Sun Devils back in title contention
TEMPE, Ariz. – Arizona State baseball coach Pat Murphy took a break from a rambling, hour-long news conference this week to address the half-dozen cameramen recording the proceedings from the back of the room.
“You camera guys have got to be bored to death,” Murphy said. “You’re used to covering, like, big stuff. Not some guy with a dirty shirt on that hasn’t showered.”
The 48-year-old Murphy is as unpolished as a batting-practice ball, and he’s been an acquired taste for some of the program’s followers. But Murphy and the fifth-seeded Sun Devils will be big stuff if they win their first national title since 1981.
The Sun Devils open the College World Series against UC-Irvine Saturday at Omaha’s Rosenblatt Stadium. ASU (48-13) is 5-0 in the postseason after sweeping the regionals and super regionals on its home field.
Murphy is the third coach in the program’s history.
With 528 career victories, he recently moved past Bobby Winkles into second place behind the late Jim Brock, who won 1,110 games.
Winkles won three national titles and Brock two, including that one in 1981.
Now it’s Murphy’s turn, and this may be his best team. But he insists a national title won’t change the way he looks at himself.
“I go down the street tomorrow and rob a 7-11, that’s going to be my legacy,” Murphy said. “That’s my choice. I’m just going to keep doing what I’m doing, and whatever other people feel my legacy is about, if there is such a thing, that’s their opinion. It’s none of my business. I know who I am.”
Murphy’s job security doesn’t hinge on what happens in Omaha. Last summer, Arizona State extended his contract through 2011 at an annual salary of $272,424.
Murphy concedes that’s he not the same man who arrived in Tempe in August 1994, full of bluster after resurrecting Notre Dame’s program, compiling a 318-116-1 (.732) record with the Fighting Irish.
“I was a donkey when I came here,” Murphy said. “I didn’t know what I was doing. I had won a lot of baseball games and I had been in a big situation, but I certainly made tons of mistakes.”
One may have been to point out that college baseball’s playing field has leveled since the days of Winkles and Brock. Longtime fans, accustomed to annual trips to Omaha, didn’t want to hear that.
Murphy touched on the subject again this week, noting that it was “special” to take two teams to Omaha in a three-year span. He also led ASU to the College World Series in 1998.
“I think 20 years ago, or 30 years ago, it was kind of like softball is now,” said Murphy. “You know the 15 teams that have got a chance. No disrespect to softball in any way. You’ve still got to go, and you’ve still got to be good. But there’s 15 teams that are legit.
“In baseball now, there’s 150 teams that are legit and could win it at any time. And that’s what makes it special – to go two years out of three. It makes it special because it’s tough.”