What's up with Bronco Baseball?

[xiaoxue]

hey, you old timers.

i just check and discover that we have won a lot of national titles in baseball and ladies basketball.

why do these teams stink so bad? neither one has been much above mediocre for several years.

how can national title programs fall so low? do we have bad coaches or what?

just wondering....

[CPP Hall of Fame]

Originally Posted by xiaoxue

hey, you old timers.

i just check and discover that we have won a lot of national titles in baseball and ladies basketball.

why do these teams stink so bad? neither one has been much above mediocre for several years.

how can national title programs fall so low? do we have bad coaches or what?

just wondering....

All of a sudden, you're a baseball fan now? Hall of Fame doesnt waste time talking baseball chatter with you kid.

[jayandbutton]

i guess since i've been on the campus for twenty years i'm clearly an old, old timer.

when i first arrived at poly we were current or recent national champions in baseball, womens tennis, and womens basketball and we were a very strong DI softball program on the move. those were our glory years to be sure.

since you asked only about two sports here is my take on these.

we have more national titles in ladies roundball than any other sport. in fact, no school in D2 has more than our five. this program was built on the sharp coaching skills of darlene may, for whom the old gym is named. it would be routine for her to take on and beat anybody, including USC and UCLA. sadly, she died from a terminal disease, but the good news is that her understudy, paul thomas, continued that tradition and won two more crowns after her passing, probably just prior to your arrival on campus. recently, coach thomas began focusing on coaching at the next level and since then the program has taken a nosedive. our current coach in fact was a second chance hire when the pick of the university, changed his mind after a day or two on the job. so please cut coach michelle some slack for not winning another title. i think our ladies will be back.

our baseball program, on the other hand, rose and fell with the arrival and departure of the guy for whom the field was named, john scolinos. he is arguably the best coach i have seen in any sport not merely at poly but in all of D2. he was a master motivator and leader, and occasionally he comes back and revs up the bronco faithful one more time. you should meet him. just like coach may, coach scolinos would play, and beat, anybody and everybody including the big boys, and we won the league crown almost every year.

unfortunately, his understudy has not produced those results, nor even come remotely close. in the past fifteen years we've not won a single league title, and i can't recall if we've ever even played in the national playoffs either. i'd like to say that you can't replace a legend, but on the other hand it is clearly disappointing to see bronco baseball keep losing given its glorious past.

am just curious, xiaoxue, are you possibly a baseball player who is not getting playing time?

[xiaoxue]

yeah, i just check and see that our bronco baseball team is dead last in the league....what a great championship program.

[lakdod]

There are average team. They are not the worst by they are middle of a pack baseball team. They will probally place 6, but the CCAA have two of the best baseball team in CCAA in Chico ranked # 1 and LA ranked #5 and Sonoma is ranked 20. I think the Broncos baseball team will be okay. I think next year is the year to watch out for the baseball team. The starters are mostly transfer from the JC rank. This means they will have the whole team back next year. I might catch a game this year if I have time. It is getting expensive to see my Dodgers play so why not what some college baseball.

[jayandbutton]

i'm not as down as xiaoxue on this topic lakdod but will tell you that i've heard this story at least a half dozen times over a decade or more. i agree that this is not a last place team, but on the other hand the facts are obvious. you can't take a program with three national crowns and continue on for fifteen years of medocrity unless your focus is elsewhere. when i arrived on campus we were beating up on UCLA. now we're getting thumped by biola and cal baptist.

[xiaoxue]

you guys are dead wrong. i just check again on the conference site and this team is dead last at 2-10. the last time this team danced was in 1993, and we had danced seven times until then. now nothing for almost fifteen years? we even have winning records against cal and oregon and almost even with cal state fullerton which has won the D1 college world series many times. why is this team the worst after being the best for so long? does anybody care about good teams but me?

[lakdod]

read my last post xiaxoue i make a good explaination of their record right now.

[jayandbutton]

got the postgame wrapup on the dance from paul helms (good game just poor shooting) and i asked him today about this, xiaoxue. he says we should pass san francisco state and monterey bay if that's any consolation. i did check the baseball media guide and you are correct, we have not had a playoff bid since 1993. while i don't know or follow baseball as much as basketball it is true that a program with three national crowns should never be in last place this deep into the season and never go 14 straight years with average to below average teams. still, we should get out and support the team even if this is another bad year.

[xiaoxue]

big deal, we pass a D3 transition team maybe.

what a national powerhouse team we have.

i'd like to meet coach scolinos to see what a winner is like.

face it, they stink.

[xiaoxue]

lakdod, since you seem to be so great at predictions please tell me how our awesome baseball team is going to finish around fifth in the league with its dead last record of 2-14 right now?

this rag tag group is now TEN GAMES behind fifth place cal state san bernardino. you need to take off your rose colored glasses and admit that this team and this program STINKS. and for a coach to take a perennial national title contender into one that never has even QUALIFIED to play in the tournament on his watch of almost 15 years...it's time for somebody to get some cajones and FIRE him.

i notice our tennis teams are really bad this year too. the women are 5-9 and the men are 2-9. but that coach has had winners and conference crowns. this baseball program is flat broke and needs be fixed. time for a new leader cuz the current guy has proven he can't coach.

let's get some sports teams we can be proud of again. who's in?

[lakdod]

I mean they are not looking good right now but look at the schedule in league they played all of the top teams in the league, but still they are looking bad.
Man I do not know nothing about tennis at Pomona so I can not answer but dude stop complaining about all the bad sports team. Its only a sports there is better things right now to complain about.

[jayandbutton]

xiaoxue,
your message popped up on my inbox server so will try to address your questions and lakdod's response, too.

1. as lakdod says, this is not a topic of huge importance like the much more critical strike that apparently will be the largest in the history of American education. THAT is the topic we should be discussing rather than this one. we have faculty living in tiny apartments just to pay bills while executives keep getting more and more wealthy...and the STUDENTS end up losing this one.

2. xiaoxue, you are a bit of a fuss button. sometimes you do look at good things in our sports teams but it seems more often you find flaws. but that said, among all varsity sports on this campus the one that far and away has been the most disappointing over the longest period of time is baseball. you are correct in that you don't take a perennial national title contender and let it deteriorate into not merely a mediocre program but arguably the worst one in the league as the facts show. and lakdod, a "tough schedule" never justifies a record of 2-14.

3. on the issue of demanding a coach find other employment, were this a pac ten school that would happen. in division two athletics you see this sort of thing going on more than it perhaps should.

my guess is that our athletic director, brian swanson, is trying to strike a balance between winning at all costs and athletic inferiority. as you say, sandy has two weak tennis teams this year but has been a winner and conference contender many times while mike never has achieved. each coach gets annual evaluations and the W/L piece is factored in. give the AD another year or two to sort this sticky issue out, and in the meantime enjoy bronco athletics even if we don't have winning clubs right now. in particular, check out our great track and field team!

[lakdod]

Yup the other important issue right now is about the possible strike. Everything you say about the strike I agree. I think the teachers deserve the raise they want. It not like they are asking for a signifcant pay raise.

Jay you are right a tough schedule is no excuse for a losing record, but I was just looking for the positive. The baseball record is horrible and maybe the program needs look in a different direction.

[jayandbutton]

i'm starting a new thread on this topic.

[CPP Hall of Fame]

Originally Posted by xiaoxue

this rag tag group is now TEN GAMES behind fifth place cal state san bernardino. you need to take off your rose colored glasses and admit that this team and this program STINKS. and for a coach to take a perennial national title contender into one that never has even QUALIFIED to play in the tournament on his watch of almost 15 years...it's time for somebody to get some cajones and FIRE him.

i notice our tennis teams are really bad this year too. the women are 5-9 and the men are 2-9. but that coach has had winners and conference crowns. this baseball program is flat broke and needs be fixed. time for a new leader cuz the current guy has proven he can't coach.

let's get some sports teams we can be proud of again. who's in?

Xiaoxue, JUST SHUT UP! You always complain about everything! Is there anything that pleases you these days? My advice to you is far beyond sports, it's about life. I really think you need to invest your time in getting a girlfriend and that would relieve alot of ur stress and worries brother. The baseball team is having a tough year, but I'm sure they haven't given up on the season and we shouldnt either. Instead of sitting back and criticizing them, you should go out and support them. They need the support more than anything right now. Please lay off the coach, this is not the place for that.

[xiaoxue]

i got a hot chick already. if you had your way every team on this campus would be losers. i know enuff about sports to see who's working and working hard and who can't get the job done. our students deserve better than what they got.

[lakdod]

Originally Posted by xiaoxue

i got a hot chick already. if you had your way every team on this campus would be losers. i know enuff about sports to see who's working and working hard and who can't get the job done. our students deserve better than what they got.

Okay who cares about baseball and about the other sports let talk about the mens basketball recruits look at the new thread I started.

[xiaoxue]

that's a good idea lakdod. the lousy baseball team is now 9-19 with eight league games left to play, and they go against a sonoma team that is 38-6 this weekend. that's the kind of team we used to be under the old coach.

i haven't seen anything about these new players. i didn't see anything on the cal poly web site. where do you find these things? and will we get some more size? i was hoping they might find some DI guy who wanted more playing time.

[jayandbutton]

Check out lakdod's other site on the new recruits, xiaoxue, and give it up on baseball. They're done. They can't even reach .500 in league if they go undefeated now, and it's much more likely they get swept by Sonoma this weekend anyway. Let's support his new blog site.