Texas Two-Step

It was five years ago that he brought Cal State Fullerton to the College World Series and won the national championship, his third with the Titans.

Since then, there have been three frustrating seasons on the outside looking in, while the program he took over at Texas struggled.

But now, he’s back.

“People ask me if I’m relieved to be back here,” Garrido said. “But it’s not that. More than anything, I’m really excited. And I think this gives validity to Texas’ decision to hire me.”

At least some of the Longhorn faithful expressed doubts about that wisdom at times. They’ve done it on sports talk shows, on Internet message boards, and sometimes with howls from the bleachers when Texas didn’t do what they think Texas is always supposed to do: Win.

But Garrido has weathered the criticism, and has brought the Longhorns (46-19) back to Rosenblatt Stadium for the first time since 1993, when the man he replaced, Cliff Gustafson, was coach. Texas plays Louisiana State in the first round today.

And Garrido, 61, is buoyed by his prospects for the future. “I’d like to take this program through the better part of this decade,” he said.

If he does, he could become college baseball’s all-time winningest Division I coach along the way.

Garrido, with 1,284 Division I victories, is closing in on Gustafson, who ranks first with 1,427. Rod Dedeaux, the former USC coach, is second with 1,332. Garrido became the leader among active coaches this season.

But even that might not have meant much to some of the skeptics in Texas if Garrido’s team hadn’t caught fire in the NCAA regional at Arizona State two weeks ago.

Ranked in the top 10 nationally through much of the season, Texas disappointed fans by finishing fourth in the Big 12 Conference, though it played one fewer conference game than third-place Oklahoma because of a rainout and finished only percentage points behind the Sooners. But it kept Texas from hosting a regional tournament at Disch-Falk Field in Austin.

As he had to do when he coached at Fullerton, Garrido found postseason magic in another team’s ballpark. The Titans won seven regionals on the road under Garrido.

The Longhorns defeated host Arizona State twice on the final day, eliminating a team that was seeded No. 7 nationally. Texas went on to beat Penn State in two consecutive games in a super-regional in Austin.

It put Garrido in the College World Series for the eighth time. Only Mike Martin of Florida State, Skip Bertman of Louisiana State and Mark Marquess of Stanford have made more appearances among active coaches. Garrido’s teams have won 20 of 30 games in Omaha, a 66.7% winning mark that ranks fifth among coaches whose teams have played at least 20 games.

Garrido said he didn’t expect his eighth trip to take this long. “It’s never taken me four years to do anything,” Garrido said. “But it was more difficult than I expected it to be.”

Garrido has called Texas “the best college baseball job in the country,” but it also came with high expectations along with his six-year, $1.68-million contract.

For the first time in his 32-year college coaching career, Garrido experienced serious criticism. “I knew that was part of the risk of leaving Fullerton, but that was part of the challenge too,” he said.

His first two teams fell below Texas standards, finishing 29-22 and 23-32-1, before last season’s team was 36-26. That 1999 team lost its last five regular-season games, won only once in the conference tournament and was eliminated after only one victory in the Houston regional.

The late-season slide gnawed at Garrido.

“I’m not a very well-balanced guy,” Garrido said. “I don’t have a lot of hobbies. Baseball is just about it for me. If my teams aren’t successful, I feel pretty unsuccessful. But I’ve never felt threatened by anyone in the administration. They’ve all been totally supportive.”

But facing criticism from others has been an adjustment for Garrido.

“Usually baseball coaches don’t have to deal with it at a lot of places the way football and basketball coaches do, but the expectation level is so high [for Texas baseball] because of the success they’ve had in the past, and the passion Texas fans have for their team.”

Tommy Harmon, a former Gustafson assistant who has been with Garrido since he moved to Texas, has seen Garrido’s frustration. “It’s been difficult for him, but he’s come through it all with class,” Harmon said. “Augie likes to please people, and it bothers him if he feels he isn’t doing that.”

Garrido also made a change in his coaching staff that created something of a stir. After last season, he replaced Burt Hooton, the former Texas and Dodger pitcher he hired as an assistant when he took over.

“I think Burt is a great pitching coach for professional baseball, but it’s a very unique skill to be able take 18- to 21-year-olds and have them winning Division I baseball games in six months,” Garrido said. “I probably asked Burt to get into something that wasn’t good for him. But he’s doing great in professional baseball again. There was no blame in this.”

Hooton, now the pitching coach for the Houston Astros’ double-A team in Round Rock, was replaced by Frank Anderson, an assistant coach at Texas Tech for nine seasons. Garrido gives Anderson credit for helping develop the pitching staff that has a 3.12 earned-run average this season.

“Pitching is where we put a lot of our scholarship money, and we needed to get a lot from it,” Garrido said.

But Garrido also said a big reason for the improvement this season was rooted in the maturing of his program.

“This is the first team of players we’ve coached from beginning to end,” Garrido said. “This is the first team that really reflects our philosophy and mirrors our attitude. In the first three years, not all our players bought into our philosophy. This year, we had five players on the all-conference [first] team. And look at the number of players [six] we had drafted. That hasn’t happened in a while.”

Garrido, with two years remaining on the contract he signed in 1996, said he hopes the Texas administration will consider a renewal after this season.

Garrido’s name continues to come up in speculation about other jobs, including the vacancy at UC Irvine, which is bringing back its baseball program next season, but he insists his heart is in Texas.

Even a year ago, when Fullerton played in the College World Series for the first time under his successor, George Horton, Garrido said he had no second thoughts about his decision to leave. And, he said, there wasn’t any jealousy. “I have nothing but good feelings for the Fullerton program,” he said.

Garrido hopes there will be more trips to Omaha for him with Texas.

“I came to Texas to lay a cornerstone for this program, and I feel we’ve done that,” Garrido said. “It’s been a lot of hard work and I don’t want to turn it over to someone else now. I want to enjoy the next several years.”