games with Fullerton, if they can be worked out.

“I’ve never shied away from a tough schedule,” Garrido said.

The new expanded Big 12 Conference wasn’t everything Garrido hoped it would be this season because a proposal for division play was voted down. The current schedule format requires the conference’s 11 baseball teams to play each other in one three-game series, forcing some midweek conference series with doubleheaders on the first day.

“None of us have enough pitching for that,” Garrido said.

The weather also was a factor in several games played at the Midwestern schools.

“We flew to Ames, Iowa, for a series in the middle of April and there were 12 inches of snow on the ground,” Garrido said. “We spent $20,000 to fly there, were on the ground for only seven hours, and flew back. One of our games at Kansas was delayed twice by a hailstorm. This league is going to have to go to divisions.”

Baylor cast the swing vote against the division format last year, fearing it would be at a disadvantage grouped with the three other Texas schools along with Oklahoma and Oklahoma State, but Garrido thinks financial considerations as well as the missed class time for players this season might weigh more heavily when it is discussed again.

But Garrido says none of those problems--he likes to refer to them as “inconveniences”--have taken any of the luster off the job.

He is especially pleased by the support he has been given by the school’s administration.

“They give you everything you need to be successful,” Garrido said. “We have a full-time academic coordinator just for baseball now, which I asked for. He goes on the road with us and conducts study halls for the players there. They’ve also given me the opportunity to develop the facilities the way I think they should be, and I’m looking forward to that.”

Several more indoor batting cages and an infield under a roof for fall and winter workouts are planned, as well as a weight training room connected to the baseball stadium. Other improvements are planned to update Disch-Falk Field, which seats 6,500.

Garrido says he’s convinced Texas is the best baseball coaching job in the country because of its resources and commitment to the program. “There can’t be one any better,” he said.

Garrido says he has returned to Southern California only a few times since he took the job at Texas. Once was to help Costner celebrate his birthday. They rented the Forum and Costner and a group of his friends, including Tiger Woods, played basketball against Magic Johnson’s touring all-star team.

Garrido says one of the first things he looks for when he picks up a newspaper sports section is a Fullerton baseball score. He says he and George Horton, his former associate head coach and successor at Fullerton, also talk on the phone occasionally.

“I also talk to the scouts and cross-checkers and ask about them when they come through here,” Garrido said. “A lot of my heart is still there with George and Rick [Vanderhook], and all the guys there. They’ve gone through some of the same things we have. It takes some adjustments.”

But Garrido says he’s focusing on his life in Texas now.

“This is it for me,” he said. “I have to put down some roots.”