Long Beach State 49ers Baseball - History - 2002-10: Validation, The Weathers Era

2002-10: Validation, The Weathers Era

Dave Snow’s powerful legacy remained with the Dirtbags program even after his retirement. Immediately after Snow’s departure, LBSU athletic director Bill Shumard confirmed that Snow’s longtime assistant Mike Weathers would take over as head coach. Weathers, who had known Snow since the pair’s playing days at Cerritos College in the late ‘60s, had previously served as head coach at Utah and Chapman College before spending the last 9 seasons working under Snow at LBSU. Having served as associate head coach the year before, the veteran Weathers sought to utilize his vast coaching experience to maintain the level of success that Snow had established before him.

Weathers did not disappoint. In his first year after taking the reins from Snow, the Dirtbags didn’t skip a beat as they cruised to a 39-21 overall record and an at-large bid to the NCAA Tournament. This turned out to be the first of an impressive 7-year run for the team, where from 2002-'08 the Dirtbags never finished worse than 2nd in the conference and only once ended with fewer than 37 wins. 6 of those 7 seasons also saw the Dirtbags earn a berth in the NCAA Tournament.

Perhaps most impressive about Weather’s tenure was the amount of major league talent produced by him and his coaching staff. Despite the fact that LBSU by now commanded a respectable baseball reputation, the limited budget afforded to the state-funded school often forced the Dirtbags staff to focus on recruiting and developing prospects that were overlooked by other schools. One such case was Jered Weaver, who was dismissed by many scouts on the belief that he was more cut out for basketball than baseball. But Weaver went on to have a fine career as a Dirtbag, and his 2004 junior season became the most decorated for a single player in school history, netting him his second consecutive first team All-America selection while also winning (among other honors) the Dick Howser Trophy, the Roger Clemens Award, and the Golden Spikes Award.

An even more dramatic example of prospect development was Evan Longoria, who (being widely regarded as too scrawny to compete for a Division 1 program) received no scholarship offers at all out of high school. Undeterred, Longoria enrolled at Rio Hondo Community College and played for one season, after which he was finally offered a scholarship at Long Beach State. Longoria would spend the next two seasons as the starting third baseman for the Dirtbags, and by the end of his junior year at LBSU, diligent hard work and expert instruction had transformed him into an imposing physical specimen who was described by various media outlets as the "top position player" and "best pure hitter" available in the 2006 draft. That year Longoria became the highest-drafted player in school history (3rd overall), which also marked the third straight year that Long Beach State had a player selected in the first round of the draft (Weaver went 12th in 2004, and Troy Tulowitzki 7th in 2005).

Predictably, the rivalry between the Dirtbags and the Cal State Fullerton Titans continued as heated as ever under Weathers; the annual season-ending series between the two teams more often than not decided the conference championship. From 2002-’08, the two rivals flexed their muscle in the Big West by combining to win 6 more conference titles (1 shared). In fact in the 20 seasons from 1989-2008, 17 ended with either the Dirtbags or the Titans being crowned Big West champions.

Unfortunately, immediately after capturing the 2008 Big West title, the Dirtbags saw the conference power balance tip decidedly against them. It started in the offseason, when LBSU lost 11 players to the 2008 draft, making it the largest draft class in school history and one that featured several star players, including All-Americans Shane Peterson and Andrew Liebel. Ultimately the Dirtbags proved unable to compensate for such a mass exodus of talent, and they fell into a major slump as they skidded to a 25-29 overall record in 2009, their first losing record in over two decades. The team’s funk deepened in 2010 as they finished 23-32, dead last in the Big West for the first time in 22 years. Perhaps even more embarrassing was the fact the Dirtbags lost each of their 7 meetings with the arch-rival Titans over that two-year span.

On May 11, 2010 (two weeks before the close of the season), Weathers announced that he would be retiring at season’s end. “There needed to be a change and new energy in the program, because it hasn't been going great the last couple years,” Weathers said. “I've been doing this for 32 years, and so it's time. It can give somebody else a chance, and there's no hard feelings.” Weathers was remembered by CSULB President F. King Alexander as "an outstanding leader of the program and a great representative of the university." Weathers left LBSU with the second most conference championships and postseason appearances to his name, as well as the second-highest winning percentage in school history (all behind his predecessor and mentor Dave Snow). Weathers also had coached the most Big West Players/Pitchers of the Year (6) and the most future MLB draft picks (56) of any coach in school history at the time of his retirement.

Following Weathers’s retirement announcement, the Dirtbags lost 9 of their last 10 games in 2010.