If the University of Hawai‘i baseball program were a house, you’d find it listed among fixer-upper opportunities.
One with considerable potential to be sure, but with still a way to go to regain its former stature.
Which makes you wonder what Pat Murphy of Arizona State, of all people, is doing at this particular open house sale.
Indeed, that’s the $200,000 question surrounding the Rainbows’ coaching search at this point.
For that is the approximate worth of Murphy’s annual package at ASU, one of college baseball’s most glamorous and lucrative jobs. It is a paycheck UH would be hard pressed to match even at his $130,810 base salary level before performance incentives, camps and endorsements.
Along with Southern Cal, Miami and a handful of others, ASU is both rooted in the past and a power in the present. It has the facilities, resources and tradition to be a player on the highest level more years than not.
With its history - the outfield walls at Packard Stadium that recall Barry Bonds, Reggie Jackson and Rick Monday are testament to the parade of future Major Leaguers that have gone through there - ASU rarely strays from the Top 25. It is the kind of job most coaches dream of, not walk away from.
Yet the 42-year old Murphy is said to be strongly considering the UH job, a position that is his if he wants it.
People in the coaching fraternity say his interest in the position is more than a lark, that there is genuine consideration of the job. Nor is he one of those coaches who puts out resumes by the dozen.
People familiar with him say the challenge of a fixer-upper of UH’s potential appeals to the Pac-10 coach of the year. That ever since he brought a Notre Dame team here in 1990, he has carried in the back of his mind the thought that he’d like to coach here someday.
Why this might be that day is a good question. For his contract at ASU runs through 2003 and his freshman recruiting class was ranked tops in the country by Baseball America. The school has pledged to make $1.2 million in improvements to the stadium in the first phase of a plan that will include skyboxes and upgraded team facilities.
Often in these situations, if the possibilities seem too good to be true for UH, they usually have been. How many times in the past has UH been used as leverage for somebody to get a better deal?
Yet, after June Jones walked away from a multi-year contract as the San Diego Chargers’ head coach to take over an 0-12 UH football team in 1998, you can never say never.
What are the chances of the Rainbows being twice blessed in the same lifetime?
