Setting the Wheels in Motion : Fuscardo Gambles on His Philosophy Paying Off for Fullerton Baseball

The lesson came not from his coach but from his instincts.

In the early ‘60s, when Nick Fuscardo was playing second base for El Camino College, he listened attentively to his coach’s teachings.

One of the theories would go in one of Fuscardo’s ears and out the other, but would remain in his consciousness to this day as the wrong way to go about the game of baseball and the wrong way to go about the game of life.

His coach didn’t take many risks on the field. Going for the extra base was frowned upon. Trying to squeeze bordered on sin. Stealing third was grounds for capital punishment.

And though Nick Fuscardo, ever respectful, wouldn’t dare speak out, he constantly would think, “This can’t be right.”

That’s not how Fuscardo, the new coach at Fullerton College, plays baseball, and that’s not how he lives. His strategy, both on and off the field, is one of risk-taking. And that’s what has carried him to the place he is today.

“I always questioned that,” he says of Freeman’s conservative ways. “The first year I coached, I was afraid to squeeze. Then, finally, I realized I had to start doing those things. I had to make things happen.”

He made things happen for 12 years at Troy High School, where he coached the Warriors to four league titles and 11 playoff appearances.

That task complete, he took a chance in 1981, turning down Augie Garrido’s offer to become an assistant at Cal State Fullerton and be part of one of the country’s best college programs.

He instead became an assistant at Fullerton College, a two-year school just minutes from Titan Field, but eons apart in baseball prestige.

The gamble worked. Four years later, Mike Sgobba resigned, and the team belonged to Fuscardo. Had he elected to be Garrido’s assistant, he likely would still be Garrido’s assistant.

“I missed a couple of trips to the College World Series,” Fuscardo said. “I’ve thought of it. But I’ve never regretted it.”

He rolled the dice and got where he wanted. Now that he’s there, there will be more of the same. A risk brought him this far; he thinks the same approach will take him and his team further still.

His old coach might be appalled. Fuscardo will make certain of that. There won’t be any severely radical departures from Sgobba’s philosophy, but he plans to ingrain in the Hornets his own personality.

“We’re very similar, except that I might run a little more,” he said. “He might say, ‘Let’s swing,’ and I’ll say, ‘Let’s squeeze.’ I’ll steal home, too.”

But all that will mean little if he has nothing to show for it at the end of his first season. Sgobba won 487 games in 24 years at Fullerton, and was an institution there.

“We’re going to win,” Fuscardo insists. “I don’t know how much we’re going to win. But we’ll win some games.”

Fuscardo appears sure of himself, although community college baseball is more competitive than ever. Fullerton is part of what Fuscardo considers to be the toughest community college conference in the country. And he’ll be juggling his coaching responsibilities with teaching oral communications and pre-alegbra classes at Troy, and physical education classes at Fullerton.

And although his responsibilities as head coach are relatively unfamiliar to him. It will be Fuscardo’s job to organize practices, schedule games, help his players advance to four-year colleges, work with the administrataion and the media, try to raise money for road trips . . .

“There is going to be a little bit of pressure on him,” pitcher Bobby Hernandez said. “He might feel it.”

But this is, after all, what he wanted. This was why he said no to Cal State Fullerton’s Garrido. And though he concedes that the apparition of Sgobba will loom hauntingly each time the Hornets play, you also sense that he relishes the notion of creating his own legacy.

“There’s some big footsteps to follow,” Fuscardo said. “Some guys go into a program and the guy before him might have had eight to 10 wins a year. But here’s a guy who averaged 20 wins a year.

“If we don’t win 24 games (as the Hornets did last season), they’ll say, ‘Sgobba left and the program has gone down the chutes.’ Even if we have a good year. That could bother me, but it doesn’t. I can handle that. I’ve got to think about going in and continuing what we’re doing.”

That’s why he has already established his goal as winning the South Coast Conference and appearing in the state championship every season.

And that is where recruiting emerges as the most crucial factor.

Not unlike a compulsive gambler, Fuscardo once again is ready for what may be a big risk. While other coaches in the conference tread wearily throughout Orange County for players, from La Habra to San Clemente, Fuscardo says he’ll have no part of that. He’ll choose his players from the Fullerton area, he says.

He might be taking a chance. And what else is new?

But like most things, when it comes to recruiting, Fuscardo is sure of himself.

“It’s cutthroat,” he said. “I hate that part of it. People feel that in order for them to win, they have to go in (to a different area) and take those guys out of that area. I refuse to do that.

“I believe that in every area there are people that are as good as kids outside of that area. If I have to drive down to Huntington Beach to scout a kid, that’s a long drive. That means that kid has got to drive that far every day. I don’t think a kid wants to do that. A kid is going to be happy in his own area.

“I’ve got kids here that can play. I would like to think that the community college is a true community college, that they can come from this area and play at Fullerton College.”

But as his reputation grows, it appears possible that because of his personality, Fuscardo might defeat his own purpose.

He wears a broad grin, owns a hearty laugh and is enveloped by a genuine warmth. There is the feeling that his team means as much to him as his wife and three kids, that as Tommy Lasorda, his players are simply a part of the Fuscardo household.

“We’re like his second family,” said second baseman Jeff Oberdank, recalling the time this summer when Fuscardo had his players over the house for a team meeting, which included dinner. “He’s like part of the team. He’s just a good guy, and everybody respects him.”

Hernandez remembers when he was pitching for Katella High School and Fuscardo came to one of his games. After escaping a bases-loaded jam, Hernandez headed for the dugout and heard the encouraging voice of his future coach: “Atta boy. That’s my lefty.”

It made a lasting impression.

“I already felt like I was on his team,” Hernandez said. “He has a lot of charisma. He’s really down to the players’ level. Even though he’s older, you feel you can talk to him.”

But to Fuscardo, 42, it’s merely second nature. And just another part of the job.

“You’ve always had to be a father confessor, you’ve always had to be the jailer, but today it’s even more so,” he said. “You’ve got to be a psychologist, a philosopher, the whole works in this thing.”

And when the time is right, a gambler, too. Someone willing to take a chance or two, on or off the basepaths.