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    Oregon State University Baseball: Building a Legacy
    Oregon State University Baseball: Building a Legacy
    Oregon State University Baseball: Building a Legacy
    Ebook163 pages2 hours

    Oregon State University Baseball: Building a Legacy

    By Cliff Kirkpatrick, Pat Casey and Darwin Barney

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    In the postseasons of 2005, 2006 and 2007, the Oregon State Beavers baseball team achieved a seemingly impossible dream and forever changed the culture of Northwest sports. After nearly a century of dismissal as a wet-weather team, unable to compete with the southern baseball belt on the national stage, a run of three College World Series appearances and back-to-back titles earned the Beavers national respect. Inspired by his own coverage of the dramatic seasons, "Corvallis Gazette-Times" sportswriter Cliff Kirkpatrick recounts the program's rise to prominence and lasting legacy. Filled with firsthand insights from players and coaches and photos of pivotal moments and stands filled with orange and black, this retrospective captures the magic of Oregon State's three-season run.
    LanguageEnglish
    PublisherThe History Press
    Release dateMar 5, 2013
    ISBN9781614238805
    Oregon State University Baseball: Building a Legacy
    Author

    Cliff Kirkpatrick

    Cliff Kirkpatrick covers the athletics programs at Oregon State University for the Corvallis Gazette-Times. He was present for the Beavers back-to-back College World Series titles and has been honored with multiple awards for his coverage of OSU football and baseball. Darwin Barney is a Gold Glove winner and second baseman for the Chicago Cubs. Barney was the starting shortstop for the Oregon State Beavers from 2005-07 and led the team to back-to-back championships in 2006 and 2007. Pat Casey is the head coach of the Oregon State baseball team. A native of Oregon and former professional baseball player, Casey joined the Oregon State program in 1995 and led the team to three College World Series appearances and two national titles.

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      Book preview

      Oregon State University Baseball - Cliff Kirkpatrick

      Author

      FOREWORD

      First off, if you are reading this book, I want to thank you. Thanks for supporting Oregon State baseball, and thank you for making us who we are. Without the continued support of our alumni and donors through the years, nothing would have been possible. During the amazing run we had from 2005 through 2007, we sold out games that never before sold out and we filled a stadium in Nebraska with orange and black.

      One of the greatest accomplishments I think we achieved is forcing the Ducks to start a baseball program. The university down the road could not stand Oregon State getting all the attention in something. That something was three trips to Omaha and back-to-back national championship runs, which turned out to be some of the best moments in my life.

      Being a Beaver meant many things. It meant being on a beautiful campus in a great college town. It meant standing for something and achieving what seemed to be the impossible for a Northwest school. When I first made the decision to attend Oregon State, I did it for a couple of reasons—one being that I knew the talent level of the players attending Oregon State. Dallas Buck, Jonah Nickerson, Kevin Gunderson, Cole Gillespie, Jacoby Ellsbury—the list goes on and on.

      Many of those guys became some of my closest friends as we moved on from our days at OSU. But the greatest thing about the groups of guys we had was that we had something to play for—a true, deep-down feeling that we had something to prove. We wore the name Oregon State with so much pride because most of us actually grew up in Oregon—a place known more for its fishing, arts and Nike rather than a baseball team that does not get to play at home until its twenty-first game of the season due to weather. Being a Beaver meant having a dream and working to achieve that dream, which would have been impossible without Pat Casey at the helm.

      Darwin Barney and teammates celebrate moments after a victory in the 2006 College World Series. Courtesy of Oregon State baseball.

      Coach Casey is the spitting image of what it means to be a Beaver. He is a great family man with incredible dedication and a true belief in his players. I remember a time during my freshman year when I was struggling at the plate and he wouldn’t move me from the top of the order. I went to him, frustrated, voicing my concern. All he said was, You’re going to hit…you’re going to hit. He believed in me before I even believed in myself, and that’s something I will never forget.

      I’ll also never forget Tyler Graham making that last catch of the game in 2006. I’ll never forget what it means to be a team—together, day in and day out. I’ll never forget the speeches Casey gave on the bus before games on the road. Some were deep and meaningful. Others a little different, like at Stanford in 2005, which is when I believe we changed the culture of the program by sweeping a double-header from them at their place. It went something along the lines of us ripping off their heads and shoving it down their throats. I’ll never forget him telling us to not be afraid. My favorite line was Why be scared walking down the street at night all by yourself? If someone jumps out from behind a bush, beat his… That’s where I’ll stop that quote. You can imagine where he was going. I’ll also never forget the sound of Mike Parker’s voice. He’s probably my most favorite announcer of all time. I can still hear him saying, And the Oregon State Beavers have won the national championship…again. I’ll never forget the homecoming when we won in 2006 and 2007, with all the fans and supporters of what we stood for there to experience all of that with us.

      Today, I wear my Oregon State gear with so much pride, and I’m proud to have been a small part of an amazing thing at Oregon State University. My time at Oregon State changed my life. I am forever indebted to the city of Corvallis and the university. As life goes on, we all stand for certain things. For me, I stand most proud of being an Oregon State Beaver.

      Darwin Barney

      FOREWORD

      Back before the 1995 season, my first year at Oregon State, and after I had been hired to lead this program, I was standing with a couple of friends in the outfield of what was then Coleman Field. The field, as it is now, had been in the same spot since 1907, so there’s truly a sense of history of what Oregon State had accomplished. The Beavers were certainly one of the more successful programs in the Pacific Northwest.

      I started thinking about what we could do here in Corvallis. I had a dream, in a sense, of how this program could be elevated to more than it was. Our stadium was sub-par. It had to be improved so we could compete with Pac-10 powers like Stanford, UCLA and Arizona State. We needed to create a team mentality that we were national contenders. I knew there was something here that could make this program the best in our league. I wanted Oregon State to be synonymous with schools like Texas, LSU, Florida—programs that were successful nationally. That was the dream, but I had to begin with player mentality. We needed an identity.

      This would be an entire process. We would need a new stadium and new way of thinking about ourselves—we could compete with the best of the best. It required a new foundation, one that supported the right people from the coaches to the student-athletes to our staff.

      It came together in 2005 when we went to Omaha for the first time. We got a taste for what it takes to be successful at the College World Series. That year, we caught a break with the right guys and five future big leaguers, two of whom would go on to win Gold Gloves. They were all local talent and helped bring this program to the forefront.

      We didn’t win a game at Rosenblatt Stadium that year, but the players who returned in 2006 remembered what it was like to be one of the top eight teams in the nation. I can’t say enough about what this program accomplished that year, losing its first game and having to battle back and win four straight to advance to the final series. By that point, we knew what we had accomplished was special, and the final victories after the loss to North Carolina cemented what we achieved. It was amazing to know that just a little more than a decade ago I was standing in the outfield dreaming of what we could achieve. Ten years may seem like a long time, but when you’re trying to build a program, improve its standing in a league and get the right players and staff in place, it goes by pretty quickly.

      Naturally, we had big expectations in 2007, but we had to battle through a tough league season. Ironically, what had helped us gain national prominence less than a decade earlier could now possibly derail our season. Fortunately, we were selected among the last teams and made the trip to Charlottesville for the Virginia Regional. We lost our second game there but never looked back. I remember telling my son Jon after the loss to Virginia that we were going to be national champions again. I usually don’t say things like that, but I just had a feeling. We went on to win our last ten games.

      Guys who played in 1996 or 1999 or even 2003, they helped this program get to Omaha without directly being there. They laid the foundation by doing things the right way. You always hear that phrase the right way. It might be cliché now, but it’s an attitude based on how you go about doing things. You don’t cut corners—that’s great for short-term success, but not long term. Building this program was never about being immediately successful. The players we have welcomed into the Oregon State family are men who we want to help us achieve great things on the field. But we also want them thinking about how they can better the program. We want them focused on training the right way, studying the right way and representing themselves and this university in the most positive manner possible.

      What I’m most proud of throughout my tenure is how my coaches, my staff and I have helped our student-athletes become winners. They’ve accomplished a great deal at Oregon State and have helped build this program into something everyone in Corvallis, this campus and the state of Oregon can be proud of. But most importantly, we believe we’ve taught them how to be winners in anything they do, whether it’s in the business world or on the field. We always say, Live like a champion.

      When Cliff asked if I would like to write the foreword for his book, I happily accepted. Cliff has always been fair to our program and has provided the readers of his newspaper with great accounts of the team on our two runs to the national title. It also provided me the opportunity to give thanks to everyone who has supported this program since I came to Corvallis. I’ve purposely mentioned very few names, as there is no way to mention all those who have helped without accidentally omitting someone. Not to mention, it would probably take a dozen or so pages to list everyone who has had an impact on what we’ve done at Oregon State. Instead, you can read about some of them in this book.

      I would be remiss, however, if I didn’t take the opportunity to thank my family for always being by my side. Their presence makes it all worth it. Thank you to my wife, Susan, and my children, Jon, Brett, Ellie and Joe. My parents, Fred and Bev, were supportive from the beginning.

      Finally, thank you Beaver Nation for everything you have done and everything you continue to do to make us one of the top programs in the nation.

      Pat Casey

      INTRODUCTION

      Missing My Chance, or So I Thought

      I’m going to the College World Series," screamed my co-worker Brooks Hatch. He was jumping up and down and hugged me in the middle of a wild crowd in Goss Stadium. I was furious about my own bad decision.

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