TITAN TITLE WAVE

Not to be greedy, but there is one thing Dave Weatherman wants from his college baseball career.

Sure, in 1979 he pitched a complete-game victory to clinch Cal State Fullerton’s first College World Series title, and he still is the winningest pitcher in school history.

But a void remains.

Weatherman doesn’t have a tape of his victory over Arkansas in the championship game. And not because he hasn’t tried.

” I’ve called Arkansas stations, I’ve called ESPN, I’ve called Channel 4 . . . nobody knows,” he said.

Weatherman even tried the University of Arkansas, which has one tape from that College World Series--the Razorbacks’ loss to the Titans in a semifinal.

“I know they lost in that one, but geez, it’s the championship!” he said. “You don’t keep that one?”

Weatherman gets more frustrated every year when he watches the highlight montage that is shown before the nationally televised championship game. He is taunted by a clip of the final out of the 1979 game, and the ensuing mob on the pitching mound. But nobody knows where the film of the entire game is.

“I know there’s a film out there somewhere, but I can’t find it,” he said.

This year, in its 25th season of Division I baseball, Fullerton has again qualified for the College World Series, the 10th time in school history.

The Titans have finished on top three times. Five years after Weatherman’s heroics in 1979, John Fishel led the Titans to the title. And in 1995 Fullerton won again, thanks in large part to an amazing performance by outfielder Mark Kotsay.

All three players remember what it’s like to have their career-defining performances on college baseball’s biggest stage, Rosenblatt Stadium in Omaha.

Fullerton, champion of the Big West Conference, has been ranked among the nation’s top five teams most of the season. But the Titans are considered somewhat of a longshot in this year’s field. Then again, they know that role well.

1979

The Titans were heavy underdogs in their second College World Series appearance.

In 1975, playing in Omaha for the first time, Fullerton exited quietly with two quick losses. When the Titans returned four years later, respect was hard to come by.

“Everybody was like, ‘Cal State who?’ ” Weatherman said.

They won the Southern California Baseball Assn. title with a 23-4-1 conference record, but began regional play with a 5-4 loss to UCLA. Fullerton recovered to win the last four games by a combined score of 47-13 to advance to Omaha.

In the series, the Titans started slow, losing, 6-1, to Mississippi State. But then they defeated Connecticut, Arizona, Arkansas and Pepperdine to advance to the championship game.

Part of the reason Weatherman wants the tape of that final game is that he doesn’t have much recollection of the biggest game of his baseball life.

“There were portions of the game that I kind of glazed over,” Weatherman said. “In about the middle of the game, people were telling me that they were walking by and talking to me and I wasn’t talking back. I guess that’s what you call being in the zone.”

Weatherman wasn’t expecting to start the championship game. The previous day, he had been pounded by Pepperdine and was replaced in the first inning. The Titans managed to win the game, 8-5, and advance to the final, and at the end of the game, Titan Coach Augie Garrido told Weatherman to get some rest, because he was going again in the final.

“I was thinking to myself,” Weatherman said, “ ‘Hey, weren’t you paying attention? Were we watching the same game?’ ”

But he came through with a 2-1 victory, although the last three outs weren’t easy.

The first Arkansas batter hit a hard grounder down the first-base line that Tim Wallach had to dive for and knock down before crawling to first to tag the base.

The second batter drove a ball to the power alley in right field, but Mickey Palmer raced over to make an over-the-shoulder catch just before the warning track.

The last batter drilled a line drive on an 0-2 count, but right at second baseman Mike Garcia. Then the celebration began. Fullerton had won its first national championship, finishing the season at 60-14-1.

“Probably the three hardest hit balls of the game were the last three outs,” Weatherman said. “They weren’t cheapies.

“That just tells you how the gods were on our side. We were lucky at that time.”

Weatherman now lives in Thousand Oaks with his wife, Jackie. He is a supervisor at a computer data center, the same job that he started at when he retired from baseball 16 years ago after a couple of years in the minor leagues.

He helps run a baseball school in Thousand Oaks, and one of his proteges--left-handed pitcher Scott Rice of Simi Valley Royal High--was drafted with the 44th overall pick in last week’s amateur draft by the Baltimore Orioles.

Weatherman has no regrets about his baseball career, or his life. All he needs now is the tape of that championship game.

1984

When Fullerton bemoaned the NCAA sending it to Ohio State for the super-regional this year, John Fishel allowed himself a selfish smile.

Fishel, who won the most outstanding player award in 1984 when the Titans won their second College World Series title, now lives in Gahanna, Ohio, a suburb of Columbus.

Watching Fullerton play last weekend reminded Fishel of his team and its success in Omaha.

While on a trip to Texas in March of 1984, hotel officials complained that some of the Titans were being noisy and rowdy. Garrido suspended two players--outfielder John Bryant and catcher Bob Caffrey--for a week for missing curfew, while a handful of others, including Fishel, received less severe punishment: dawn patrol.

“Dawn patrol was getting up and going to run with the track coach at 6 in the morning,” Fishel said. “It was like eight or nine miles.”

To that point, Fullerton had been a team that lacked direction.

“We obviously didn’t have a goal in mind,” Fishel said. “We weren’t thinking about what lay ahead and what it took to get there.”

Bryant and Caffrey returned to the lineup and, along with them came a new attitude. After the Texas trip, the Titans went 49-12 to finish with a school-record 66 victories against only 20 losses.

Fullerton’s season nearly ended shy of Omaha. In a regional at Fresno, the Titans played San Diego State for the right to advance to the College World Series. Fullerton blew a big lead, and the game went into extra innings. But in the 11th, Caffrey doubled and, after the next batter drew a walk, Bryant’s single drove in the winning run.

In Omaha, Fishel, an outfielder, was at his best. He hit .520 with 10 runs batted in, and the Titans rebounded to win four in a row after a 6-4 loss to Texas in the second game.

In the final, a rematch against Texas, 5-foot-6, 133-pound Eddie Delzer surprisingly got the start and went on to give up only two infield singles in seven innings before leaving because of leg cramps. Fittingly, it was Fishel who caught the last out of the series, a fly ball to left field that secured Fullerton’s 3-1 victory.

“I caught that ball and threw my hands up in the air,” Fishel said. “ . . . I was 20 feet above earth, floating in to be piled on.”

Fishel now owns his own cabinetry business, making products such as salad bars for supermarkets and restaurants. He lives with his wife Tamara, their two daughters, Brandis, 6, and Montana, 5, and his stepdaughter Brittny, 11. Fishel has another daughter, Nastassia, 15, and a son, Jacob, 12, who live in California.

Fishel said that if the Titans are able to win a couple of games in Omaha this week, he will take off work to come down for two or three games next weekend. It won’t be Fishel’s first trip back to Rosenblatt Stadium since his 1984 triumph.

As a member of the Columbus Clippers, the New York Yankees’ triple-A affiliate, in 1989 and ‘90, Fishel played games in Rosenblatt against the Omaha Royals.

The experience wasn’t all that nostalgic.

“The same type of crowd wasn’t there,” he said. “The excitement wasn’t there. It was just another field, even though in the back of my mind I was saying, ‘Man, this is where it happened.’ ”

When Fishel attended the super-regional games between Ohio State and Fullerton last weekend, he saw striking parallels.

The suspensions of four key Fullerton players was one, but so was the way the Titans jelled as a team to rally for two victories after losing the opener.

“This team has that type of ability to overcome adversity,” Fishel said. “With all of the things that they went through, they were able to pull it back.”

1995

It seems like Mark Kotsay’s name routinely comes up this time of year, and with good reason.

Kotsay, a sophomore on Fullerton’s 1995 championship team, delivered one of the greatest performances in College World Series history.

He had nine hits, including three home runs in 16 at bats, a .563 average, and made several spectacular defensive plays in center field. He also pitched 3 1/3 scoreless innings of relief, picking up a save.

It was the kind of performance that might forever overshadow what Kotsay manages to accomplish in his major league career.

“It’s a double-edged sword,” said Kotsay, who is batting .241 in his second full season with the Florida Marlins. “You’re proud of your accomplishments, obviously, but you want to have some type of acknowledgment that you are in the big leagues and you are an everyday player.”

A season earlier, Fullerton also reached the College World Series, but didn’t have enough to win a title, winning two games before being eliminated. The Titans’ season came to an end in extra innings, when Georgia Tech’s Nomar Garciaparra homered in the top of the 12th and the Yellow Jackets held on for a 3-2 victory.

Despite the disappointment, Kotsay was impressive. His best performance was a seven-RBI game against LSU in a 20-6 victory. Only a freshman, Kotsay used his strong play as a confidence-builder, and coming into the next season the team used the heartbreaking finish as motivation.

The Titans were spectacular from the start of the 1995 season, winning 39 of their first 45 games. But after a couple of losses to Wichita State and another loss to Nevada, a team meeting was called.

“Our main captain, [first baseman] D.C. Olsen, brought us together and basically said, ‘Look, we’re going to have fun,’ ” Kotsay said.

The team also reminded itself of its motto: “‘When you’re in doubt, air it out,’ ” Kotsay recalled.

The meeting worked. And how. The Titans did not lose again, winning 18 in a row to end the season with a 57-9 record and a school-record .864 winning percentage.

After defeating Rice in the NCAA South Regional to advance to the College World Series, Kotsay and the Titans were a little on edge heading to Rosenblatt Stadium.

“They create an atmosphere there that is unlike any other in college baseball,” Kotsay said. “It can be intimidating. You’re coming from a place where you play in front of 3,500 fans and you open up with maybe 23,000 fans. The nerves and the adrenaline can get going.”

In the opener, Kotsay saved a come-from-behind, 6-5 victory against Stanford. Two blowout victories over Tennessee--the Titans outscored the Vols, 22-1--set up a final matchup against USC.

Kotsay didn’t waste any time in the championship game. His first two swings resulted in two home runs and five RBIs, both championship-game records. USC fought back, but a three-run homer in the seventh inning by Tony Martinez, followed by a Tony Miranda home run, put the Titans in control.

Kotsay came on to close the game, pitching the final 1 2/3 innings to secure an 11-5 victory over the Trojans.

Kotsay signed a professional contract after the season, so he couldn’t return to the College World Series as a junior. But his two trips to Omaha left their mark. Kotsay, who in 1996 was selected to the all-time College World Series team, still holds series records with a .517 career batting average and a 1.103 career slugging percentage.

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The Titans at the Series

Cal State Fullerton’s appearance at the College World Series:

1975

lost to Arizona State, 5-3

lost to Oklahoma, 11-4

***

1979

lost to Mississippi State, 6-1

defeated Connecticut, 8-3

defeated Arizona, 16-3

defeated Arkansas, 13-10

defeated Pepperdine, 8-5

defeated Arkansas, 2-1, in championship game

***

1982

lost to Wichita State, 7-0

lost to Maine, 6-0

***

1984

defeated Michigan, 8-4

lost to Texas, 6-4

defeated Arizona State, 6-1

defeated Oklahoma State, 10-2

defeated Texas,3-1, in championship game

***

1988

defeated Miami, 9-3

defeated Stanford, 5-3

lost to Stanford, 4-1

lost to Stanford, 9-5

***

1990

lost to Oklahoma State, 14-4

lost to The Citadel, 8-7

***

1992

defeated Florida State, 7-2

lost to Miami, 4-3

defeated Florida State, 6-0

defeated Miami, 7-5

defeated Miami, 8-1

lost to Pepperdine, 3-2, in championship game

***

1994

lost to Georgia Tech, 2-0

defeated LSU, 20-6

defeated Florida State, 10-3

lost to Georgia Tech, 3-2

***

1995

defeated Stanford, 6-5

defeated Tennessee, 11-1

defeated Tennessee, 11-0

defeated USC, 11-5, in championship game

*

Overall record: 22-15

vs. Stanford: 2-2