The outfield wall at Hi Corbett Field is a thing of beauty. Itโs baseballโs version of a Christmas poem; the stockings were hung by the chimney with care. Itโs understated, uncluttered and unobtrusive.
The UAโs national championship banners and retired jersey numbers are perfectly spaced and unlike minor-league ballparks, the ad panels donโt have giant letters and wild colors that implore you to buy something.
If you are in the grandstands for the ongoing UA-ASU series about 7:30 Friday or Saturday night, at sunset, the setting will knock your socks off.
Better Homes and Gardens should send a photographer.
Most years, you wouldnโt start a story about the celebrated UA-ASU baseball series without anything other an updated perspective on the Road to Omaha or, maybe, a home run by Dustin Pedroia or Terry Francona.
But little of that applies now. The Wildcats and Sun Devils are โ whatโs a polite phrase to use here? โ not so good this season.
Arizona rallied to beat ASU 6-4 Thursday on, of all things, a bunt-gone-wrong and a catcherโs dropped ball. What does it mean? Both teams are 11-14 in the Pac-12, tied for seventh place.
Since ASU began what it calls โvarsity baseballโ in 1959, the one constant in the Territorial Cup battles โ more than the glorified football and basketball rivalries โ is that ASU and Arizona baseball teams expect to be good this year and next year and last year.
Their fans expect it, too.
Arizona State's Spencer Torkelson (20) celebrates his two-run homer during the fifth.
There has been no greater coaching rivalry in UA-ASU history โ any sport โ than Jim Brock vs. Jerry Kindall, and before that Bobby Winkles vs. Frank Sancet.
When the UA and ASU entered the Pac-10 in 1978, it was already a step ahead of UCLA-USC.
In the 1990s, Arizona pitching coach Dave Lawn filled a similar role at Cal, paired with Bears assistant coach Alan Regier, one of the key players on Arizonaโs 1980 national championship team.
โAlan filled me in pretty fast on how big of a deal (UA-ASU) is,โ Lawn says. โItโs as rabid a rivalry as Iโve been in.
โWhen I was at Nevada our rival was UNLV. Thatโs pretty rabid but not like this one. I was in the Cal-Stanford rivalry, but itโs not like this one. I was at USC and part of the USC-UCLA rivalry, but itโs not like this one. This one is about as heated as it gets.โ
This season the heat is more on Tracy Smith than anyone else.
On Thursday, you couldโve polled most of the 3,481 fans at Hi Corbett Field and stumped them with this question: Who is ASUโs baseball coach?
(Itโs Tracy Smith.)
Thatโs because the Sun Devils are 53-62 in the Pac-12 since Smith was hired away from Indiana in 2015. This is the first time in school history that ASU will have two consecutive losing seasons.
Pat Murphy โ the great UA agitator, a puffed up sort who coached ASU to Pac-10 championships in 2007, 2008 and 2009 โ we miss you.
Never thought Iโd type those words.
Arizona still has a chance to squeeze into the NCAA Tournament field, and that hope probably rests with sweeping the Sun Devils this weekend and winning two of three next week at Oregon. That would put Jay Johnsonโs team at 15-15 in the conference and 35-21 overall.
That would surely be a ticket to somewhere. It makes beating the Sun Devils even more meaningful.
What seems so different about ASU is that it starts just two players from the greater Phoenix area, and neither are as good as Arizona second baseman Cameron Cannon, a Phoenix Mountain Ridge High grad who entered Thursdayโs game hitting .321 with 47 RBI.
Smith did not recruit Cannon, whose final choice was Arizona or Grand Canyon. For ASU to regain its long-time excellence, it will again have to dominate the Phoenix market, one that the UAโs Johnson refers to as โhugeโ and either โNo. 1 or 1-A most important for us.โ
Arizona has periodically signed a difference-maker from Phoenix, from Hank Leiber to Jerry Stitt and Pat OโBrien in the old days, and, more recently, to Scott Kingery and Nathan Bannister.
But not many.
It was always ASU that showed up with a hometown star like Bob Horner or Ike Davis to make the rivalry what it is.
This yearโs two leading Arizona prospects signed with Johnson. Mountain Ridge lefty Matthew Liberator, who went 17-2 in his prep career and is ranked among the Top 10 prospects for next monthsโ draft, and Sandra Day OโConnor third baseman Nolan Gorman, also a top 10-type prospect who hit 32 home runs in high school, chose UA over ASU.
Itโs highly unlikely Liberatore or Gorman will play college baseball. Lawn refers to their potential signing bonuses as โlife-changingโ money.
But if nothing else, it proves that Johnson, who is 118-65 in three short years, and is 8-4 against the Sun Devils with a five-game winning streak, is working effectively toward adding another banner to that beautiful outfield wall.
