Posted on: Thursday, May 31, 2001
Yoshida's baseball coaching hire must be perfect
By Ferd Lewis
Advertiser Staff Writer
When Hugh Yoshida took on the job of athletic director at the University of Hawai'i eight years ago, a colleague wise in the ways of administration presented him a fifth of scotch, a bottle of aspirin and an inspirational book.
Just for times like these, apparently.
For as we head into June, Yoshida faces one of the most demanding and visible tests of his tenure, hiring a baseball coach.
At a lot of schools, filling that position could be handled before lunch. But this isn't one of them. Especially not now.
You don't give the only Division I baseball coach the school has ever had — a Hall of Famer with 1,079 victories — an emotional sendoff the likes of which UH hasn't seen before and then turn around and name just anybody as his successor. You don't invest nearly a year in the selection process, asking for the public's patience, and then settle for a nobody.
For those reasons, and in consideration of the increased part baseball must play in balancing the athletic department's $16 million checkbook, the importance of this hire has multiplied.
Both for the Rainbows, for whom baseball has been their most decorated men's sport, and Yoshida, who will ultimately make the call.
Maybe, if you are the 60-year-old Yoshida, already vested in the state retirement system with more than 30 years of service, it might even turn out to be your last major appointment. If it should turn out that way, then this hiring will significantly help to shape his legacy at Manoa, where the opportunities to make high-profile appointments have been few.
With the exception of football, Yoshida inherited every current head coach of a revenue-producing program. And when it came to football, the hirings have brought a split decision: the success of June Jones vs. the three worst years in school history produced by Jones' predecessor. This, then, could be the tie-breaker.
Jones' arrival from the NFL raised the bar on all future hires, which explains some of Yoshida's enduring interest in Arizona State coach Pat Murphy. Landing a proven winner, an established coach of a marquee program, would send a message not only about UH's intentions of recapturing past glory in baseball but also underline where the athletic program wants to go.
Not that Murphy comes without some fences in need of mending. There was a falling out with Les Murakami over a 1995 series that Murphy cancelled.
The questions thus become: Does Yoshida continue to wait for Murphy, whose season has already ended and who might have to extricate himself from buyout provisions in his ASU contract? And, at what point does it become time to move on?
And, if so, to whom? Mike Trapasso, a popular assistant at Georgia Tech; local candidates Boy Eldredge and Lenn Sakata or one of at least three "mystery" head coaches from NCAA regional teams?
It is Yoshida's call — and all he has to do is make the perfect pick.
You just hope he still has the scotch, aspirin and inspirational tome to help see him through one of the biggest hires he is likely to make.
