Fullerton’s Cochell, Titan Baseball Seem to Be a Perfect Fit

Admit it--you didn’t know Larry Cochell from Larry, Curly and Moe when Cal State Fullerton hired him as its new baseball coach last September. All you knew was that the famed and flamboyant Augie Garrido, who led Fullerton to four College World Series appearances and two national titles, was leaving for, of all places, Illinois.

Good ol’ Augie. His program matched his personality: It had a swagger to it. Augie was smooth as marble, quotable, almost always available. Any higher profile and they would have had to clear room for an extra face at Mt. Rushmore. When you thought of Fullerton, you instantly thought of Augie and--I mean this in a nice way--the brashness that came with him.

But Larry Cochell? It sounded like the name of a Ford dealership in Brea. The name of your butcher. The hardware salesman who tells you why a rubber garden hose is better than vinyl.

Keith Kaub, the Titans’ first baseman, said it best recently. “Augie’s like lobster,” he said. “Cochell is like a home-cooked meal.”

If that’s the case, then pass me another helping of baked chicken and gravy.

The Titans are back in Omaha and the College World Series thanks, in large part, to the quiet one, Cochell. And no matter what happens, Cochell deserves the chance to create his own legacy, rather than work in the shadow of Garrido’s.

No one denies that this is Augie’s team in a sense. Cochell said that much last September, when he thanked Garrido for constructing a program that could withstand almost anything, most notably a new coach. But while Garrido recruited these players, Cochell managed them. He did so under odd and difficult circumstances. Odd, because Garrido was actually gone. Difficult, because Cochell was constantly compared to his predecessor.

Nor did it help when there was the confusion concerning the selection process. Contrary to popular thought, Cochell was among the first names that Fullerton athletic administrators wrote on their shopping list. But when Cochell hedged and several other candidates withdrew their names from consideration, the situation became muddled. Cochell later came to terms with Fullerton, but there was the appearance, however faulty, that he was a secondary choice.

More problems arrived once he did find his way into the dugout. One was Fullerton’s early start, a disturbing six losses in its first 13 games. With the defeats, came the predictable murmurs of discontent:

“This would have never happened had Augie been here.”

“Why doesn’t Cochell do this?”

“Why doesn’t Cochell do that?”

Now we know better.

Cochell has his own style, all right. It is calm, but it is also confident. He has said he considers himself a people person, which doesn’t always mean you have to do card tricks or have the funniest one-liners.

This is a guy who values his religion, jogs with his wife every morning, eats lunch with her every afternoon. This is a guy who slowly and lovingly shaped Garrido’s team into his own. He did it by making few drastic changes, instead allowing Titan players to gradually accept him rather than forcing the issue.

The transition took time and there are moments when player and coach don’t always agree. But for the most part, the Titans like and respect Cochell. You don’t call your coach’s balding head The Dome of Doom unless there’s some sort of mutual affection.

Cochell has heard this type of thing before. At Oral Roberts, where his teams were ranked in the top 10 seven of the 10 years he was there, Cochell was called, The Walking Hat. Seems Cochell had difficulty finding a cap that would fit his head. Popping out of the dugout some days, you saw Cochell’s body, but only a suggestion of his face, what with the cap resting on the bridge of his nose. And wouldn’t you know it, when he was introduced to the media last September, Fullerton officials presented Cochell with a Titan cap that was appropriately several sizes too large.

Nowadays, everything fits: caps and Cochell, Cochell and Fullerton, Fullerton and the College World Series.

Shortly after last Monday’s win in the final of the NCAA South Regional at Starkville, Miss., a win that sent the Titans to the College World Series, Fullerton athletic director Ed Carroll stood outside the dugout with a grin on his face as wide as home plate. Someone asked: Why the gloating smile?

“After you go through trying to replace a coach and something like this happens . . .” Carroll said.

We get the idea. In other words, it’s no longer “Larry who?” but “Larry wow!”