Means To An End

Gary Adams has suited up to coach in a college baseball game 2,071 times in a career that has spanned 35 years.

And as his tenure at the helm of UCLA’s program draws to a close, those around him ponder a familiar question: Has he won enough?

The Bruins close out their regular season today against Oregon State in Corvallis. On Monday, they’ll find out if their popular, 64-year-old coach has led them from the dugout for the last time.

The NCAA will announce its 64-team field for the playoffs, and UCLA, 32-27 overall and 13-10 and in third place in the Pacific 10 Conference, is on the bubble.

Adams has recorded 982 of his 1,170 wins at UCLA, but the knock on him has been that only one season has resulted in a trip to the College World Series.

There are no national titles from a program that counts Troy Glaus, Eric Karros, Shane Mack and Todd Zeile among its alumni.

Adams, who played second base for the Bruins in 1959-60 and ’62 and was team captain as a senior, understands that part of his coaching legacy will include that of perceived underachievement.

“People on the outside will say, ‘Man, he coached a lot of big leaguers,’ but there is going to be a ‘but’ in that statement,” he said during a recent practice at Jackie Robinson Stadium. “They’ll say he graduated his players but he just didn’t win enough. He didn’t win any national championships.

“Hey, I want to win like everybody else. I wasn’t going to do it at all costs.”

Adams and his supporters hope that he will be remembered for more than wins and losses. For one, he has helped produce 38 major leaguers, nine of whom are on current rosters.

Then there are the things that have little to do with baseball: Life lessons often taught in the middle of a late-season practice; promises made to parents that their sons will educate themselves in the classroom as they pursue their big league dreams.

Shortstop Ryan McCarthy says Adams is a man of his word. McCarthy remembered that as an incoming senior at Westlake High, he was promised a partial scholarship if he brought his grades up to meet the university’s admission standards. Adams came through.

“With Skip it’s more than winning that he’s concerned with,” McCarthy said. “He’s concerned with the player, how you do on and off the field. It’s about relationships and family. It’s more than, ‘Hey, guys, go out and get me a win today.’ ”

In Adams’ mind, the title “Baseball Coach” is limiting.

“I’m a teacher of young men,” he said. “Every time I’m out here on the field, I try to teach them as much as I know about the game of baseball. But they are students first. I want them to make as much or more of a commitment to academics than they do baseball.

“There’s life lessons going on all the time at this age and I can’t ignore that.”

But his players can’t ignore the importance of every game this time of year. If they miss the playoffs for a fourth consecutive year, it will ruin a season-long goal.

“A lot of this is for him,” senior outfielder Brandon Averill said. “Nobody on this team has been to the playoffs, so it’s big for us. But sending him out on a positive note is something all of us really want. We don’t want him to finish his career on a bad note.”

Adams would prefer not to be the focus of this season, but he hasn’t escaped what has become a farewell tour of sorts. Opposing coaches, many of whom are friends, have paid on-field tributes at nearly every place the Bruins have played this season.

He even received a standing ovation before his final game at USC’s Dedeaux Field on March 28.

“That’s the first time any UCLA coach has gotten that,” he quipped.

USC Coach Mike Gillespie, who has butted heads with Adams for 18 seasons, said his adversary would leave college baseball as one of its greatest ambassadors.

“I’m particularly impressed with the way he’s conducted himself,” Gillespie said. “He’s always been a guy that carried himself with dignity and represented himself and UCLA in magnificent fashion. He is a true gentleman.”

Player development is something Adams preached throughout his tenure. Struggling players were commonly given extra opportunities to fight their way out of slumps. Non-scholarship players were treated the same as the stars. Scholarships were never taken away because of poor performance.

His philosophy has fostered deep loyalty among current and former players. Vince Beringhele, his longtime assistant, said the alumni game was Adams’ favorite day of each season.

“He knows you are going to make mistakes so he doesn’t put too much pressure on you,” said New York Met outfielder Eric Valent, a member of UCLA’s 1997 College World Series team. “Players respect that.

“I had a lot of growing pains in my freshman year. Some coaches on the hot seat might have panicked and not put me in the lineup. With Gary, he looks long term and lets you play it out.”

Beringhele said Adams “sees the best in everybody, almost to a fault. He understands that in this game you have to deal with failure.”

That philosophy, Adams admits, probably cost his teams some victories over the years and brought questions about why he didn’t focus more on winning.

Adams’ future as coach became an issue when Dan Guerrero was hired as UCLA’s athletic director in 2002. Guerrero, a Bruin second baseman from 1971 to ‘73, quickly took stock of the football and men’s basketball programs and fired Bob Toledo and Steve Lavin in his first year.

Baseball was thought to be next in line for an overhaul after the Bruins had losing seasons in 2002 and 2003, giving them three consecutive second-division finishes in the Pacific 10. After a 28-31 season in 2003, there was speculation that Adams would be let go. Two coaches with ties to Guerrero -- Arizona’s Andy Lopez and UC Irvine’s John Savage -- were already being mentioned as potential successors. Instead, Adams announced last June that 2004 would be his final year.

Whether or not the Bruins make the playoffs, Adams said he was content with his career -- even if others might not be.

“Those people on the outside that just see the wins and losses; that doesn’t bother me,” he said. “That’s what fans do. What I think my players will see is that Skip cared about us as players, cared about us as students and, most of all, cared about us as people.

“These are my sons.”

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The Adams File

Highlights from the career of Gary Adams, who will retire as the UCLA baseball coach this year after heading the program since 1975:

* Has a 1,170-889-12 record through 35 seasons with UC Irvine and UCLA.

* Won Division II national championships at UC Irvine in 1973 and 1974.

* Won or shared the Pacific 10 Conference championship in 1976, 1979, 1986 and 2000.

* Bruin teams have reached the NCAA regional final six times and made the College World Series in 1997, the only appearance under Adams and second in school history.

* Reached the NCAA super-regionals in 2000, losing to eventual national champion Louisiana State.

* Has produced 38 major leaguers, the most by any active college coach. Current players include Troy Glaus (Angels), Dave Roberts (Dodgers), Eric Karros and Eric Byrnes (Oakland), Todd Zeile and Eric Valent (N.Y. Mets), Jeff Conine (Florida) and Chase Utley (Philadelphia).