Pride and Pestilence

It looked like the Giants were going to pull off a first to worst run to the bottom of the NL West this season. The Yard was supporting their futility with biased enthusiasm. It was that rare moment when the Bay Area and the Yard were in the shaded area of intersecting concentric circles. But the Giants nutted up and closed the season with a blistering 6-4 run to nose ahead of the woeful Rockies. The Dodgers dash to brilliance and the Giants race to despair have both been equally compelling at the Yard. Once of the more pretentious moves in recent Los Angeles sports history was USC AD Pat Haden asking for permission to speak with UCLA head baseball coach John Savage immediately following the Bruins national championship run through Omaha. The Bruins and their vaunted pitching did not lose a game in the double elimination tournament. The Bruins brought home the school’s first national championship in baseball and 109th overall. Before the charter touched down at LAX after the championship game, USC was announcing to the LA times that they were planning on speaking with Savage regarding their vacant position and had a “spectacular offer” to make him. UCLA had little choice but to allow the discussion. USC felt that Savage had a special place in USC lore because he was their pitching coach for a few seasons seventeen years ago. The Trojans felt entitled to poach the UCLA coach because they are the LA University with the 12 national titles in baseball albeit none since 1998. College baseball is not a profitable college sport. USC was reportedly offering Savage $1 million to take over a baseball program that never makes a profit. The highest paid baseball coach in D1 makes $675,000 and that is in the SEC. Title IX ensures that women’s and men’s athletics have the same budget. Title IX takes into account the inherent cost associated with each sport not the revenue and net profit. College Football and basketball pay for all of the other college sports. The allocations of those revenues are divided 50/50 between women’s and men’s sports. NCAA women’s athletics is to be supported and shines at the Olympics. It generates no money to offset their 50% entitlement. Savage is worth the dollars and UCLA showed their appreciation with his new contract. UCLA would have shown Savage the love regardless but USC raised everyone’s bar for sports that are rarely seen on TV. Pretense is part of the double helix across town but that request was unprecedented. USC could have hired Savage back in 2005. They hired Chad Kreuter. Savage built UCLA into a powerhouse. Kreuter never had a winning season in four years. The Yard was similarly outraged that USC fired Lame Kiffin on the tarmac at LAX this past weekend. It was bad enough that the Trojans got pasted in the Arizona desert but then to have UCLA’s savior get sacked upon his return was disappointing. At the Yard, we had hoped that Kiffin would struggle along for a few more years while the Bruins rebuild. The best coaches UCLA ever enjoyed were USC head coaches Larry Smith, Johnny Robinson Part Duex and Paul Hackett. During their storied trifectas, USC’s futile run encompassed UCLA beating USC a rivalry record 8 straight times. Their leadership led USC into football obscurity for over a decade. We had only hoped that Kiffin would at least be able to finish his contract. Outgoing AD Mike Garrett was in such a rush to hire the unproven Kiffster that we only wished incoming AD Pat Haden would give him as much time as he needed to prove himself. USC is probably going to ask UCLA for permission to speak with Jim Mora next week.