Hiegert Laments Baseball’s Passing

Bob Hiegert never thought it would come to this.

“It’s very depressing, very sad,” Hiegert said, the downcast words slipping out softly. “Most people thought it was only a smoke screen.”

They know different now that the cloud has lifted.

All those rumors about Cal State Northridge possibly dropping baseball, along with a few other men’s sports programs, became reality Wednesday.

It was a drastic but necessary step, school officials said, to help Northridge comply with state gender-equity laws and to meet budgetary constraints.

To Hiegert, it’s pure bunk.

“I think for a Southern California college not to offer a baseball program is dead wrong,” Hiegert said.

For most of his life, Hiegert tried to make everything right for Northridge baseball.

He played for the Matadors in the early 1960s, coached them to national prominence in the 1970s and ‘80s, and proudly watched the program continue to strive under other coaches after resigning to concentrate on being the school’s athletic director.

Even after he was forced to resign as athletic director in July 1995, a widely criticized move, Hiegert kept an eye on the baseball team.

And understandably so, for it was a program Hiegert nurtured with invaluable backing from friends and supporters.

“Boosters built and donated resources to build the baseball field,” Hiegert said. “They did virtually everything out there. Everything was either donated or someone put their sweat into it. . . .

“My family grew up on the baseball field. It was a family commitment, completely. My mom and dad ran the snack bar for years.”

Their efforts, and those of everyone else who rallied behind the Matadors, were rewarded handsomely.

Northridge won NCAA Division II championships in 1970 and 1984, moved up to Division I in 1991 and last year came within two victories of reaching the College World Series.

All told, more than 100 Northridge players signed professional contracts, 49 of them after playing for Hiegert.

Now, nobody will even get to sign a letter of intent to play at Northridge, and that saddens Hiegert.

“The player-coach relationships you have, seeing guys reach their goals, it was a very special honor,” said Hiegert, a kinesiology professor at Northridge who on July 1 will become commissioner of the California Collegiate Athletic Assn.

“For some who would have never gotten a college education, baseball was the glue that kept them in school and many of them became successful in life. . . . To see kids wanting to come to Northridge, that sort of thing was extremely rewarding.”

Until several days ago, when news of the baseball program’s potential demise began to spread, many kids still wanted to play for the Matadors. Now they’ll have to find alternatives and, Hiegert says, Northridge will have to do damage control.

“To not have a program, it’s not going to sit well with people. It’s not going to be easily forgotten,” Hiegert said. “This is a sophisticated community and this is a very good way for people to turn their backs on Northridge sports programs.

“A lot of people feel they’ve been slapped on the face.”

Count Hiegert among them.