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By John Manuel
June 22, 2002

OMAHA--Still sweaty and giddy from winning his first College World Series as Texas' coach, Augie Garrido had to answer the question, "What about next year?

That's the kind of pressure Garrido has felt since he came to Texas from Cal State Fullerton prior to the 1997 season. He was just the fourth coach at Texas since 1911, following Cliff Gustafson, Bibb Falk and Billy Disch (excluding World War II coach Blair Cherry). He became the third to win a championship after learning how to deal with the pressure that comes with the job.

"The challenge in this position is the standard has been set high with all the program has accomplished," Garrido said earlier in the week. "There were only three coaches before me with names like Disch, Falk and Gustafson. So before I showed up, this program already had been to the College World Series more than any other.

"I felt that at Cal State Fullerton, I was bullet-proof . . . I saw what happened at UCLA after coach (John) Wooden left (the basketball program). It got really ugly. Look at Alabama after Bear Bryant. Look at Texas after Darryl Royal. It could've happened in baseball. That's why I went there."

Garrido's first year was a tough one, a 29-22 campaign, but the next one was tougher as the team went just 23-32-1. It was the program's first losing record since 1956. But he was able to start bringing in better players, with an emphasis on speed, pitching and defense to suit the spacious dimensions and artificial turf of Disch-Falk Field.

"When Augie first got here, we just needed players," said assistant coach Tommy Harmon, in his 13th year as a Longhorns assistant. "It started with guys like Tommy Nicholson and Jason Moore and Todd West. We needed guys who could play."

Then they could worry about Omaha. Garrido has long noted the importance of experience for both coaches and players in the CWS, and pointed to the Longhorns' surprise trip to the CWS in 2000, when they won a regional at Arizona State and then beat upstart Penn State in a super-regional.

"That was very important for this year's team," he said, noting the Longhorns have nine holdovers from 2000.

Now, they will have plenty of holdovers for another title run. Garrido pointed out Texas' infield returns almost intact, with freshman J.D. Reininger assuming Jeff Ontiveros' spot at first base to go with second baseman Tim Moss, shortstops Michael Hollimon and possibly Brendan Fahey, and third baseman Omar Quintanilla.

In the outfield, Texas returns talented Eric Sultemeier and perhaps Ben King, who missed the year with Tommy John surgery but was drafted in the 20th round by the Yankees. Touted freshman Curtis Thigpen will take over behind the plate.

And on the mound, Saturday's heroes, 16-game winner Justin Simmons and 14-saves closer Huston Street, will be back to anchor the rotation.

"I feel pretty good about that infield," Garrido said. "And Eric Sultemeier is one of the true talents in Division I baseball in the country. He can do things."

With a talented ballclub, so can Garrido. Like win a national championship, or three or four.

The King And I

Another Larry King-inspired take, this time on Saturday's championship game and the entire College World Series . . .

That Augie Garrido reminds me of Phil Jackson with the long speeches about teamwork and "fulfilling dreams." I guess that stuff works, but Augie still needs to work on the triangle offense and winning five more rings to be up there with Phil . . . Tough one for South Carolina, but what a Series for the Gamecocks. They came a long way from losing 11-0 and figure to get back here again under coach Ray Tanner. Consider that they bounced back from 8-2 down to have the tying run at the plate in Yaron Peters, their top hitter all year. Not a bad showing . . . You know that NCAAChampionships.com, run by Host Communications in Lexington, Ky., did a nice job with postseason web gamecasts of the college baseball tournament. Good thing, too, because the local CBS affiliate in Lexington, WKYT, didn't carry the game live Saturday, instead showing an extreme sports show. Now that's respect for college baseball . . . By the way, other words for Gamecock include "rooster" and "chanticleer" . . . Texas was clearly the best team here, beating No. 1 Rice, No. 3 South Carolina and of course Stanford, ranked fifth, for their four wins . . . But Longhorns broadcaster Keith Moreland no longer looks like he can get behind the plate in a pinch . . . The 'Horns sure do like singing that song, "The Eyes of Texas are Upon You," don't they? And what's the deal with that signal? In the comic strip Bloom County, that was a "secret devil sign." . . . Closer Huston Street, whose dad James quarterbacked Texas to a national title in 1969, called it a "family 'I-love-you' sign." Whatever you think, there was a whole lot of it going on Saturday . . . No one is sorry to see CBS go from Omaha. Let's hope ESPN treats the event with the respect it deserves.

Rosenblasts

• As the Most Outstanding Player, Huston Street became just the fourth freshman to win the award. The others include Miami's Pat Burrell (1996), Stanford's Paul Carey (1987) and Tulsa first baseman Jerry Tabb (1971).

• From the records-broken-or-tied department: The 2002 CWS set attendance records early, and Saturday's crowd of 24,089 helped set a new all-time record for the event in total attendance and average per session. Overall attendance was 223,762 an average of 22,376 per session, with Sunday's 25,581 attendance (session three) setting the all-time record for one game.

• Other notable records besides those set by Texas included South Carolina allowing 75 hits in six games, and Stanford's Ryan Garko, who became the CWS' all-time hit by pitch leader with six. And we thought it would have been Garko's teammate Carlos Quentin, who was hit by a Stanford single-season record 16 pitches this year and a NCAA-record five in one game.

• Texas moves to 5-4 all-time in championship games, while South Carolina is now 0-3, also losing in 1975 and '77. It's just the second loss for a Southeastern Conference team in the CWS championship game since the league first won a title with Georgia in 1990. The last SEC team to lose a title game was Alabama in 1997, when it lost to LSU in an all-SEC final.

• Texas' offensive explosion helped bring the team's average up to .274, still the lowest batting average in a CWS by a champion since Pepperdine hit .258 in 1992.

• The All-CWS team: C: Landon Powell, South Carolina. 1B: Michael Johnson, Clemson. 2B: Tim Moss, Texas. 3B: Omar Quintanilla, Texas. SS: Victor Menocal, Georgia Tech. OF: Sam Fuld, Stanford; Justin Harris, South Carolina; Dustin Majewski, Texas. DH: Steve Stanley, Notre Dame. P: Justin Simmons, Texas; Huston Street, Texas. Most Outstanding Player: Huston Street, rhp, Texas.