Oregon baseball coach George Horton has never had a losing season as a head coach. He’s coached two national championship teams. He has a .672 winning percentage as a Division I head coach. He’s one of nine people to have both played and coached at Omaha in the College World Series.
Point in case: He’s a winner.
That’s why this season has been tough on the 55-year-old Duck skipper. Losing isn’t in his blood or his vocabulary. The team’s 14-34 record has driven him to his wit’s end. He’s tried running the team. He’s tried yelling. He’s even burned a stuffed monkey with gasoline to get the proverbial monkey off the team’s back.
But sometimes, no matter how much a person is accustomed to winning, it just doesn’t happen. In Oregon’s case, youth and inexperience have served a part in the struggles. An epically bad batting average has contributed, as well.
I sat down with Horton before the Ducks travelled to Washington State last week. We talked for almost 30 minutes in his office, first about Danny Pulfer for a feature I was writing, then about the future, the Pacific-10 Conference, and even the weather.
One of the most interesting things he said in our talk was that he didn’t want the players to forget how getting blown out and rubbed in the dirt feels. He wants them to remember the 10-2 losses and use them as motivation.
“I think you build confidence through your work ethic and practice, and we have a long time to practice before next year,” Horton said. “I don’t want them to forget the horror stories from this year because of the fact that when you don’t do it well, here’s what happens. We’ll use the negative side of this year to motivate us to work harder for next year.”
With eight games left on the schedule, the Ducks have taken a slight turn to looking at the future. That’s not to say they’re mailing it in; they still are looking for their first Pac-10 series win, they’re just aware they have the summer and fall to better themselves for next year.
Horton is going to play a few of the bench players a little bit more to give them experience and so he can evaluate them more, and now it’s about how he’s going to fit the new recruits in with the team he has now. The Ducks are losing just two players, seniors Andrew Schmidt and Caleb Tommasini, but the coach is bringing in a whole new recruiting class that will compete for spots with some of the guys from this year’s team. It will create an interesting dynamic in the young team, and one that hopefully has a few more power hitters on the team.
“I think every day represents the future,” Horton said. “We definitely recruited more hitters. We got a good catcher coming in, we have to get better at that position, and a few outfielders who will also put up good numbers.”
And what about this year’s team? That elusive first conference-series win is still out there. The Ducks have two shots left: this weekend at No. 3 Arizona State and the following weekend against Arizona, here in Eugene.
“We’d like to win our first series. Obviously Arizona State is a big challenge, and Arizona is starting to play like they were supposed to earlier in the season. I think we have three of the toughest teams in the conference left.
“Of course, we would still like to get one of these series and maybe play spoilers in this Pac-10 race,” Horton said.
The level of play in the “Conference of Champions” was something Horton expected coming in. He is disappointed his team hasn’t won more, but he says the Pac-10 is the best baseball conference in the United States.
“I think it’s a down year in the Pac, and it’s still darn good,” Horton said. “I knew that coming in that this is the best baseball conference in the country and I’m not going to go back on it.”
“The difference (between the Pac-10 and other conferences) is there’s no weekend where you say, ‘this is an easy weekend’ and you would be devastated if you didn’t sweep them,” Horton said. “Our program represents that now. Other teams are saying they let an opportunity go right there if they don’t sweep us. We need to change that.”
Even the weather has been tough for the team. From biting cold to start the season, to snow flurries, to driving rain; this year’s team has played through it all.
“I don’t think it’s an uncharacteristic sampling of what we are going to have to go through,” Horton said. “We haven’t missed a game yet. We’ve played under less than desirable conditions but it’s not bad. It’s been very doable.”
It’s definitely been a change for the coach from Southern California, and the players, too. Oregon baseball is a different breed altogether, but if I were to bet on one coach taming the elements and creating a powerhouse of baseball at the University, I would place all my chips on Horton. He’s the right mix of old-school baseball, right down to the lip full of chewing tobacco.
Yes, the team is limping to the finish line with a plethora of black eyes and bruises from a brutal run through a tough conference. But it’ll rebound. Horton’s teams always do.
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Unfamiliar territory
Daily Emerald
May 12, 2009
Mike Perrault
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