Thursday, 5/22/97 Almost to Omaha BASEBALL: Head coach Adams
prepares Bruins on road to World Series
By Sierra Roberts Daily Bruin Contributor In 23 years as head
coach of the UCLA baseball program, Gary Adams has just about seen
it all. Throughout his years, Adams has witnessed and experienced
almost all the emotions possible in the sport. He’s seen tears,
laughter, hard work, determination, teamwork and disappointment.
He’s seen the thrill of victory and the heartache of defeat. From a
bad call by an umpire to a ninth-inning victory when it really
counted, Adams has seen it. However, Adams has not done one thing
in his 23-year tenure: He has never brought the Bruins to the
College World Series. As his team begins the regionals, hoping to
reach the World Series in Omaha for the first time since 1969, they
face a tough journey ahead of them. But many Bruins are hoping for
even more than reaching the Series. "I don’t think anyone will be
satisfied unless we win the national championship," Adams said.
"Something will be missing." In 23 years without a World Series,
Adams has coached 28 major-leaguers, a number that could
drastically jump after this year. The Bruins have performed very
well this season, and Adams, 58, stands at the helm of the team.
For yet another season he has watched from the dugout through his
Oakley sunglasses, a team with vast major league potential before
him. Adams anticipates that up to 10 of this year’s players could
be drafted. This season has consisted of a 40-18-1 overall record,
a national sixth-place ranking, a No. 1 seed in the Midwest
Regional Division of the playoffs in Oklahoma and a shot at the
World Series. With so many major-leaguers going through the system,
many wonder why the Bruins didn’t make the World Series a long time
ago. For Adams, the answer is simple. "I don’t know. If I knew that
we would probably have (a national championship) by now," Adams
said. "We have a good team. We’ll have to see what happens at the
end and ride it out. We have to pass the final test. It’s going to
take some breaks; we have to stay healthy. I think the talent is
there, we’ve worked hard and are up to the challenge." As any good
coach would, Adams wants to prepare the team for what they may face
on their road to Omaha. "I want to make sure they are ready for
adverse weather and umpiring. It’s not going to be a rosy path – we
have to play good baseball," Adams said. "We’re working on doing
things right." Adams considers himself a patient coach who
understands that it takes time to perfect something. "I look at
myself as a teacher and an educator," Adams said. "The one thing I
do demand is hustle; I have no patience if they’re not hustling."
In 1975 Adams had just finished a tenure with UC Irvine, leading
the Anteaters to back-to-back Division II Championships in 1973 and
1974. After five years there, he came back to his alma mater in
Westwood to make great things happen for the Bruins. He vowed to
make UCLA’s baseball program respectable within a year, and in five
years they were ranked among the top five teams in the country. As
a coach, Adams merits a great deal of respect in his own right.
This season, he set a new UCLA record as the winningest head
baseball coach with 768 wins in his career. At the start of the
1996 season he was ranked 22nd on the all-time Division I win list
and 17th among active coaches. Now, Adams finds himself in the
regionals, just a few wins away from his first-ever World Series
appearance. But he claims that it’s not as important to him as it
is to his players. "It bothers me that the players want it and
haven’t tasted it," Adams said. "There’s always another year for
me." Many fans are hoping this will be the year for Gary Adams.