Arizona's Terry Francona hits during the West Regional against Gonzaga in May, 1980. UA won the 1980 College World Series. Arizona Daily Star file photo
June 5, 1980: Arizona wins its second College World Series championship
Now that the statute of limitations has expired — baseball code for not showing up an opposing coach — it can be told that Arizona pitching coach Jim Wing successfully deciphered signals by the Michigan and Hawaii coaching staffs at the 1980 College World Series.
“We knew virtually every pitch Michigan threw that night,” UA shortstop Clark Crist, a Palo Verde High School grad, has told me several times. “Coach Wing was that good.”
The Wildcats shut out Michigan 8-0 and beat the Rainbows twice in Omaha, 6-4 and 5-3, to win the ’80 national championship. Over the last decade or so, especially when the Wildcats staged reunions at Hi Corbett Field or McKale Center, the chatter ultimately circles back to Wing’s undercover work.
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The one time I asked Wing about it, he just smiled.
“No comment,” he said.
It’s not that the ’80 Wildcats weren’t good enough to win the College World Series. They won the school’s first Pac-10 championship, featuring .401-hitting NCAA Player of the Year Terry Francona. And they established an ability to win in the clutch — they trailed Cal 8-3 in the semifinals before rallying for an 10-9 victory, and stormed back to beat Hawaii a day earlier when Catalina High grad Scott Stanley hit a grand slam to overcome the Rainbows’ lead.
All of this happened after future MLB All-Star lefty Frank Viola, then a St. John’s All-American, beat the Wildcats in the World Series opener 6-1.
“We were so far back at times that it took everything we had to just stay alive,” said UA coach Jerry Kindall. “We didn’t have all the superstars like we had (in the 1976 national championship season), but we had a whole group of guys like Don Hyman, Casey Candaele, Clark Crist who never gave up.”
What the 1980 Wildcats had as much as anything was a baseball acumen and resulting pedigree like few in college baseball history.
Much like Wing, they learned the game thoroughly and made a lifetime of it. No one keeps an official record of post-college baseball success, but the ’80 Wildcats might be the most accomplished coaching and teaching group ever to play at Omaha.
Check out this list of the ’80 Wildcats and their post-UA baseball careers:
- Francona is the manager of the Cleveland Indians and twice managed the Red Sox to a World Series title.
- Candaele, an infielder, is the Seattle Mariners’ first base coach after playing 11 seasons in the big leagues.
- Crist, a shortstop, is the Arizona Diamondbacks national cross-checker (essentially lead scout).
- Infielder Pat Roessler is the New York Mets’ assistant hitting coach.
- Infielder Alan Regier is the Chicago White Sox scout for the American League Central division.
- Pitcher Jeff Morris of Catalina High is a longtime pro/advance scout for the Cincinnati Reds.
- Outfielder John Moses, who played 10 MLB seasons, is the Atlanta Braves’ minor league hitting instructor.
- First baseman Wes Clements, who made the 1980 All-CWS team, has been the Houston Astros Single-A and Double-A manager.
- Stanley, an outfielder, has been a Miami Marlins scout for 22 years.
- Pitcher Ed Vosberg of Salpointe Catholic, who played for nine MLB teams, has been a minor-league pitching coach for the Oakland Athletics and Diamondbacks.
- Lefty pitcher Craig Lefferts, winning pitcher in the ’80 championship game, played in MLB until he was 36. He is the director of pitching rehab for the A’s.
- Outfielder and leadoff hitter Dwight Taylor played for the Kansas City Royals, and closer Greg Bargar, a Tucson detective/sheriff, pitched for the Montreal Expos and St. Louis Cardinals.
Where are they now: Taylor, who hit .361, scored 82 runs and stole 42 bases, is the coordinator of safety at Metal Coaters Inc., in Jackson, Mississippi.
How they did it: Francona was recruited to Arizona out of New Brighton, Pennsylvania, where he hit a national-leading .769 as a high school senior. He drove in 84 runs in the 1980 season and was a first-round draft pick of the Expos.
“I’d have to rank him with Dave Stegman as the two finest talents we’ve ever had,” Kindall said after the ’80 World Series. “We’ve had other outstanding players, guys in the big leagues like Ron Hassey, Brad Mills. But when you look at running, throwing, hitting and fielding, Stegman and Terry are the best pure talents we’ve had in years.”
Photo: Arizona's Terry Francona hits during the West Regional against Gonzaga in May, 1980. UA won the 1980 College World Series. Arizona Daily Star file photo
