Except that Knutson never got the kids to stay home. As they say about recruiting, before you can win the battles on the field, you have to win the battles in the living room. I can’t imagine what parent would entrust Knutson to mentor his/her child for four years. It was well known around the program that if a player wasn’t starting by his sophomore year, Knutson would chase him off. There was no loyalty to the kids after two years, unless he was starting or a top reserve.

It’s well-known among the so-called “Olympic Sports” (i.e., non revenue generating sports) that coaches are responsible for leading the charge of raising the supporting funds for his/her respective team. It was thought in 1997, when the current ballpark was built, that a local, prominent Seattle home builder was going to donate $5M to fund the completion of the ballpark and have it named in his family’s honor, much like the UW’s Nordstrom Tennis Center. Word was that a pissing match ensued (with Hedges at the helm? imagine that…) and he simply decided to pass on donating the funds.

Knutson, however, simply has neither the personality nor the presence of a Pat Casey (Oregon St.), Mark Marquess (Stanford), Mike Montgomery (USC), or Pat Murphy (ASU) to make any impact. Even Donnie Marbut at WSU, an undeniable blowhard with a checkered history of integrity (see his fiasco at Edmonds Community College before moving to WSU) has surpassed Knutson for presence in the state of Washington. Ugly.

The simple fact of the matter is that UW’s Baseball facility is hands-down the worst in the Pac 10, and a complete embarrassment for a BCS conference school. Long-term success would never happen under Knutson, and the funding was never going to pick up if he remained at the helm. He should have been gone YEARS ago.

Don’t get me wrong, I love Husky Softball and who doesn’t especially after winning a NC. But they started with a first class brand new venue.

Players looking elsewhere after a coaching change is normal. Remember, this team is a sub-.500 squad as it stands and hasn’t made the NCAA’s since W was still a first-term president, so we’re not talking about anything earth-shaking. If memory serves, it’s been 10+ years since they even qualified for a Super-Regional. Frankly, I’d prefer that the new coach has a chance to bring in his own players as quickly as possible.

Pat Casey’s staff from the National Championship runs has largely moved on. The “must get” from that staff was Associate Head Coach Dan Spencer, who got his dream job when he was named Head Coach at his alma mater, Texas Tech, in 2008. His top assistant now is a 54 year-old career Division III guy from a tiny school outside Portland, while his #2 assistant has never worked outside the Western OR area.

That is, not through official channels, only on the reader-boards. I saw the original mock-ups of the combined soccer/baseball complex back in 1995, and that is how the fields were designed. I don’t believe it’s possible to incorporate the track complex at this point, as the footprint simply isn’t large enough. The soccer stadium would have to be rotated 90 degrees, and I truly double the Athletic Dept. would take on such a cost.

…I still want to know where the track is going to go. This baseball stadium issue is long over due. I remember seeing what they wanted for naming rights and I just thought “good luck getting that”. I can’t remember now how much it was but I thought it was way more than what it should have been. But then again, what do I know?!