April 2, 2007

By Glenn Tanner

Special to CSTV.com

	Glenn Tanner Glenn Tanner reports from Big 12 country. E-mail here!

        ---   Column Archive   --- BASEBALL 6/7: Really Poor Indicator 6/6: College Baseball's Poster Child 5/29: Road to Omaha Traffic Report 5/14: Triplet Towers of Texas 4/30: The Revolution Begins 4/23: SEC Fans Show True Obsession 3/26: Aces In The Pen 3/12: Role of David Fits Lipscomb Just Fine 2/19: Jacks Are Wild 2/12: Miracle On The Prairie 1/27: Filling Huge Shoes 1/17: New Names on the Blackboard 1/15: Double Duty Domination FOOTBALL 8/21: Rebuilding and Reloading in Austin 8/20: Rough Road Ahead For A&M 3/31: Revelations In Austin 1/1: Auburn Awakens 12/2: Just Like Old Times 11/24: Believin' In Stephen 11/11: Another Thriller in College Station 11/4: Oklahoma Runs All Night 10/14: Good Bull For A&M 10/7: Fun Day At The Fair For Texas 9/23: Taking Care of Business, Again 9/2: Life After Vince SOFTBALL 5/20: A&M Makes The Hard Way Look Easy 5/19: Houston Stuns Texas A&M 5/18: Twin Killing For Cougars

Working hard has always been a lifestyle for Oregon State head coach Pat Casey.

After his eight-year minor league career ended, Casey took on double-duty at George Fox University - he was not only the NAIA school's head baseball coach, he was also a student, taking classes in his spare time to complete the degree that he had begun at the University of Portland. 

As if that weren't enough, coach Casey really showed his willingness to work hard by playing.  Playing on the George Fox University varsity basketball team, that is.

"When I came back and took the baseball job, the basketball coach remembered that I had played a year of Division I basketball and asked me to come out," Casey recounted.  "I said, `Man, I have two kids and I've got work to do.'  But a week later, I decided to try it and it was a great experience, but it took everything I had to get that 28-year-old body up and down the court."

Casey got that older body up and down the court well enough to be named to the NAIA District 2 First Team in 1989, and he also found success on the diamond.  Casey produced seven consecutive winning seasons at a program that hadn't finished over .500 since 1974. 

So it should come as no surprise that the hard-working Casey has had success at Oregon State.  The level of success he has achieved, however, is stunning. 

Oregon State shocked everyone by making the 2005 College World Series, and then shocked them even more by returning to Omaha and winning it all last season.  Even that success, however, didn't eliminate the skeptics, and the Beavers have had to prove themselves again so far this season.

After losing four All-Americans from last year's squad, this year's team was greeted by a slap in the face - most preseason polls weren't very high on the defending champs.  Collegiate Baseball magazine didn't even have the Beavers ranked in the Top 40 of its pre-season poll.

But in spite of a grueling schedule that began with 17 consecutive road games, the team reeled off 22 wins in its first 25 games.  Collegiate Baseball for one has recognized its mistake - the Beavers were ranked second in last week's poll.

The incredible rise of Oregon State's baseball program that culminated in a dogpile at Rosenblatt Stadium last June sounds more like a fictionalized Disney sports movie than reality.  But the recipe for that success is no secret - get yourself a great baseball coach who refuses to let anyone outwork him and a group of players who will buy into his philosophy. 

"There are going to be years when you're developing kids and you aren't going to be as strong, and we're developing kids right now, but we're fortunate to have the right guys back from last year's club," admitted Casey.  "The one thing our guys try to do is, those guys at the top, they say `Here's how we do it at Oregon State, here's what we expect, and I'm going to teach you that.'  It has helped us, because we've raised the bar."

Casey says that one of the keys to his team's success is balance, that his team doesn't have to rely on a superstar to win.  The Beavers, however, clearly have a leader on the field and in the clubhouse.  Junior first baseman Mitch Canham leads the team with a big bat and an even bigger heart. 

"He's phenomenal," Casey said of Canham.  "I think we have the best leader in the country.  I would find it hard to imagine that someone is a better leader on and off the field than Mitch Canham for a college athletic team.  He has always been a strong-willed kid, always been a great student, always been a good kid, always had leadership skills, but last year was his breakout year, and as a sophomore he was a little bit young but gave us great leadership last year.  Then with Kevin Gunderson and Cole Gillespie leaving, the two guys who gave us great leadership last year, we figured he was the guy who would step up, and he has done a fabulous job."

Canham is also leading with his bat.  After hitting .299 as a sophomore, Canham is flirting with .400 and also leads his team in homers, on-base percentage, and slugging percentage.  Not surprisingly, Canham attributes much of his improvement to hard work, and he has helped his teammates buy into it, too.

"We're working on a tradition of busting our tails in the offseason, because that's where championships are won," Canham said.  "The work you do in the fall, the bonding as a team, the winter workouts...those things are important so that when the season starts, you're comfortable and you're relaxed because you've already put in the work."

Being a part of a national championship team gives Canham and his teammates even more reason to be comfortable and relaxed in pressure situations.

"For me and a lot of the other guys, that's a huge confidence booster," Canham told me.  "Every time I step on the field, I know what my team and I have accomplished.  I'm relaxed every time I'm on the field.  I've played in front of 26,000 people; I can do this.  I don't really even notice the crowd or anything any more.  I'm out there to play."

Canham ought to notice the crowds in Corvallis, because the program's success has Goss Stadium bursting at its seams. 

 "We sold out our season tickets on the first morning they were available," beamed Casey.  "We've got a five million dollar project going on right now to expand the stadium.  We were getting over 4,000 last year for our regional and super regional and couldn't get everybody in, and we completely sold out the first two series we had this year.  People were standing outside the gates who couldn't get in, so we brought in more bleachers until we can get this expansion done.  The following has just been fantastic."

Oregon State's season hit a real speed bump over the weekend when they lost three in a row to Arizona, but there's no doubt how the Beavers will respond.  They'll head back to Corvallis and simply resume their hard work.