Roanoke Times
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: FRIDAY, February 28, 1992 TAG: 9202280005
SECTION: SPORTS PAGE: B7 EDITION: METRO
SOURCE: Jack Bogaczyk
DATELINE: BLACKSBURG LENGTH: Medium
TECH DUGOUT NOT CHEERING NCAA CUTS
Umpires beware! The season is young, and major-college baseball coaches already are riled about what they view as bad calls by university presidents.Virginia Tech coach Chuck Hartman could get his 1,000th victory this spring, and in 32 seasons he has seen a few curveballs. Never, however, has he teed off like he did Monday.
"The NCAA says we have to have a day off every week," said Hartman, whose team opens its season today at North Carolina-Wilmington. "I played golf with my assistants Monday. In all of my years, I've never played golf when we were in preseason."
Hartman and his fellow coaches realize recent NCAA legislation that trims dollars, personnel and hours in programs has touched all sports.
"I do think baseball took the biggest hit," Hartman said of a sport already plagued by a lack of pitching depth and the use of aluminum bats.
Division I schedules have been cut to a maximum 56 games. Grants-in-aid have been trimmed 10 percent, to 11.7 per program. Staffs are down to three paid coaches - a head coach, one full-time assistant and a part-timer, eliminating graduate assistants.
"I hate to compare us to the Joneses, the money programs like football and basketball, but we did only have 13 scholarships to fill nine positions on the field. As specialized as college baseball has become, to be successful you have to have stoppers, middle relievers," Hartman said.
"There's no doubt more kids will go pro when they're drafted out of high school instead of considering college. There's less money to work with, and you're going to find people splitting more scholarships."
Hartman said the coaching cuts "are just the opposite of what everyone else is doing with young people going into the professional world."
"We should encourage them to get into coaching," he said, "and look at the in-service training you get as a grad assistant. Everyone goes to co-op programs in their business and engineering schools. We cut it out."
The American Baseball Coaches Association is endorsing a proposed change in the Division I baseball season, calling for a March 1 start with a regular-season end about June 15. The College World Series would conclude on the July 4 weekend, about a month later than now.
"That would be a real asset to a program in our location, with the weather," Hartman said. "It would increase parity, too. Schools like Miami, Florida State and Arizona State couldn't start in February and spread the schedule and get by on three starting pitchers."
Hartman said the NCAA-mandated change "where we've noticed the biggest difference" is the maximum 20 hours per week of play, practice and meetings in each sport.
"We haven't been able to do nearly as much one-on-one work as we did in the past," Hartman said. "We've had a lot of meetings with players about grades, campus life, getting along with a roommate, what their role on the team was, things like that. Well, if we mention baseball in a meeting now, it counts toward 20."
Roanoke's George Canale, who might be the Montreal Expos' first baseman this season, spent countless post-practice hours at Tech taking grounders and batting practice with assistant coaches. Now, a coach's presence at an individual workout is part of the player's 20 hours.
"George is a great example of the kind of impact that rule might have. Without that extra work, he might not be where he is today. He made himself into a major-leaguer," Hartman said.
The college season has just begun, but Hartman already can hear the competition.
"I'm sure the pro scouts will tell kids that if you go to college, you won't play as many games, you won't get as much individual instruction and you won't get as much scholarship money," he said. "I'm sure they're going to hammer us."