Powder Blues

The next UCLA coach on the hot seat -- yes, there is another -- is as much a fixture on campus as the Bruin bear statue in Westwood Plaza.

Baseball Coach Gary Adams is entering his 29th season at UCLA, where he has won 922 games and produced an impressive list of major league players.

But the Bruins are coming off consecutive seventh-place finishes in the Pacific 10 Conference and the college baseball grapevine is ripe with rumor that UCLA Athletic Director Dan Guerrero, himself a former Bruin second baseman, is poised to make a change.

Guerrero, who has already replaced football Coach Bob Toledo and is expected to move on basketball Coach Steve Lavin after the season, refers questions about baseball to Ken Weiner, an associate athletic director who oversees baseball. Weiner said Adams, who has been coaching on a one-year contract that annually gets rolled over, will be evaluated after the season ends.

Weiner also said, “Gary has had a great run for 29 years. He certainly has a great following and you can see it in the number of players that came back for the alumni day ... [But] am I happy with more losses than wins? No. Am I patient? I have to be.”

The Bruins, along with most other local college baseball teams, open their season today. UCLA plays host to Cal State Northridge at Jackie Robinson Stadium today and Saturday before the series moves to Northridge on Sunday. In other three-game series starting today, Cal State Fullerton plays host to Stanford and Long Beach State hosts Arizona State.

Adams, 63, is one of the longest tenured baseball coaches in the nation. He has 1,110 victories in his career, including his five years at UC Irvine. But in his time at UCLA, the Bruins have made only one trip to the College World Series -- in 1997 -- and have never won a national title. UCLA is the only team in Southern California that has a sub-.500 record in the last five years.

UCLA was 26-35 in 2002 and the forecast for this season isn’t much brighter, despite the presence of All-American Wes Whisler, a sophomore first baseman and pitcher. In a poll of Pac-10 coaches, the Bruins are picked to finish sixth.

“I’m not concerned with things that I don’t have control over,” Adams said of his job security. “What I do have control over is my team. I want to make sure that I’ve gotten my kids to class and am helping them get their degrees and make sure that I’ve tried to help my ballplayers improve and become the best they can be.”

Fueling speculation that Adams might be in trouble is Guerrero’s longtime friendship with Arizona Coach Andy Lopez, another former Bruin player. Lopez was the baseball coach at Cal State Dominguez Hills when Guerrero was an administrator there. Lopez then moved to Pepperdine, where he guided the Waves to the 1992 national title.

Lopez is in his second season at Arizona after seven seasons at Florida. John Savage, whom Guerrero hired to pilot UC Irvine’s baseball team when that school brought back its program last season, is another prominently mentioned name.

Said Lopez: “It’s an obvious thing that’s come up, especially since Dan has become the athletic director. I’m flattered to be mentioned in the same vein as Gary. I love Arizona and I love the people who I work with. I love this university.”

Adams acknowledges that he has heard the rumors, but he’s trying to go about his business. “I’m coaching this year like I coached my first year,” he said. “I want to win like everyone else. We’re going to play hard. I think we’re going to surprise some people.”

Adams’ UCLA teams have produced 15 first-round picks, with Troy Glaus, Eric Karros and Todd Zeile among the most notable members of the Bruin alumni.

Chase Utley and Josh Karp, first-round picks in 2000 and 2001, figure to make their big league debuts this season.

John Manuel, who covers college baseball for Baseball America, said the national perception is that the Bruins have underachieved in recent years despite an array of talent.

Adams “is one of the classier guys out there and you never hear of any problems in the program,” Manuel said. “He gets guys to graduate, which he considers just as important as winning.

“But based on the resources and the talent base, people do expect more than one [appearance] in the College World Series in 30 years. Every three or four years, it’s a pretty darn good team, but you would expect that UCLA would have more consistent success.”

Dodger center fielder Dave Roberts, who was an all-conference player for Adams, hopes his former coach is measured by more than wins and losses.

“He cares for his players,” said Roberts, who played at UCLA from 1991 to 1994. “That to me means more than teaching someone how to swing a bat or throw a ball. The players that have come through here have represented themselves as fine individuals after college.

“I know Mr. Guerrero has got to do what he has to do and it’s his decision, but I’d be very disappointed if Coach Adams wasn’t running this program.”

Vince Beringhele, who has been a UCLA assistant for 14 years, said rumors that Adams was on his way out have swirled for years.

“I think something like this is only going to fuel him even more,” Beringhele said. “He’s disappointed that we couldn’t get it done last year.”

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USC, which opens at UC Santa Barbara on Tuesday, was the choice of coaches as the favorite in the Pac-10. The Trojans have six returning starters and right-hander Anthony Reyes is returning for his senior season as the ace of a deep staff. Juniors Fraser Dizard and Brian Bannister have returned from injuries to join Reyes and sophomore Brett Bannister. USC also has promising freshmen in left-handed pitcher Bobby Paschal and Jeff Clement, a catcher and designated hitter from Iowa, who set the national high school home run record last year.

Cal State Fullerton and Long Beach State expect to battle it out for the Big West title. The Titans, who finished fourth last year, have three standout juniors in pitchers Wes Littleton and Chad Cordero and outfielder Shane Costa. All played for Team USA last summer. Pitching-rich Long Beach is led by junior left-hander Abe Alvarez, last season’s Big West pitcher of the year, and sophomore right-hander Jered Weaver.

UC Irvine, which was 33-26 in its return to baseball, has sophomore third baseman Matt Anderson and pitcher Glenn Swanson. The Anteaters open Tuesday, playing host to Fresno State. UC Santa Barbara features outfielder Matt Wilkerson and pitcher Eric Posthumus, both freshman All-Americans a year ago.

Northridge figures to rebuild and UC Riverside will try to improve on its sixth-place finish.

In the West Coast Conference, Pepperdine is expected to again contend for the Coast Division title, while Loyola Marymount, which started several freshmen last year, tries to rebound from consecutive subpar seasons.

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Southland Baseball

In the last five seasons, the UCLA baseball team has won 149 games, lost 152, and been to the NCAA regionals twice under longtime Coach Gary Adams. A look at how the Bruins measure up to the Southland’s other programs in that time:

CAL STATE FULLERTON: 220-92, five NCAA berths, two College World Series appearances.

USC: 211-106, five NCAA, three CWS, one national championship.

PEPPERDINE: 187-111, two NCAA.

LONG BEACH STATE: 183-117-1, four NCAA, one CWS.

CAL STATE NORTHRIDGE: 162-120, two NCAA.

LOYOLA MARYMOUNT: 150-141-1, three NCAA.

UC SANTA BARBARA: 135-132, one NCAA.

Note: In 2002, UC Riverside played its first year in the Big West Conference and UC Irvine played its first season after a 10-year hiatus.