Happy Hump Day 7/11 Comments
Cleaning up a few loose ends from Tuesday’s news conference introducing new OSU baseball assistant coach Pat Bailey, and some other items:
* A good contingent of boosters was on hand for the event in the Valley Football Center. That prompted OSU coach Pat Casey to remember his introduction to OSU when he succeeded a retiring Jack Riley in 1994:
“I was thinking about how things have changed,” Casey said. “When I got the job I had to find the athletic director’s secretary to get some keys to get into my office. That was my press conference.
“This is so cool that we’re hiring a coach here and there’s 100 people here for a press conference. It speaks volumes for Oregon State and our baseball program.”
* Bailey said he’s had other Division I opportunities but turned them down to either remain in the Northwest, or to fully take advantage of the tuition breaks his two children received at George Fox University while he worked here.
“I was offered the pitching coach job at Pepperdine in 1992,” Bailey said. “My wife said, ‘Are you going to fly back and forth to see our family? because I’m not moving to Los Angeles.’
“We decided we love the Northwest, and we made a decision 10 years ago that we’re not leaving. (That choice) limited my opportunities.”
* The ex-players I talked to the past couple days all had great things to say about Bailey, and the player-coach relationship they established. However, he said Tuesday that he didn’t consider the players to be his “friends.”
“I tell all my players, I donÂ’t want to be your buddy,” he explained. “I’d love to be your extended father, I’ll care for you and love you, but I donÂ’t need 20-year-old friends.”
* Bailey had to take (and pass) the NCAA recruiting test on Tuesday. It’s SOP for any new hire. He said he’d finish up his camp at GFU and then head to Seattle on Thursday to meet up with fellow assistant Marty Lees, and to begin recruiting.
Casey said OSU’s staff responsibilities should be determined by Thursday or Friday. Both Bailey and volunteer assistant David Wong have experience as a pitching coach so either could assume the responsibilities formerly held by Dan Spencer, who is now at Texas Tech after spending the past 11 seasons with the Beavers.
* OSU outfielder Mike Lissman has signed a free-agent deal with the Oakland A’s. He’s playing for their team in the Arizona Rookie League.
Shortstop Darwin Barney has signed with the Cubs and will be assigned to either Boise of the Northwest League or someplace else shortly.
* OSU wrestlers Bobby Pfennigs and Jeremy Larson, runner Neoma Palmer and soccer player Melissa Onstad are finalists for the Pac-10’s Oroweat “Healthy Minds” Postgraduate scholarship.
The scholarship is a $10,000 grant for graduate study to be awarded annually to one male and one female Pac-10 student-athlete. The winners will be selected from a group of 40 Pac-10 Postgraduate Scholarship winners that are selected annually.
Since 1999, the Pacific-10 Conference has annually awarded 40 Postgraduate scholarships of $3,000 each to honor outstanding student-athletes from its member institutions who also are outstanding scholars.
The winners will be selected by a committee of administrators from Pac-10 schools. Both will be recognized at a football game at their undergraduate institutions this fall.
* Former OSU linebacker Jonathan Jackson was released by the Arena Football League’s Dallas Desperados on Monday.
* The Corvallis Knights conclude a 6-game WCCBL homestand against Wenatchee on Thursday, Friday and Saturday. Beaver pitcher Josh Keller is playing for the AppleSox and is 1-1, 3.78 in six appearances, through Tuesday night.
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