There’s a method to the madness of Cal State Fullerton’s Rick Vanderhook

Rick Vanderhook, Cal State Fullerton’s baseball coach, has an in-your-face style and an edge — he doesn’t mince words.

Cody Decker, who played at UCLA when Vanderhook was a Bruins assistant, sums him up in two words: “Insane … genius.”

Vanderhook also comes with a look — Philip Seymour Hoffman would nail the role — and is apt to wax poetic about Fullerton baseball with very little prompting:

“We’re middle-class American and there is nothing wrong with that,” he said.

And, later: “It’s baseball. The Oakland A’s win. Have you ever been in the Oakland Coliseum? You don’t need new Yankee Stadium to have success.”

It could be said that as the “Moneyball” A’s are to Major League Baseball, Fullerton’s Titans are to college baseball.

Of the teams chosen to play host to and be top seeded at the 16 NCAA Division I four-team regionals, Fullerton is the only program not fueled by money from a Bowl Championship Series football program.

The budget for the entire Fullerton athletic program is $9 million — chump change to schools that play big-time college football. Fullerton doesn’t play football, but money or not the baseball team manages to win year in and year out.

The Titans have made 16 trips to the College World Series and won four national titles. Only Louisiana State, which has six, has won more championships since Fullerton became a Division I baseball team in 1975.

This season, the Titans have a record of 48-8. The Big West Conference champions are seeded fifth in the 64-team playoffs, and they open against Columbia on Friday at 8 p.m. at Fullerton’s Goodwin Field. Arizona State and New Mexico play at 4 p.m., with action in the double-elimination regional continuing Saturday, Sunday and possibly Monday.

Vanderhook, 52, played at Fullerton and was a longtime assistant there, but he left when the school chose another former Titans player and assistant, Dave Serrano, to step in when George Horton left Fullerton for Oregon.

After one year away from the college game, in which he coached Little League, Vanderhook became the top assistant and third base coach at UCLA. In his three years there, the Bruins won a Pacific 10 Conference title, earned two postseason appearances and were the runners-up in the 2010 College World Series.

So when Serrano left to take over at Tennessee and Fullerton’s top job opened again, Vanderhook was the natural choice.

And if anyone in the Titans family worried whether he could handle the big chair, those concerns have been doused.

Coaching has always been the equalizer at Fullerton, and the Titans’ lineage is impressive. Augie Garrido built the program and won three national titles. Garrido, now at Texas, is the winningest coach in Division I history with a 1,847-847-9 record.

Every Fullerton coach, from Garrido to Larry Cochell to Horton to Serrano, has taken the Titans to the College World Series.

Vanderhook was an infielder on the Titans’ 1984 national champion team. The next season, he was Garrido’s bullpen coach.

Vanderhook said the job is “big shoes at a little school. I just want to maintain the legacy. ... It’s plagiarism, you steal stuff from the people you coach with.”

Those around Fullerton always knew his worth.

“Every coach who has been through there has been successful,” former Fullerton and major leagues infielder Phil Nevin said. “They always have made good hires. Looks like they made another one.”

Nevin, manager of the triple-A Toledo Mud Hens, said that “Rick went through the grind, from volunteer coach to assistant to head coach. He definitely has the passion for it.”

That has clear at every stop. John Savage, UCLA’s coach, said Vanderhook “brought a mentality that we needed.

“He challenges guys, and there’s a little fear,” Savage added. “That’s old school. It works. “

Decker got an early dose. Vanderhook called the Bruins slugger shortly after being hired.

“To this day, I cannot tell you whether he was complimenting me or insulting me,” Decker said, laughing.

The hour-long conversation was a stream of consciousness that was 100% undiluted Vanderhook.

Said Decker: “He was yelling, telling me, ‘You had a terrible junior year, but don’t worry you are going to have an amazing senior year. I have my hands on you now. We’re going to turn you back to prominence.’ ”

He also recalls Vanderhook having a way of keeping players just a little off balance.

“One time he told me that if I didn’t shave my beard I would never play again,” Decker said. “I did, and when I got to practice he started laughing and told me, ‘I was only joking.’ ”

Insane, genius or both, “he was the best thing that ever happened to my baseball life,” Decker said.

Garrido said of Vanderhook: “He’s his own guy. And he has his own unique personality. It comes from passion. ... He was the baseball equivalent of a gym rat.”

Garrido is not at all surprised by Vanderhook’s success as a head coach.

“He’s like that singing sensation that gets discovered,” Garrido said. “Everyone says, ‘Oh, a star is born.’ Except that singer has been doing for 15-20 years.

“Rick is that coal miner who became a singing star.”

chris.foster@latimes.com

Twitter: @cfosterlatimes