At College World Series, a Leisurely Style Works

The baseball teams of Cal State Fullerton and the University of South Carolina had pushed their seasons to the limit at the College World Series on Thursday evening. The stakes were spelled out very clearly above their heads. “ELIMINATION GAME” read the omnipresent ESPN2 upper-screen graphic box.

Television cameras positioned around Omaha’s Rosenblatt Stadium captured the gripping tension.

One of them zoomed in on a Titan resting on his side atop a bullpen pitching mound, his eyes closed, seemingly catching a mid-game nap.

Another panned the stands, finding one fan catching up on her knitting.

The cameras also turned on each other, ESPN camera operators taking shots of other ESPN camera operators as play-by-play broadcaster Mike Patrick praised the hard work and dedication of all the ESPN camera operators.

It can be a leisurely game, college baseball. Announcers have to do something to pass the time, so in the top of the fourth inning, with the game still tied 0-0, Patrick and analyst Harold Reynolds welcomed Texas Coach Augie Garrido into the booth for a little background chatter.

Garrido, winner of three College World Series titles during two stints at Fullerton, talked about the differences between the program he started from Square 1 in the 1970s and the embarrassment of riches he currently leads.

“Night and day doesn’t accurately describe it,” Garrido said with a laugh. “Black and white gets closer.”

When Garrido began coaching at Fullerton, he said, the team’s training “complex” was nothing more than “a physical education facility. And it didn’t have electricity, or restrooms, or locker rooms. We had a lot of players get in trouble for changing clothes in the parking lot.”

Since then, Garrido’s relationship with Fullerton has come full circle twice. After coaching the Titans to the championship in 1979 and 1984, he left for Illinois, came back to win another championship in 1995, then left for Texas, where he will try to win the 2004 championship this weekend against Fullerton.

Today, the Titans and the Longhorns begin a best-of-three series at 4 p.m., with Game 2 scheduled for noon Sunday. If necessary, Game 3 will be played Monday at 4 p.m.

Texas versus Cal State Fullerton for the national title. Only college baseball could produce such a sentence.

Texas and Fullerton could never meet for the national football championship. For one thing, Mack Brown seems cursed in his quest to get the Longhorns into the big game.

For another, Fullerton no longer has a football team.

Texas and Fullerton could never meet for the national basketball championship. Not here. Not now. Although the Titans probably would take their chances if this were 1978.

But Texas versus Fullerton for the national baseball championship makes total sense. Augie Past versus Augie Present. Why not? Garrido’s successor at Fullerton, George Horton, has taken the Titans to Omaha four times in eight seasons, including consecutive trips in 2003 and 2004. Garrido’s Longhorns won the title in 2002.

Texas versus Fullerton in the final? What took everybody so long?

Also available for viewing this weekend:

TODAY

* Wimbledon

(ESPN, 9 a.m, delayed; Channel 4, noon, delayed)

With England’s soccer team out of the European Championship on penalty kicks, the nation takes solace in another long-standing tradition -- watching English tennis players lose at Wimbledon.

This year, however, they have introduced a new crimp at the All England Club: chair umpires who can’t keep score. Ted Watts was bounced from his umpiring duties after announcing the wrong score during a second-set tiebreaker in Karolina Sprem’s 7-6, 7-6 upset of Venus Williams on Thursday, mistakenly giving Sprem a point she hadn’t earned.

Williams downplayed the incident.

Friday on “Pardon The Interruption,” Patrick McEnroe was asked if anyone named McEnroe would have acted similarly if such a gaffe had been committed during one of his matches. It was an easy overhead slam. “You cannot be serious,” McEnroe quipped.

* Angels at Dodgers

(Channel 11, 1 p.m.)

Arte Moreno and Frank McCourt are expected to stop by the Fox broadcast booth for some lively Freeway Series banter. Rumored to be on the agenda:

* McCourt discusses his players and the concept of anger management.

* Moreno discusses his pitchers and the concept of weight management.

* Moreno discusses what the off-season addition of Vladimir Guerrero has meant to his ballclub. McCourt decides to pass.

* NHL draft

(ESPN2, 9 a.m.)

Usually, the NHL draft consists of a bunch of hockey teams picking a bunch of hockey players who don’t know if they’ll ever see the light of an NHL game. This year, it’s different. This year, the hockey teams don’t know if they’ll ever again see the light of an NHL game.

SUNDAY

* ArenaBowl XVIII

(Channel 4, 1 p.m.)

Let’s see: That’s the ArenaBowl -- one word, not two. And that’s the Arizona Rattlers against the San Jose SaberCats -- one word, not two. And the San Jose SaberCats have nothing to do with the San Jose CyberRays, who will be playing soccer at the Home Depot Center around the same time. And in case anybody forgets any of this, NBC will equip eight players and coaches with microphones in order to conduct informative mid-game interviews.

* U.S. Olympic women’s gymnastics trials

(Channel 4, 7 p.m., delayed)

Much like the hockey team that calls the Arrowhead Pond home, the women’s gymnastics trials aren’t what they used to be. The top two all-arounders in Anaheim will only be nominated for the Olympic team, pending approval at a July selection camp. I miss the old days, when Bela Karolyi growled at the judges and they gave him the gymnasts he wanted.