USD’s Cunningham Takes Rap for His Team

News Item: John Cunningham, USD’s baseball coach, is suspended for three games for his “role” in last week’s brawl at Nevada Reno.

When you hear this, you know you have heard it all.

John Cunningham suspended?

Preposterous.

This is no Billy Martin or Zsa Zsa Gabor. This is John Cunningham. This is a poodle, not a pit bull. This guy is about as fiery as a bowl of ice cream, and I’m definitely not talking baked Alaska.

I could just see Cunningham rolling up his sleeves and taking on the Reno bench. Sure. Just like I could see him wearing a lamp shade at a party or dancing at Girls’ Night Out.

Jim McMahon’s nose provoked more controversy in one sniff than Cunningham has encountered in his career, and that spans 27 years as USD’s coach. I swear, this man could drop a watermelon into a hot tub and not make a wave.

Up in Alcala Park, where class and dignity are cherished, this man is an institution.

Indeed, USD plays its baseball games in John Cunningham Stadium.

You think that’s no big deal?

Two years ago, when the stadium was renamed, the university had a little dinner for 350 of his closest friends to make the announcement.

Patrick Cahill, USD’s athletic director at the time, said later: “That proves that the people here think a lot of him. It’s an unwritten law here that nobody can have anything named after him unless they die--or they donate a great deal of money.”

John Cunningham didn’t and doesn’t fit either of those criteria. What he has given, essentially, is the best part of what has been a very good life. That was plenty.

So, you think, now is the time to make the point that the West Coast Conference commissioner, Mike Gilleran, should be hanged by his thumbs for such a mindless gesture as handing John Cunningham a three-game suspension?

Not exactly.

If anything, USD’s players should be hanged by their thumbs for succumbing to the mindless intimidation they knew they would encounter when they got to Reno. They were the ones who bolted onto the field and did battle with Reno’s players.

Like it or not, the head coach is the person ultimately responsible for the conduct of his team. USD’s players put Gilleran into such a position that he had to suspend Cunningham, no ifs, ands or buts.

I say this in spite of the fact that I think this whole brouhaha was precipitated by Nevada Reno in retaliation for an incident when the teams met in San Diego March 9. A Reno player, John DeRicco, was hit in the face when USD’s Chad Boyd attempted to throw from second to first to complete a double play. DeRicco suffered a broken cheek and nose.

Reno’s players seemed to get it into their collective psyche that Boyd had done this purposefully, even though there was nothing in the history of the rivalry to suggest such malice was afoot. Boyd, in fact, was a freshman playing in his first game against Reno.

Regardless, Reno awaited in a rather foul mood.

Indeed, Jim Dietz, San Diego State’s baseball coach, said his team was caught up in a backwash of bad blood when it went to Reno.

“When we were up there,” Dietz recalled, “their players were taunting us and yelling at us, ‘We’re going to get that other San Diego team.’ I warned John, ‘Beware when you go up there, because they’re crazy.’ ”

Dietz said he will never again take a San Diego State team to Reno, but John Cunningham had no choice. USD and Reno happen to play in the same conference. The schedule was to bring them together for a single game May 4 and a doubleheader May 5.

Cunningham, likely at the urging of USD’s administration, is not commenting on the situation, but I can guarantee he warned his team about what it would encounter in Reno. I can guarantee he told his players to keep their cool.

Further, before the game, both coaches were warned by the umpires in the meeting at home plate.

However, no one could have anticipated that there would come a situation in which Chad Boyd would be running at first base and the first baseman would be John DeRicco.

Guess what? The pitcher made a pick-off move to first. According to the umpires’ report to Gilleran, DeRicco, to quote, “placed a hard (underlined in the report) tag to the center of the back of Boyd.”

This time, the umpires warned the players.

Guess what? The pitcher threw over to first again. The umpires’ report said, “Boyd lowered his shoulder as he returned to the base contacting DeRicco in the chest. As Boyd hit the bag with his left foot, he attempted to use his right knee to hit DeRicco in the groin.” USD insists Boyd simply swung his right leg toward the bag because DeRicco was trying to push him off the base.

This was when all hell broke loose.

The remainder of the game was canceled, and Cunningham chose to forfeit the Saturday doubleheader. After all, you don’t walk into a mine field when you know it is there.

What happened in Reno should in no way tarnish John Cunningham as a person or a coach. It was a case in which, fair or not given the context of the situation, the big guy had to take the rap.

And John Cunningham is big enough to handle it.