Finally, Titans Get Their Due

It only took 16 years and two more practice sessions at hoisting the College World Series trophy, but finally, Cal State Fullerton knows the proper procedure for celebrating an NCAA baseball championship.

First, you visit the White House.

“We did that the other times,” Augie Garrido says, “but it was the one in Anaheim. The Italian restaurant.”

In 1995, as opposed to 1979 and 1984, the Titans toured the White House in Washington, D.C., spent 90 minutes with President Clinton, posed for pictures in the Rose Garden, did the “whole presidential gig,” as Garrido regally puts it.

Typically, this did not happen easily, or quickly, for the Titans. Fullerton won the College World Series in early June but did not reach the White House until September. There was no ready-and-waiting invitation to fly to the nation’s capital upon their return from Omaha, Neb. The team earned its trip the traditional Titan way--writing letters, asking once, asking twice, hitting up friends of Garrido’s in higher places to see if they could pull the right political string.

“After we won it, I popped off in the papers that we were going to the White House,” Garrido says. “I said, ‘We’re going to Disneyland because we live there’--I thought that was cute; I get thrilled with myself sometimes--’and we’re going to take these kids to see the President because they deserve to go.’

“At that point, no wheels were turning to make this happen. I just said it because, in the back of my mind, I could remember as a child seeing those old newsreels--’Annie Whatever-Her-Name-Is of Sioux City, Iowa, won the seventh grade spelling bee for the nation and visited the White House today.’ Somehow, that played to me as the ultimate reward. This girl who wins the spelling bee goes because she is ‘what is right in America.’ Well, there’s nothing more right in America than what these kids did. Nothing.

“So I popped off, and now I’m liable for that comment. I didn’t like that very much.”

Three months later, the Titans had wheedled their official invitation from the White House. No, they didn’t have to hitchhike. They flew in, same as all the Super Bowl and NBA champions do, and shook hands with the President, presented him with a Cal State Fullerton bat, cap and jersey--thus depleting the athletic department coffers--and were stunned to learn that Clinton had done some first-hand scouting of the Titans.

“He said, ‘The people who write these cards for me said Cal State Fullerton was coming and they didn’t know--I know you guys,’ ” Garrido says. “He said, ‘I watched you play.’ And he started going over the names. ‘We got a boy here from Arkansas, Tim Dixon, maybe we could’ve won a championship if he stayed home. We never had an Arkansas team here.’ He knew Mark [Kotsay]. He knew the players. Without looking at the cards.”

Garrido was seriously impressed.

“The people that write these cards,” Garrido says, “they thought Cal-Fullerton meant they named a whole state after Ripken.”

Next, you rake in the postseason awards.

Kotsay, the junior center fielder/pitcher who dominated Fullerton’s 4-0 run through Omaha, already has received the Golden Spikes and the Smith awards, has been nominated for the Sullivan Award--presented annually to the nation’s top amateur athlete--and been invited to try out for the 1996 U.S. Olympic team. So have returning Fullerton catcher Brian Loyd and incoming Fullerton second baseman Jerome Alviso.

After that, you put in the restrooms.

More than anything else, that’s what a third College World Series title has meant to the Titans.

Indoor plumbing.

Garrido used his post-Omaha soapbox to stump, one more time, for the stadium improvements he believes are necessary for Fullerton to remain an elite collegiate baseball program. Tear down these port-a-johns, Dr. Gordon, and put in the permanent restrooms, Garrido beseeched.

And, while you’re at it, how about a new pitcher’s mound and a re-sodded outfield?

Funding for the restrooms was approved and installment should be complete before the Titans’ season opener in early February. Field repair was provided by the Sports Turf Managers Assn., a nonprofit organization that donated more than 100 man-hours for the refurbishment of Titan Field.

Today, the berms that surround the diamond are covered with plush green grass and bushes arranged and trimmed to spell out “CSF TITANS.” A new mound looks down at a newly reinforced home plate area, courtesy six tons of red clay. A major league-style warning track, featuring the sandy material that scrapes loudly to alert an outfielder he is nearing the fence, now encompasses the field.

“There’s a spirit of teamwork at the university that’s different now,” Garrido says. “We now have a president [Dr. Milton Gordon] and an athletic director [John Easterbrook] who support the facility improvements.”

For years, Garrido was never sure he’d live to see the day. He jokes about the quick transition he and his players underwent once their visit to the White House was finished.

“Now, we go out of the White House, OK? We spent this time being honored by the President, stood side-by-side, shook hands. Now, we’re back on the street, we’re walking through the park out front and here’s three bums laying on the benches. No [lie], all three of them are former baseball coaches.

“I tell somebody next to me, ‘Let’s put this in perspective: What we’ve had here is a little brush with power. Let’s go get a beer and get back to earth.’ ”

Only earth, as Garrido has come to know it, has never looked so good.

Restrooms with running water and mirrors? What next? A press box with chairs and electric outlets? A concession stand with hot dogs and cold drinks, instead of the other way around?

Win a fourth World Series and who knows? The creature comforts are the limit.