May 28, 2024

By Mark Whicker

Canadian Baseball Network

The Pacific-12 Conference walked off the scene Saturday.

Tommy Splane, a .237 hitter, stroked the base hit that scored Emilio Correa in the bottom of the ninth, and Arizona wiped out a three-run deficit to beat USC, 4-3, at Scottsdale Stadium.

It was the final baseball game in Pac-12 history. In fact, it was the final sporting event in Pac-12 history. Arizona will go on to play host to a regional this weekend, but USC, which built the most durable dynasty in the history of the league, didn’t make the field.

The Trojans’ run was the exact blend of romance and surprise that attracts so many Americans to college sports, despite all its wretched excesses. Their on-campus ballpark, Dedeaux Field, is being renovated, partially because it’s 50 years old, partially because the football team needs another practice field.

Extensive research has not revealed any incident in which a college football coach or athletic director has said, “You know, we have all the facilities we need to win.”

USC thus had to practice at a nearby junior college, sometimes before sunrise, and its home games were mostly moved to The Great Park in Irvine, where an Air Force base used to be. As people in the area know, a trip from downtown L.A. to southern Orange County is a project that requires a packed lunch and a full tank. The 45-mile trip can often consume two hours.

The Trojans wound up 31-28. Better, if colder, days may be ahead. USC, UCLA, Washington and Oregon will join the Big 10 next year. That’s a ridiculous amount of travel for what is basically a non-revenue sport, at least at USC, but the competition is a notch below the Pac-12.

Arizona, Arizona State and Utah will go to the Big 12. (Colorado is also in the Pac-12 but doesn’t have baseball.) Stanford and Cal will join the ACC. Wait a minute. Isn’t that the Atlantic Coast Conference? Yes, and every team in it, with the exception of newcomer SMU, lies three time zones away from the Bay Area.

To oversimplify, the Pac-12 suffered from the myopia of commissioner Larry Scott, who supervised the founding of the conference’s TV network but chose to make a freestanding entity instead of linking it with ESPN, as the SEC and ACC did. Thus, the revenue gap between the Pac-12 and the other “power leagues” became a canyon. USC and UCLA jumped to the Big 10 two years ago, and the game of 52-Card Pickup began.

Then the NCAA settled lawsuits last week and proposed direct payments to players, some of whom are already enriching themselves through compensation for Name, Image and Likeness (NIL). Presumably baseball players will be getting paid too. But will a team’s scholarship limit rise from the current, inadequate 11.7?

Will there be a salary cap of some sort? And since college sports seem to be shifting toward a super league of some sort, will it be divided geographically in a way that will restore the Pac-12’s rivalries? We don’t know, and probably won’t know a year from now.

Pac-12 teams have won the College World Series 29 times, although the figure narrows to 18 when it’s confined to teams who were actually in the Pac-12 at the time. USC has 12 of those titles. Five of them came consecutively, from 1970 through 1974, when Fred Lynn said life at USC was far more cushy than life in the minor leagues.

The SEC has won the past four College World Series but, in the 13 years before that, five Pac-12 teams took the trophy. And even though Pac-12 baseball doesn’t sell tickets like SEC does, it has lived large on pitching, defence and building victories a run at a time. The bunt is not an object of scorn in the Pac-12 or the other West Coast leagues.

The best way to explain the Pac-12’s impact is to come up with a conference all-star team.

Here’s one version:

(Note: this is based on how these players fared professionally, not just in the Pac-10.)

Starting pitchers: Randy Johnson (USC), Tom Seaver (USC), Tim Lincecum (Washington), Mike Mussina (Stanford), Mark Prior (USC).

Closer: Trevor Hoffman (Arizona).

C: Todd Zeile (UCLA)

1B: John Olerud (Washington State)

2B: Joe Gordon (Cal)

SS: Jackie Robinson (UCLA)

3B: Ron Cey (Washington State)

DH: Mark McGwire (USC)

OF: Barry Bonds (Arizona State), Reggie Jackson (Arizona State). Ralph Kiner (USC).

That leaves out a lot of recognizable talent. Pitchers like Barry Zito (USC), Bob Forsch (Oregon State) and Andy Messersmith (Cal) come up short. There isn’t room for Chase Utley (UCLA) or Aaron Boone (USC) at second base. Same with third basemen Sal Bando (Arizona State) or Troy Glaus (UCLA). A.J. Hinch (Stanford) was a contender at catcher. Bill Buckner (Arizona State and USC) is a well-credentialed backup at first base and the outfield. Lynn (USC) and Jacoby Ellsbury (Oregon State) were alternates in the outfield.

If you try to pick an All-Star team of current Pac-12 alums, it’s a little more of a stretch. The talent hasn’t ripened the way it used to, although your roster would look a lot more professional if you swallowed hard and included Trevor Bauer (UCLA) in your pitching rotation.

Here we go:

Starting pitchers: Gerrit Cole (UCLA), Merrill Kelly (Arizona State), Cal Quantrill (Port Hope, Ont., Stanford), Tyler Anderson (Oregon), Drew Rasmussen (Oregon State).

Closer: Seth Martinez (Arizona State)

C: Adley Rutschman (Oregon State)

1B: Andrew Vaughn (Cal)

2B: Marcus Semien (Cal)

SS: Nico Hoerner (Stanford)

3B: Nick Madrigal (Oregon State)

DH: Spencer Torkelson (Arizona State)

OF: Spencer Steer (Oregon), Stephen Kwan (Oregon State), Michael Conforto (Oregon State)

One thing is certain: The national cross-checkers and scouting directors from the big-league teams will keep their eyes on Pac-12 players. But they will be doing it where the sun shines. You will rarely see them do so at Purdue, Boston College or Kansas. The defecting schools were barred from taking their weather with them.