‘Austin’ Red Sox Took Texas Route to Boston, Series

The Austin-Boston baseball connection has many University of Texas fans rooting for the “Austin Red Sox” against the New York Mets in the World Series.

Red Sox pitchers Roger Clemens and Calvin Schiraldi were mainstays of the 1983 Texas Longhorn national championship baseball team, and shortstop Spike Owen was a two-time All-American who signed a professional contract after the 1982 season.

Red Sox designated hitter Don Baylor is a graduate of Austin’s Stephen F. Austin High School, where he hit .500 as a senior but was passed over by Texas recruiters. His parents still live in Austin.

Texas Coach Cliff Gustafson sat in the dugout Thursday as his team took batting practice, and talked about the “Austin Red Sox.”

“We’ve had a number of college pitchers that were better pitchers during that time of their lives than Clemens was,” Gustafson said. “I thought at the time Clemens was here, and I said this back then, that (Burt) Hooton was the best college pitcher that I had had or seen, but I thought Clemens was the best major league prospect we had had.”

Hooton recently completed a long major-league career, with most of his success coming with the Dodgers. He now works three days a week helping Gustafson with Longhorn pitchers.

Schiraldi was a first team All-American college pitcher, but Clemens never even made All-Southwest Conference. In 1983, Schiraldi was the MVP of the College World Series, but Clemens won the championship game, 4-3.

“He (Clemens) wasn’t even recruited out of high school, because he threw 83-84 miles an hour,” Gustafson said. “At UT, he threw 90 on occasion but not consistently, and a lot of games he was 85-86. The fact that he is now able to throw 95 pretty consistently--that’s just amazing.”

Gustafson said Schiraldi’s five strikeouts in two innings Wednesday night in the clinching game against the California Angels reminded him of the pitcher during the College World Series.

“I thought when they moved him to the bullpen ... that it might be the best thing for his career, because he seemed to have the ability to get pumped up and throw really hard for a couple of innings in clutch situations,” Gustafson said.

Owen was the best shortstop he ever had at Texas, but could work on his hitting now, Gustafson said.

“I think he can be a lot more consistent hitter than he’s showing,” the coach said. “When he played here, a lot of his base hits were to left field. I haven’t seen him hit anything to left. He’s trying to hit the ball too hard.”

The Longhorn pre-practice talk was about Wednesday’s game, in which Clemens was the starter and winner, with Schiraldi relieving.

“I think it’s a big, big plus (for UT),” Gustafson said. “I think it helps you in recruiting when they get the kind of publicity they’ve gotten, particularly if they handle themselves well like they have with their interviews.”

The coach said it would “lead young, good pitching prospects, in particular, all over the nation to consider the University of Texas as a possible place to go play college ball.”