Comments on: San Jose State Hires Dave Nakama

By: Brian Hall

Brian Hall — Wed, 09 Jan 2013 19:05:16 +0000

Congratulate***

By: Brian Hall

Brian Hall — Wed, 09 Jan 2013 19:04:34 +0000

Playing at Stanford University from the fall of 2000 to the spring of 2004, I had the great priveledge of playing for both of these wonderful coaches.
I was recruited heavily by Coach Marquess, O'B, and Coach Stotz. I do have to say that all of these coaches were absolutely a joy to play for and really helped in my development.
Coach Nakama is also a first class coach and really knows his stuff. I congradulate Coach Nakama on his hire, but I sure do hope Coach O'Brien has another opportunity. Both are quality individuals that deeply care for their players and are great baseball people. Best of luck to both of them.
Brian Hall

By: Joe Blow 2

Joe Blow 2 — Tue, 11 Sep 2012 05:50:06 +0000

I think it's awesome. O'B had his chance. Karma's a *****

By: fredj

fredj — Fri, 07 Sep 2012 23:47:34 +0000

There's a whiff of bile (or whine) to both Manual's report and Joe Blow's comment on the San Jose State hire.

SJSU's new AD's hire of Nakama showed he's serious about being competitive — and, hopefully, serious about baseball.

Nakama is known for tremendous recruiting success at UW and Stanford. John, your comparison of O'Brien's recruiting experience at Santa Clara is absurd. There is no comparison between the nationally-ranked recruiting classes Nakama put together and O'Brien's mediocre classes.

Let me give you an example of the difference: I placed a jr. college all-american at Washington in 2011. SJSU invited him down for a game that spring at his own expense; they lost his game tickets and ignored him during and after the game. Made him feel completely unwelcome. Two weeks later, Nakama flew him up, they made a huge impression on him and he passed up another Pac 12 visit to sign. He was one of their top offensive and defensive performers last year.

SJSU has been a second-rate program since well before I arrived in California to coach in 2005. O'Brien had every opportunity to succeed at Santa Clara (new stadium, superior academics, Bay area amenities), but failed. He's known as a very nice guy who can't build a winner.

Bleimeyer was right to seek out Nakama, a hire which was recognized in the coaching world as a coup. Nakama will be wise to clean house at SJSU. He'll be competitive in 3 years — which is something Piraro hasn't been for almost a decade.

By: Joe Blow

Joe Blow — Thu, 06 Sep 2012 19:41:33 +0000

Sickening process to name someone interim, then perform a second rate search that took 2 MONTHS to come up with Nakama???? Unbelievable!