Former Tennessee baseball coach Rod Delmonico will remain at Florida State after a two-week search ended with UC Irvine going with a more familiar face to fans in Southern California.
Mike Gillespie told The Daily Pilot he is awaiting approval from the University of California Board of Regents to officially start his new job.
Gillespie, 67, coached at USC from 1987 to 2006 and took the Trojans to the College World Series four times, including 1998, when they won the national title. He retired with a 763-471-2 record.
Delmonico, who is a volunteer assistant for the Seminoles, was fired in June after 18 seasons with the Vols.
Gillespie spent last season coaching a Class A team in the New York Yankees' organization.
He is replacing Dave Serrano, who in June guided Irvine to its first College World Series appearance. The former UT pitching coach left to take over at Cal State Fullerton, his alma mater, after George Horton left Fullerton to head the new program at Oregon.
Gillespie's top assistant at Irvine is expected to be Pat Shine, a former UC Irvine and UCLA assistant under John Savage. Shine is the coach at Division II Cal State L.A., and he is expected to be groomed by Gillespie to eventually take over the reins of the Irvine program.
Also interviewed were Hawaii coach Mike Trapasso and Indiana State coach Lindsay Meggs.
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Comments » 7
vol4jesus writes:
Hey Cr__ there you go again.......Bachman Turner Overdrive song line said," let it ride..." Your new name is going to be 'Bash Brother.' All I see is tearing down . Never building up. Delmonico can watch son play at FSU. He isn't hurting for money probably. How much did we have to pay?
Voldemort writes:
No brainer call on Irvine's part. Why would CWS program hire Delmonico?
FWBVol writes:
The most curious thing about this isn't neccesarily why Delmonico didn't get the job as I'm sure there were more than two people that interviewed for it, but why hire a 67-year old coach? It makes no sense at all to bring in someone who is already retirement age, and will be 70 before this year's freshmen are seniors.
GreerVol22 writes:
Well, at least Buzz, Jerry , and Delmonico were not overweight when they left. Just looking for bright side in this story...eh 4 jesus?
buford writes:
Kinda funny he is still a "volunteer" Is he taking his error prone sone with him? I believe that was his un-doing. It was obvious he didn't belong on a college team.
vol4jesus writes:
thnx grrreerVol22 for that 'happy' note. Ewe chose not to tear down those tongue in cheek. Jerry may have been slightly over desired weight for his age. Delmonico might be looking for job to try and show UT they made a mistake in firing him.
Feared_Mustang_Package writes:
Also, I'm guessing they took the old guy because it looks like he has a good name around the California baseball scene. Why would they want some guy that has spent 20 plus years on the East Coast being average, except when he had a ridiclious amount of talent on his team.
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