Happy to Be Coaching Where He’s Recruiting

First, some particulars.

Larry Cochell loved his one season in the Big Ten. Was crazy about Northwestern. Couldn’t think of a finer sight than glancing out of the dugout and seeing another packed house.

Just one annoying problem: The weather.

My general rule of thumb is, never coach baseball where the conference name also describes the early springtime temperature. But that’s where Cochell found himself last year, staring at the Evanston sky in disbelief as wide, thick snowflakes fell gently on the Northwestern field midway through his team’s home opener.

“That’s Big Ten baseball,” he says.

Imagine what fun it must have been to recruit players, say, from the Sun Belt.

Cochell: “So, in closing, Northwestern offers a first-class academic setting, an appealing campus, the prestige of the Big Ten and a baseball program, we hope, on the way up.”

Recruit: “Yes, but do you have sun?”

Cochell, staring at his shoes: “So, in closing, Northwestern offers a first-class academic setting, an appealing campus . . .”

That was before Cal State Fullerton called. Of all things, its on-campus legend, Augie Garrido, had accepted a job at Illinois. The money was good, the facilities acceptable, the challenge considerable. Garrido had even chatted with Cochell about the advantages and pitfalls of such a move.

Cochell, no dummy, decided to inquire about the Fullerton vacancy. The money was competitive, the facilities adequate--for now, until a promised stadium is built in time for the 1990 season--and the challenge intriguing. When Fullerton athletic department administrators finally offered him the job, Cochell considered the situation.

He was 48, a 22-year veteran of college coaching. He was asking his family to move halfway across the country for his second job change in less than a year. He would be expected to maintain and possibly improve Garrido’s impressive Fullerton program. He probably would encounter many of the same problems that plagued Garrido: fund-raising difficulties, the lack of first-rate playing facilities, sparse attendance. He would be leaving one of the nation’s finest and most understanding universities. At Northwestern, wins are welcome, but not altogether vital. “I could have stayed there the rest of my life,” he says.

But at Fullerton he would also be smack dab in the middle of fertile recruiting grounds. At Oral Roberts University, where he coached for 10 years, Cochell says, “I lived off Southern California. The best baseball is played in this part of the country, in my opinion.” Which may explain why seven of his Oral Roberts teams finished in the top 10 and how he won 424 of the 592 games he coached there.

As for Titan Field, more suited for an American Legion summer league team, Cochell insists it will a pleasant memory in two years. “We will be playing in a new stadium in 1990,” he says. “It’s going to be second to none in this part of the country.”

And, of course, there was the weather. Smoggy at times, to be sure, but at least you didn’t need mittens to fill out your lineup card.

So Cochell said yes.

“There are two things you can do in the world of athletics,” he says. “You can build a program or you can maintain a program. I would rather come into a program with tradition and maintain rather than build. I built a program at Oral Roberts, but it was hard. For me, at this stage of my career, this was the job I wanted.”

Trouble is, Cochell has had to do a little heavy lifting since his arrival. Garrido left him all sorts of things--a competitive schedule, a generous preseason ranking, the nucleus of a good team. But he didn’t leave a returning starting catcher, or third baseman, or center fielder, or right fielder, or designated hitter, or a couple of extra pitchers. Result: Six losses in Fullerton’s first 13 games.

“I thought we would have gotten off to a little better start,” says Cochell. “But I still maintain we’re going to be very good before the year’s over.”

Cochell said he feels better about his team these days. The Titans score runs. Lots of them. In their three-game series against Arizona, they scored 37 times. They play defense well. Their pitching isn’t quite as dependable.

“We’ll go as far as our pitching takes us, and that’s the name of the game,” Cochell says.

Which is why you can find Cochell on the house phone for hours at a time, doing his best to interest the locals into staying put and playing for Fullerton. Just the other night he was busy dialing up recruits. He asks them their goals “to see if they’ll fit into what we want to do here.” He asks them if they’re inclined to remain in the area or change ZIP codes. And he warns them to be choosy.

“The three most beautiful college baseball stadiums are at Texas, Texas A&M; and Oral Roberts,” he says. “But I tell the kids that if you’re coming because of the stadium, you’re making a mistake. You come because of the people.”

Cochell isn’t in the running for any charisma awards. He doesn’t have the quiet flair of Garrido. But he’s unfailingly polite, genuinely sincere and, hey, he survived 10 years of Oral Roberts as a boss, the college equivalent of George Steinbrenner.

“I’m just a conservative sort of guy,” Cochell says.

That he is. And worth the wait.