Sports column from 6/23/2017 Omaha, Nebraska,
World-Herald daily newspaper (click on URL link below or scroll down to read
text)
Posted here is Wildcatville photo of Ad Rutschman taken 5/19/2017 in Corvallis at OSU baseball facility.
BASEBALL
Chatelain:
Mike Riley’s mentor’s grandson starring in two sports for Oregon State
Column by Dirk Chatelain/
World-Herald staff writer
Jun 23, 2017 Updated Jun 24, 2017
Against
his will, the legendary coach got a new cellphone last week. His kids made him
do it — “I lost the vote.”
Ad
Rutschman’s old model was pretty simple. He pushed send to make a call and send
to answer a call. Now there’s voicemail and texting and all sorts of stuff,
which is a good thing because long-lost friends and ex-players have been trying
to compliment him.
“I
cannot believe the phone calls that I’m getting,” said Rutschman, 85. “I had a
phone call from one of my high school teammates that I haven’t seen in probably
50 years. … (Tuesday) morning I had 12 messages and I’m just learning to use
the dang cellphone.”
What’s
all the fuss about?
Rutschman’s
grandson is making quite a name for himself (and grandpa) at the College World
Series. The Beavers lost 3-1 to LSU on Friday, but it wasn’t the fault of
19-year-old Adley. The freshman catcher threw out two Tigers trying to steal.
The
second play was a jaw-dropper. Rutschman scooped a pitch out of the dirt,
shuffled his feet and fired to second to nail Cole Freeman with breath to
spare.
“Goodness,
that’s some kind of arm,” analyst Kyle Peterson told the ESPN audience. “This
Oregon State coaching staff is raving about Adley Rutschman. Offensively,
there’s still some steps to be taken, but this is a big league-ready arm right
now.”
Grandpa
Ad was watching in McMinnville, Oregon, where he was helping out at a Linfield
College football camp.
“They
haven’t fired me yet,” Rutschman said.
They
wouldn’t dare. Linfield is where Rutschman became an NAIA icon. He’s the only
college coach — at any level — to win national championships in baseball (1971)
and football (’82, ’84 and ’86).
The
first of those football titles came with a young defensive coordinator from
Corvallis. You may have heard of him.
Mike
Riley.
Riley’s
first paid coaching job was at Linfield. He arrived in 1977 and stayed six
years. Rutschman became his mentor.
“He’s
actually the best teacher of sports technique that I’ve ever been around,”
Riley told me in 2015.
“He taught guys how to play.
“How
to hit, how to field, how to pitch, how to drive block, how to backpedal. He
could teach it all. He was one guy in football that could coach any position.
To this day, I admire that. There’s not many guys like that. I don’t claim to
be that guy.”
In
those days, Linfield coaches juggled multiple duties. Rutschman was the
football coach, baseball coach and athletic director — he taught three classes,
too. Riley assisted Rutschman in all three areas. He was Linfield’s junior
varsity baseball coach. His wife, Dee, kept the scorebook.
“There
wasn’t much of a crowd,” said Rutschman, who retired from full-time coaching in
1991. “And there wasn’t much publicity.”
(Nebraska’s
connections with Linfield don’t stop with Riley. John Cook spent his first year
of college in McMinnville before transferring home to San Diego; he remembers
Rutschman. Same goes for Danny Langsdorf, who played quarterback for Linfield
in 1994-95.)
So
where does young Adley come into the picture? Ad Rutschman’s son Randy was a
catcher on the ’71 national championship team. Randy became a coach himself —
and the father of a spirited son.
You
should’ve seen their Little League practices. Ad showed up an hour early to
watch Randy drill the fundamentals. Adley couldn’t get enough.
“My
golly, every time you turned around, he was after Randy to go someplace and
hit,” Ad said.
That
included Oregon State, where Randy aided the baseball program with catching
instruction. No wonder Adley wanted to be a Beaver.
Baseball
wasn’t his only gift. His senior year of high school, Adley drilled a 63-yard
field goal in a playoff game.
One
major-conference coach inquired about his football interest. Adley describes it
like this:
“My
high school football coach called me in his office one day and we were talking
about stuff.
“At
the very end, he’s like, ‘Oh, I forgot to tell you that about a week and a half
ago, Mike Riley called me about you. I just told him that you’re gonna play
baseball. Is that all right with you?’
“I
was like, ‘Yeah, sure. I kinda wish you would’ve told me.’ ”
But
Adley had already committed to Oregon State and he wasn’t backing out. He
intended to play only baseball in college. Then last summer Gary Andersen
invited him to fall camp. Rutschman won the kickoff job.
He
experienced Husky Stadium in Seattle and the Rose Bowl in Pasadena. At
Stanford, he kicked to Christian McCaffrey.
Grandpa
laughs about that one. In the fourth quarter, Adley pooched to McCaffrey,
tackled him at the 37-yard line, then helped him up.
“I
got tackled by the kicker?” McCaffrey told him. They patted each other on the
butt.
“I
can’t believe the experience he’s having as a freshman in college,” Ad said.
The
past week is hard to beat. Adley’s starting for the No. 1 team in the country.
Throwing out runners at second base. It was a thrill playing at the Rose Bowl,
but the pressure-cooker of TD Ameritrade Park is “unlike anything I’ve ever
experienced.” His grandpa feels it, too.
“It’s
so doggone exciting I can hardly wait from one ballgame to the next,” Ad said.
Who
knows how far Adley goes from here? He may be kicking field goals for Oregon
State this fall. He may be in the big leagues one day, just like Kyle Peterson
said. But it’s going to be hard to match the legacy of his namesake.
“The
dude’s in seven Hall of Fames,” Adley said.
That’s
true, but Grandpa never won in Omaha.
