By
Connor Doyle
When Jerry Stitt was fired or resigned from his post - depending on who you believe - as UA's head baseball coach nearly two weeks ago, the once-proud Arizona baseball tradition took another punch in the stomach.
Stitt, a man involved in Arizona baseball for the past 27 years, was known throughout the city, league and state as a "player's coach," commanding a great deal of loyalty from alumni and boosters. But apparently he didn't win enough - for whatever reason - and the UA athletic department decided it wanted a change of direction.
Actually, it wants Andy Lopez, the recently-fired coach at Florida.
Not only did the UA want him now, they wanted him five years ago. The department called Lopez in 1996, during the College World Series, to see if the former Pepperdine coach was interested in heading out west after just one year with the Gators.
Jerry Kindall, a legend in his own right, had just left the Wildcats to head up USA Baseball. They offered Lopez the job outright. He refused, and UA hired Kindall's hitting coach, Jerry Stitt.
So it wasn't all that surprising that Stitt was asked to resign only a week or so after Lopez was fired from the Florida job.
Of course, the athletic department is being coy right now when it comes to who will replace Stitt. But the general consensus is that it's Lopez's job if he wants it.
Thank goodness, too.
Anyone who looks over Lopez's bio without going slack-jawed is illiterate.
He won a national championship with Pepperdine in 1992. He rebuilt two Division I programs - Pepperdine and Florida - and managed to do so without running afoul of the NCAA. He passed on a major-league career to complete his education at UCLA because no one in his family had ever achieved a college degree; he was once a gang member in Los Angeles who had nearly been killed a couple of times at knifepoint, and managed to work his way out of the ghetto. Oh yeah, he's also active in the community and his church.
"The thing about Andy is that he seems too good to be true until you find out that he is true," said Augie Garrido, head coach of the Texas Longhorns, in 1995. "He is who he is. And what you see is pretty good."
Even the people at Florida still rave about this guy. One official who asked to remain anonymous described him as a "great guy."
Why was he fired, you ask? Lopez's recruiting base is in Southern California, not Florida. Apparently, the best players on last year's Florida team were all Californians, and the athletic department there decided it would prefer to have a coach with more of a Florida recruiting base.
The reason Florida let Lopez go may be the reason why UA wants him so badly. One of the main reasons the Wildcats have such problems competing in the Pacific 10 Conference is because they don't recruit California like USC, UCLA, and Stanford does.
Lopez might be able to change that.
Furthermore, the controversy surrounding Stitt's departure needs some salve, and Lopez might be able to provide that. The two coaches know and like each other, and it's not out of the question that Lopez might ask Stitt to stay on board as an assistant coach. This could solve a lot of problems - from stopping some of Stitt's recruits from walking away to keeping the program's donors happy.
It was said Stitt's strengths were his manner with players and his "old-school" approach to the game - Stitt abhorred backwards baseball caps, for one - and that placed him in high esteem with UA fans.
These seem to be the features most commonly attributed to Lopez as well.
"Coach Lopez showed a lot of trust in us," said one of his former players, Brad Wilkerson, in 1996 after the coach led them to the College World Series. "He told us as long as we work hard, no matter what we do, win or lose, it's going to be a good year for us, because he likes working with hard-working people. He set the tone early."
David Eckstein, a former Gator and currently an infielder for the Anaheim Angels, credits a lot of his success to Lopez' leadership.
"All my life, I've grown up in a disciplined home with my mom and dad, and when I came (to Florida), it was the same thing," Eckstein said. "The way coach Lopez runs the team is the way my family ran our house. You've got to be on time and do things right."
It would seem little will change from Stitt's tenure if Lopez is hired.
When reached last week, UA associate athletic director Kathleen "Rocky" LaRose outlined the perfect candidate. She said UA's next coach will be a proven winner at the Division I level, would need to stress both athletic and academic excellence and be an "all-around perfect person."
It would seem LaRose was making a point to describe Andy Lopez to the tee.
