June 11 ,2007

At Irvine, $99 Proves a Small Price for Success

By LEE JENKINS

IRVINE, Calif., June 5 — The 1999 student elections at the University of California Irvine included a referendum on baseball.

It was called the Spirit Fee Referendum, and under the terms on the ballot, students could agree to pay an extra $99 a year to help start a baseball program. Or they could save their money and go back to watching intramurals.

Baseball needed a 60 percent majority. Student athletes spearheaded the campaign. And on Election Day 1999, baseball won with 62 percent of the vote.

Eight years after that political victory, and five years after the first game, the Irvine Anteaters will play this weekend for a chance to go to the College World Series, proof that $99 can still stretch, even in a modern athletic department.

Everything at Anteater Ballpark looks as though it were built yesterday. The coaches just moved into their offices above the third-base line a couple of months ago. The display case in the V.I.P. room, meant for memorabilia, is empty.

“We didn’t really have much to put in there,” said Dave Serrano, the head coach. “Now, we can start filling it.”

Officially, Irvine started playing baseball in 1970. The university won two Division II World Series but disbanded its program in 1992 because of statewide budget cuts. The trophies and the game balls seemed to disappear with the bats and the gloves. All significant keepsakes have been collected in the past week — the lineup card from the first regional victory, the trophy from the first regional championship and the most outstanding player award from the first regional championship. The winner of that award, Taylor Holliday, started his college baseball career at Arizona State, the alma mater of Barry Bonds, Reggie Jackson and Jim Palmer. Then he transferred to Irvine, the alma mater of ... the former big-leaguer Brady Anderson.

College baseball is typically ruled by all the usual characters: Longhorns, Tigers, Seminoles, Hurricanes and Bulldogs. They gather every June in Omaha to crown a national champion. Somehow, Anteaters do not seem to fit into the club.

“I was definitely skeptical about that, too,” said Cody Cipriano, a senior infielder. “But you have to embrace the Anteater. You have to embrace the Zot.”

The Zot, as Cipriano explained, is the low-pitched sound made by an excitable anteater. Before Irvine takes the field, players in the dugout chant “Zot! Zot! Zot!” To complement the rally cry, they make a hand gesture in the shape of an anteater head. As a demonstration, Cipriano raised his pinkie and index fingers, while pressing his thumb to the bottom of his middle and ring fingers, forming the nose.

Last weekend, when Irvine played Texas in the regional, thousands of Texas fans were flashing their patented hook-’em-Horns sign. About 50 Irvine fans were making their anteater heads, which looked a lot like the horns. In a startling upset, Irvine beat Texas twice to advance.

After the decisive victory Monday, Serrano called over the team’s graduate assistant, Greg Wallis, and told him, “I’m glad you’re here right now.”

Wallis was the first player to commit to the program, back in 2001, when the team had not even played a game yet. The field was overrun with weeds, without an outfield fence and was used for soccer games.

Wallis had never heard of Irvine, but for some reason, he signed with the Anteaters, and 34 other young ballplayers followed him. Baseball America rated that first recruiting class No. 8 in the nation.

When Wallis returned from Texas on Monday night, he found one of those Savage-designed jerseys in the team’s clubhouse. He said he took it to a former teammate, Nash Robertson, along with a message: “You can wear this with pride now.”

The Anteaters have been contenders for a while. In 2002, billed as the inaugural season, they surprised college baseball by winning 33 games. In 2003, they disappointed themselves by winning only 21. And in 2004, they made their first Division I regional.

This weekend, while Irvine (43-15-1) plays a super-regional at Wichita State, Savage will coach U.C.L.A. at Cal State Fullerton. The two men most responsible for Anteater baseball — Savage and Dan Guerrero — are now Bruins.

Guerrero, the U.C.L.A. athletic director, was hired to lead the Irvine athletic department in 1992. During his introductory news conference, Guerrero was asked one question that he still remembers: Can you bring back baseball?

It seemed hopeless. Men’s sports were being eliminated more often than they were being added. But Guerrero, a former second baseman at U.C.L.A., believed it was possible to add baseball as long as he added two women’s sports at the same time. “We couldn’t just bring back the baseball program,” Guerrero said. “We had to do it right.”

The Spirit Fee Referendum of 1999 is remembered because of baseball. But it also helped establish the women’s water polo and women’s golf teams. The Anteaters were able to play hardball and still comply with Title IX.

Guerrero, who hired Savage as the head coach at U.C.L.A., can now daydream about the Bruins and the Anteaters meeting next week at the College World Series in Omaha. “That would be something, wouldn’t it?” Guerrero said.

Playing major college baseball in Southern California is an accomplishment in itself. U.S.C. has won 12 national championships. Cal State Fullerton has won four. San Diego State’s head coach is Tony Gwynn. U.C.L.A.’s most famous alumnus is Jackie Robinson. Pepperdine’s most famous booster is Pamela Anderson.

The Anteaters do not have any Hall of Fame alumni or celebrity fans. But they did persuade students to cough up an extra $99 a year. And that is something to Zot about.