USC is expected to offer its baseball job this week. But whether it gives the job to Andy Stankiewicz or Andrew Checketts, it’s going to be a tough job unless the athletic dept. changes its attitude toward baseball.
Pat Haden was vexed by baseball and Lynn Swann is apathetic towards it.
But there needs to be a plan in conjunction with the university to find ways to make it financially feasible for preferred walk-ons to come to USC.
Even then, there are guarantees for success in baseball.
UCLA is a public school and has an elite coach (John Savage). But the Bruins have not even made the College World Series on two occasions when they were the No. 1 seed overall, including this year.
For USC baseball, it is imperative that someone in the athletic dept. with power becomes aggressive in guiding baseball. USC has farmed out the current coaching search to former players/coaches. That shows no one is comfortable with baseball. This needs to change to restore a program with 12 national titles.
- O.J. Simpson is living in Las Vegas, plays golf nearly every day and had both his knees replaced, according to this Associated Press story.
- The USC Board of Trustees has donated more than $1.5 million to establish a scholarship in honor of interim president Wanda Austin.
InsideUSC with Scott Wolf 
Is the Wanda Austin scholarship an interim scholarship until a real one can be secured? Are the knee replacements OJ is sporting metal? I mean can you imagine OJ Simpson going through an airport setting off the metal detectors? He’d be back in jail serving time for concealed weapons-or at least subject to a deep cavity search.
Baseball? College baseball almost died because the major leagues draft kids out of high school. Only kids who want to get a degree show up on college baseball teams these days. Back in the olden days when teams traveled by train or covered wagons (when Scott went to USC) the colleges were another farm system for the major leagues. Now with flying cars and highspeed trains, major leagues start rookies right after their HS prom.
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Great takes. Back in the olden days when Scott Wolf went to USC and even before that, USC was ranked #1 and competed regularly to go to the College World Series and the ruins had a pleasant baseball coach named Gary Adams who produced mediocrity for decades and was then rewarded with a spot in the Ruin Hall of Fame. My, how things have changed.
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Regarding baseball you are correct. If you are a top flight talent out of high school you are going to get big bucks, at least the first three rounds. So most of the talent coming into the collegiate ranks are not top drawer kids. Good, but not the best. 40 years ago USC got the best. Kids went to school. A local baseball scout told me the USC was like AAA baseball in the late sixties. When we had a intrasquad game there was always a dozen scouts in the stands. Today, if ucla and Oregon State can have top flight programs, so should USC. At least it appears the athletic department has farmed out hiring the new guy to former players. That is a good sign IMO.
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Heritage Hall’s problem is when Haden introduced “Winning The Right Way” as his perceived culture for the sports department. What this meant was that it was preferred that only players who behaved and coaches who would be comfortable coaching in the Ivy League would be considered Trojan material. Winning took a back seat and USC gained a rep as being elitist.
USC needs to drop the holier than thou attitude and forget that “Winning The Right Way” crap. Because if you don’t prioritize winning, then you end up looking for baseball coaches from some very small schools, you have a year where all three major programs had a losing record for the first time in the history of Troy and you have guys like Ed Orgeron – a total football lifer with a gruff personality – who gets shown the door because Pat Haden doesn’t think EdO is clean enough to introduce to people who think USC games are only a social event and who could care less about football.
#AnyManWhoUsesASon-In-LawAsASpokesmanIsNotAMan
#HadenEmbarrassedUSCAndNeedsToNutUpAndSpeakForHimself
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