Peyton Manning would have a hard time fitting in with the 2017 Arizona baseball team.
Despite their College World Series appearance last spring and desire to return, the Wildcats aren’t running around yelling “Omaha!”
The players aren’t forbidden from saying the word. It just doesn’t come up very often in Jay Johnson’s program, even though last year’s experience there — in particular the final, gut-wrenching defeat — remains a fresh memory.
“You can’t play here if you don’t want to play in the College World Series,” Johnson said Wednesday, two days before Friday’s season opener against Eastern Kentucky. “There’s nobody on the planet that wants to be in the College World Series worse than me. It’s at the top of why we do what we do.
“With that being said, I’ve never been a believer that talking about it is going to bring you any closer to doing it. We want to focus on the things it’s going to take to improve and be successful, that will help move us in that direction.
“Our players want to be there. I want to be there. But we’re going to focus on how we’re going to get there.”
Johnson believes every season presents new and different challenges and that “each team needs its own identity, its own road map, its own purpose.” He and the other coaches will cite last year’s players as positive examples — how Kyle Lewis evolved into an important utility player or how starting pitcher Nathan Bannister approached every day with equal diligence. But as hard as it can be, especially for young people, to put the outcome aside, Johnson insists on focusing on the process. It’s the bedrock of his system.
“If yesterday has nothing to do with today, if the team that plays the best is the one that’ll win — not the best team — and if we’re going to play 56 Super Bowls, how can we possibly hang our hat on what happened last year?” pitching coach Dave Lawn said.
“It’s not like we hear a kid talk about it and tell him, ‘We don’t talk about that.’ We just don’t talk about it to the team.”
Viral video
Sawyer Gieseke did it again.
The senior utility player, whose comedic videos were a huge hit during the College World Series last year, released his latest creation Tuesday — and it went viral.
Numerous websites, ESPN and MLB Network picked up on the parody of the spring training arrival scene from the movie “Major League.” As of late Wednesday afternoon, it had been viewed more than 270,000 times on the athletic department’s YouTube and Facebook pages.
“It was unbelievable,” senior pitcher JC Cloney said. “To see how many people have already seen it is kind of crazy.
“Everyone knows Sawyer has the ability to produce a great piece like that. But I think he outdid himself.”
Gieseke, a film and television major, wrote, directed, edited and produced the video. It features UA coaches and players portraying characters from the 1989 classic, which was filmed at Hi Corbett Field. Freshman outfielder Matt Fraizer is Willie Mays Hayes. Sophomore pitcher Cody Deason is Ricky “Wild Thing” Vaughn. Johnson is gravelly voiced manager Lou Brown.
“That’s one of my all-time favorite movie characters,” Johnson said, adding: “There will be no more imitations for the rest of the season.”
“A scary deal”
Johnson’s hometown of Oroville, California, has been in the news in recent days because of concerns about flooding in and around the small town located an hour north of Sacramento.
Heavy rain forced officials to release water from Lake Oroville — the second-largest reservoir in California — through the spillway adjacent to the Oroville Dam. But the water damaged the spillway, and concerns about the rising level of the lake led to almost 200,000 people being evacuated in Oroville and surrounding areas, according to reports. Johnson’s father, Jerry, was among them.
“That’s a scary deal,” Jay Johnson said. “Living there and knowing the size of the lake, you know the magnitude of how bad that would be.
“I’m proud of the way they’re handling it. Now we just need the rain to stop up there.”
Johnson said his dad was able to return home Wednesday morning. However, rain is in the forecast each of the next several days.
Coach Morin
Arizona football player Matt Morin will not play for the baseball team this season, but he will be part of the squad.
Morin, a fifth-year senior, will be an undergraduate assistant coach, Johnson said. That will enable Morin to work out with the team. A powerful left-hander, Morin aspires to play pro ball.
“He has made an awesome impact on our team over the last month and a half,” Johnson said. “He has some baseball goals after this. Being around and learning more in that role will help him get closer to achieving those.”
Morin played tight end, quarterback and running back for the football team last season
Inside pitch
- The start time for Saturday’s Game 2 against Eastern Kentucky has been moved from 6 p.m. to 1 p.m. because of rain in the forecast.
- Cloney will start the season opener for the second straight year. The left-hander posted an 8-4 record with a 2.45 ERA last season, including 16 shutout innings in the College World Series.
- Junior right-hander Tylor Megill is scheduled to start Saturday. Megill transferred to Arizona from Cypress (Calif.) College. He pitched for Loyola Marymount as a freshman in 2015.
