Unlike its facility, SSU baseball program is first class

ROHNERT PARK

David Adler handed the piece of paper back to SSU baseball coach John Goelz, said the words he had to say and probably didn't notice Goelz' jaw dropping like the stock market. Even now, more than a year later, Goelz speaks of the moment as if he had a religious vision.

"I thought I might have met the greatest kid," Goelz said Tuesday, "God ever made."

Goelz never saw it coming, never saw Adler doing what he did. In fact, Goelz said, it has never happened to him before in his 23 years as SSU's head coach. A player had agreed to play baseball for the university but returned the partial scholarship Goelz offered him. Said he didn't need it. Said he was fortunate. His father, Walter, was a successful accountant. Don't need the money. Take it, coach. Give it to someone who could use it.

"I've always been the kind of guy," said the SSU second baseman, "to do whatever I could to help the team." But returning cash? Amazing a Major League player didn't contact Adler to tell him he's giving baseball players a bad name. If this keeps up, a MLB utility infielder might return part of his $2.9 million annual salary (the average in the sport) after hitting .225.

However, to quell a fast-spreading rumor, Goelz did not want to adopt Adler. It's also not true Goelz does Adler's laundry, washes his dishes or keeps his tires inflated. But this is how rumors get started when a baseball program's best asset is something that can not be seen or something deposited into a bank.

It's nothing so obvious like a state-of-the-art stadium and, phew, thank goodness for that because, well, SSU doesn't have one of those. It can't be a recruit impressed by permanent, odor-free restrooms, field lights or stands to accommodate a large crowd and, again, that's a relief because SSU doesn't have any of those either.

"I could tell how good-hearted coach Goelz was," Adler said. "That's why I came here."

SSU has the baseball program it has because the coaches are teachers, not tyrants, approachable and accessible, who seek out kids who want to play together, not apart, who find that WE! WE! WE! sounds a lot better than ME! ME! ME! It reads like a time-worn bromide, this team thing, but even in the world of Division II baseball, egos can stampede common sense and decency.

"We have a team in our conference," Goelz said, "who had a hitter hit .360. His coach came up to him and said he was cutting his scholarship. The kid asked why. The coach said he didn't hit well enough and 'We finished second to Sonoma'." That's some pretty hard-core lack of perspective and if there's anyone who understands the perspective of a scholarship, it's Goelz. That's because he has 1.5 of them. Yes, you read it right. One and a half. The 29-3 Seawolves currently are second in the nation, just came off a school-record 23-game winning streak, had 28 players go pro in the last seven years, had seven players go in the first 11 rounds of the 2004 draft . . . and they do it with just enough scholarship money to buy a mid-size truck that gets poor gas mileage ($20,000).

So even though Adler's partial was only $500, it's gold bullion around here. Goelz spreads that $20,000 through 15 players. If the university would care to fund baseball fully, Goelz is allowed by the NCAA to offer 9.7 baseball scholarships. Instead, with 15 percent of what he could have, Goelz has won 61 percent of his games since he took over in 1986.

It's a remarkable story only because, frankly, it's not to be believed when first told. With a student population of just 8,400, with 1.5 scholarships available, with a field inadequate for NCAA playoffs, SSU baseball defies the odds, to the point Goelz has been accused of lying about the conditions.

"A coach from a university in Indiana asked me how I used all my scholarships," Goelz said. "I said because it's only 1.5, its very difficult. He said, 'Come on, coach, get off it.' I told him that's all I had." The conversation became heated. Voices were raised.

"Are you calling me a liar?" Goelz remembered saying.

The coach backed down. Reality can be a hard pill to swallow.

Tell me about it, Goelz said.

The Seawolves have been the top seed four times in the NCAA Division II West Region. As a top seed they are guaranteed to host the regionals, the home field advantage the gift for finishing first.

Yet, this is the pill Goelz has had to swallow. As the top seed four times, SSU has been the host in San Antonio, San Luis Obispo, Pomona and Pueblo, Colo. Those sites were all second-seeds to SSU. But they hosted the regionals because the Seawolves do not meet NCAA standards to hold a baseball regionals, and they could.

Porta-potties, in other words, don't look good on television.

It would take $3 million to upgrade the baseball field to NCAA standards but the word on campus is that soccer will get the first upgrades, whenever those funds would be available. It will take $5 million to make soccer first-rate. It also will take, some skeptics believe, an act akin to Moses parting the Red Sea to make any of this happen.

"I focus on what I have," Goelz said, "not what I don't have." What he has is Adler and guys like Adler and for a teacher, a student who listens is a student who will learn and Goelz never asks any more out of his guys than that.

"On every other team before I came here," Adler said, "it always was everybody looking out for themselves. It always was about one or two guys. The closeness of the team, that's what impressed me." Now Goelz needs to spin all that goodwill and winning and Kumbaya into a private donor with love in his heart and money in his pockets. One name pops up.

"Ah," Goelz jokes, "but Willie Mays didn't go here . . . Although Orlando Cepeda Jr. went here. And Shawn Estes' brother, too."

So Goelz will have to wait for his most logical payday -- a former Seawolf player hits it big in the big leagues, starts making that $2.9 million per annum, and gives a chunk to Goelz. In turn Goelz does the right thing, the honorable thing, the only thing that makes sense. He names the stadium after his donor.

So let's all root, shall we, for The David Adler Stadium.

You can reach Staff Columnist Bob Padecky at 521-5490 or at bob.padecky@pressdemocrat.com.