On Monday, the East Valley (Ariz.) Tribune reported alleged violations in the Arizona State baseball program.
The scandal has all the usual seedy aspects which sports fans are probably used to these days, what with the Roger Clemens circus taking center stage on Capitol Hill.
A former Sun Devils player, Mikel Moreno, made the allegations. Moreno told the Tribune that he reported serious academic fraud and recruiting violations to the school in January.
Moreno played on the Sun Devils’ 1998 College World Series team, and served as a graduate manager for the team last season. The team’s head coach, Pat Murphy, referred to Moreno as a “disgruntled employee” who “wants to take the program down,” in an interview with the Associated Press Tuesday. The school has opened its own investigation with the help of an Indiana-based law firm.
Moreno told an Arizona radio station that the allegations are “just the tip of the iceberg.”
Arizona State is currently the No. 6 ranked baseball team in the nation according to Baseball America, and experts predicted that the Sun Devils would challenge No. 3 UCLA and No. 1 Arizona for the Pac-10 Championship this season.
But this story is about more than wins and losses.
Arizona State has historically had one of the best baseball programs in the country. The program has won five national championships and sent many players to Major League Baseball, including Barry Bonds.
Murphy is one of the game’s most accomplished managers. He has coached at Arizona State since 1994 and has won two Pac-10 Coach of the Year awards in that time. The Sun Devils are one of the dominant West Coast teams that have long stood in the way of the Bruin program
While this scandal may or may not change that, it does show how competitive recruiting can be in collegiate baseball, where players can go from high school straight to the minor leagues, or spend one year at junior college before becoming draft eligible.
This story should also remind Bruin fans how lucky they are to have John Savage as their head coach. Not only has Savage completely revived a UCLA program that had sputtered under long-time coach Gary Adams, he’s maintained a blemish-free program. Unlike the Sun Devils, the Bruins have been in the news because of their remarkable ascension on the field (the team was ranked No. 1 and featured in Baseball America’s college preview), not their escapades off the diamond.
Moreno’s allegations could lead to a huge scandal for Arizona State. They could tear down one of the sport’s biggest names.
Or, they might be a blip on the radar. They could easily go unnoticed; it’s not exactly big news anymore to hear about an athlete or a team cheating to get an advantage. If that is in fact what happened at Arizona State ““ and it’s much too early to tell right now ““ it might not bring the program down. Murphy has a lot of experience and the Arizona State athletic department has dealt with plenty of impropriety in the past, like the 1997 point-shaving scandal that rocked the basketball program.
My take on it is that UCLA faithfuls should just be happy that this type of thing isn’t a frequent occurrence in Westwood.
As for what consequences Arizona State should face if the allegations are confirmed, I just don’t know.
In the immortal words of Brian McNamee: It is what it is.
E-mail Allen at sallen@media.ucla.edu if you support the “parliamentary inquiry” into the origins of the phrase “It is what it is,” suggested by Rep. Mark Souder (R-IN) at the Clemens’ hearing.