Major League Baseball Hall of Famer and current San Diego State head baseball coach Tony Gwynn signs an autograph for Patty Nyikos Friday just before the 51s took on the Sacramento River Cats at Cashman Field.
Saturday, June 26, 2010 | 2:05 a.m.
If it were up to baseball legend and San Diego State coach Tony Gwynn, Utah would not be leaving the Mountain West Conference for the Pac-10.
Utah accepted an invitation two weeks ago and will begin play in the new league in the fall of 2011 — a significant blow to the Mountain West’s aspirations of securing an automatic bid to a lucrative football Bowl Championship Series game.
But for Gwynn and his baseball-coaching peers, losing Utah will hurt because it will bring the Mountain West from seven schools that play baseball to six.
The Mountain West has nine members, including San Diego State and UNLV, but Wyoming and Colorado State don’t have baseball programs. Also, Air Force’s baseball program is one of the weakest in Division I.
Gwynn, the Major League Baseball Hall of Famer who has been the head coach at his alma mater since 2003, is worried the strides the league has made the last two years could be negated by only having six teams.
Boise State of the Western Athletic Conference accepted an invitation to the join the Mountain West three weeks ago, but it also doesn’t field a baseball team.
“For us baseball coaches you kind of wonder how it is going to play out,” Gwynn said Friday during an autograph-session at Cashman Field prior to the Las Vegas 51s Triple-A game against the Sacramento River Cats.
“Football is the engine that drives the train and the decisions were made because of that.”
Gwynn still feels the league is on the rise — three teams qualified for the NCAA Regional two years ago and Texas Christian is playing this week in the College World Series.
Gwynn said part of the quality is at UNLV, where he expects new coach Tim Chambers to return the Rebels to a perennial league contender.
Gwynn had three players from the Las Vegas Valley on his roster this spring and regularly recruits in Southern Nevada. He praised the area for its quality youth baseball.
“The guys we get from here already know how to play the game,” Gwynn said. “With that said, getting those guys to (San Diego State) just got a lot tougher with Chambers at UNLV.”
The six-team format, where each school would play 30 league games, or three home and three road contests against each of the other five schools, doesn’t exactly scream quality.
The Mountain West coaches will gather for their annual meeting this August, but Gwynn knows there isn’t much that can be done. He said adding schools to the league strictly for baseball has been previously discussed, but likely not a possibility.
Asked if he could use his celebrity to help the league’s quest, Gwynn said, “I’m just the baseball coach at San Diego State.”
It’s that kind of humble attitude that made Gwynn a popular big leaguer. He played his entire 20-year career with the San Diego Padres, and with a .338 career average and 3,141 hits, is widely considered one of the game’s best hitters.
He signed autographs and posed for pictures with hundreds of fans for an hour prior to the 51s game. He also threw out the first pitch.
Patty Nyikos, a Las Vegas resident originally from Indiana, got an autograph as a birthday present for her son.
“I’m from the Midwest. We are classy people, just like (Gwynn),” she said.
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