Long Beach State 49ers baseball
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| Long Beach State 49ers | |
| Founded: 1954 | |
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| University | California State University, Long Beach |
|---|---|
| Conference | Big West |
| Location | Long Beach, CA |
| Head Coach | Mike Weathers (7th year) |
| Home Stadium | Blair Field (Capacity: 3,238) |
| Nickname | Dirtbags |
| Colors | Black and Gold
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| CWS Appearances | |
| 1989, 1991, 1993, 1998 | |
| NCAA Tournament Appearances | |
| 1989, 1991, 1992, 1993, 1994, 1995, 1996, 1997, 1998, 1999, 2001, 2002, 2003, 2004, 2005, 2007, 2008 | |
| Conference Champions | |
| 1964, 1969, 1970, 1989, 1992, 1993, 1994, 1996, 1997, 2003, 2008 | |
The Long Beach State 49ers Baseball team is the college baseball program that represents California State University, Long Beach. Unlike all other Long Beach State sports teams, since 1989 the baseball team has unofficially gone by the name The Dirtbags.
Long Beach State has competed in the NCAA Division I Big West Conference (BWC, formerly the PCAA) since 1970. Before becoming a founding member of the BWC, LBSU participated in the Division II California Collegiate Athletic Association (CCAA) from 1957-1969, and before that spent three years as an independent team.
The Long Beach State baseball team gained national prominence in 1989, with the hiring of Dave Snow as head coach. Since then The Dirtbags have been one of the strongest teams on the West Coast, being consistently ranked in the national top 25 and appearing in 17 of the last 20 NCAA tournaments (through 2008).
The Dirtbags currently play their home games at Blair Field, a semi-professional baseball facility located less than 2 miles from campus and operated by the city of Long Beach.
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[edit] History
[edit] 1954-59: Formation, The McConell Era
In 1954, when John McConnell agreed to coach the first ever baseball team at the new Long Beach State College, he faced adversity from the start. For one thing, McConnell was a cross country runner, not a baseball player. For another, the school didn't even have a field of its own, so the team was forced to survive without one by holding practices on the public field at adjacent Whaley Park. What's more, all of the team's games were played on the road until the very end of the season, when the school's field was finally completed. Another problem the fledgling program faced was a lack of players: the entire roster consisted of just 14 players at the start of the year. In the end, these unfavorable conditions resulted in lackluster performance and a modest 3-13 record for the 1954 season.
But McConnell stuck with the team, determined to make the most of the school's limited resources and produce a winning program. McConnell's task seemed almost impossible though, with a minuscule operating budget of about $3000, no athletic scholarships, and a still limited roster (utilizing a 3-man pitching rotation). But in spite of the circumstances, the young 49ers managed to produce two outstanding seasons in 1955 and '56, with records of 17-4 and 18-6 respectively.
However, the young team's incredible progress was checked in 1957 when Long Beach State was admitted into the NCAA's Division II. After three years of being an independent team, the increased level of competition in the CCAA meant it was all the 49ers could do to produce a winning record. At the end of the 1959 season, after struggling through three straight years of mediocrity and a 48-42 cumulative record in NCAA play, John McConnell stepped down as coach of the Long Beach State baseball team. But because of his impressive academic record (50 of his 57 players graduated), he stayed on as a staff member in the P.E. department.
[edit] 1960-69: Belonging, The Wuesthoff Era
Dick Clegg took over the reigns of the program after McConnell's departure, and almost immediately he appeared capable of taking the 49ers to heights that his predecessor had been unable to. The team finished the 1960 season with a promising 20-14 overall record and a 9-6 mark in CCAA play for a third place finish in the conference, and there seemed reason to hope that the future held even brighter things for the 49ers baseball program. But unfortunately Clegg was unable to reproduce the success of his first season with the club, and under his guidance the 49ers failed to garner another winning season. Clegg's teams accumulated a disappointing 32-65-1 record over the next three years, including an abysmal 6-25-1 record in 1963. This lack of production led to Clegg's dismissal following the '63 season.
True success came when the program hired Bob Wuesthoff in 1964. In Wuesthoff's first year as head coach, the 49ers rebounded with style from the previous year's meltdown by going 31-13 and earning the program's first conference championship. This time, the first-year optimism did not give way to letdown.
Under Wuesthoff, the 49ers finished with a winning record in each of his six years as skipper at Long Beach State, accumulated a 161-101-4 (.605) overall record, and never finished worse than third in the conference. By the time the 49ers won their second CCAA title in 1969, Wuesthoff was already the most successful coach in Long Beach State's short sports history. But changes came to the program in 1970, when Long Beach State was admitted to the NCAA's Division I. One of those changes, and perhaps the most significant one, came when Wuesthoff announced that he would not return for the 1970 season.
