Money Not All Garrido Wanted

FULLERTON — The offer that Augie Garrido accepted to become head baseball coach at Texas was simply too good to turn down. For one thing, a salary expected to be in the $200,000-a-year range was a good place for Texas to start.

But it wasn’t just the money that lured Garrido from CalState Fullerton, where his teams won three national championships in 21 years.

Disch-Falk Field in Austin, with a seating capacity of more than 7,000, is regarded as one of college baseball’s top playing facilities. It’s 20 years old, and it could use a little sprucing up, but it’s still first-rate. It consistently has been selected as a site for one of the eight NCAA regional tournaments.

One thing that intrigues Garrido the most is that he will be able to move into center stage in the new Big 12 Conference next season when Texas, Texas A&M;, Texas Tech and Baylor merge with the old Big Eight following the demise of the Southwest Conference.

He also will be able to do it in a city where college sports are king. There’s no major league baseball team just a few miles down the freeway.

So where does Fullerton go from here?

Garrido has meant a great deal to the success of the Fullerton program. But it didn’t fall apart in the three years Garrido was away at Illinois. Larry Cochell teams won NCAA regional championships in two of those three years, 1988 and 1990.

Garrido said he expects the program to remain strong because of the commitment of university President Milton Gordon and Athletic Director John Easterbrook.

Garrido said he would like to see his associate head coach, George Horton, replace him.

Horton has played a key role in Fullerton’s success the past six years and is deserving of the opportunity to show what he can do on his own. He has had good training under Garrido and Long Beach State Coach Dave Snow, and was highly successful as a head coach at Cerritos College before joining Garrido in 1991.

But Fullerton will face a major rebuilding job next season after losing Mark Kotsay, Brian Loyd, Jeremy Giambi, Jack Jones and Tony Martinez. All were two-year regulars, and key members of the national championship team in 1995.

But several proven players bolster the rebuilding effort, including outfielder Steve Chatham, shortstop Jerome Alviso, first baseman C.J. Ankrum and versatile Mike Lamb, who can play several positions.

The coaches also have been especially pleased with the recruiting class that includes pitcher Michael Garner of Fullerton, infielder Ryan Owens of Sonora High and catcher Craig Patterson of El Dorado High.

Fullerton’s cupboard is hardly bare.

When Garrido made the final decision Wednesday morning to accept the Texas job, it wasn’t nearly as easy was it wasin 1987 when he left forIllinois.

At that point, Garrido had serious doubts about Fullerton’s commitment to its baseball program, and was delighted to be rejoining Neale Stoner, the athletic director who had hired him atFullerton.

But after Stoner was ousted at Illinois, and baseball became considerably less of a priority, Garrido happily returned to Fullerton. This time, Garrido says he didn’t have any of the same concerns.

“I know I’ll continue to enjoy seeing Fullerton be successful,” Garrido said Wednesday. “I have great respect for the Fullerton players. They’ll keep going to the College World Series.

“I just hope we’ll be able to beat them there.”