COLLEGES:

UC Irvine baseball coach Mike Gillespie, introduced at a news conference Tuesday, didn’t disappoint those who were aware of his reputation as a humorous public speaker.

Gillespie consistently drew the biggest laughs at the annual preseason Southern California baseball media day organized by Long Beach State, where coaches from virtually every SoCal school speak briefly about their teams.

Tuesday, he had the crowd of more than 100 laughing loudly in Newkirk Pavilion.

When asked about a pitching coach, a position that remains unfilled as of Monday, Gillespie dead-panned: “We plan on having a pitching coach. We’re determined to have a pitching coach and we think it’s important.”

After thanking Chancellor Michael V. Drake for attending, Gillespie apologized for “all the things I’ve said about the University of California over the last 20 years. I take them all back. I didn’t mean them.”

Gillespie, a longtime Newhall resident who plans to move with his wife to Irvine, said he might still be working with the New York Yankees, if their short-season Class A team he managed last season were the Newhall Yankees, instead of the Staten Island Yankees.

When asked his thoughts about the Anteater mascot, Gillespie came clean that he had kidded John Savage, then his pitching coach at USC, when Savage was being considered for the UCI job he eventually got when the program was resurrected before the 2002 season.

“You cannot go anywhere where you would be an Anteater,” Gillespie told Savage.

Gillespie said he recalled chuckling when the Anteater mascot was born.

“Because, come on, it’s not a wolverine,” Gillespie said. “It doesn’t smack of ferociousness.

“But, being very politically savvy, I happened to see President Bush’s press conference that he opened by saying ‘Go Eaters.’ When the President says go Eaters, I’m on board with it.”

 Gillespie and associate head coach Pat Shine both said they were impressed by the brand of workout the UCI players had been putting themselves through, during the time they did not have a coach.

“The players themselves organized practice [beginning Oct. 4],” Gillespie said. “And they did a remarkable job. I think there was great leadership shown and great responsibility shown by these guys to put together a practice plan and make sure the time was not lost or wasted. It really was very, very impressive.”

Shine agreed.

“Basically, I think a handful of returning players took the bull by the horns and ran practice,” Shine said. “From the little bit of it I observed, you wouldn’t know there wasn’t a coach out there. It was one of the most impressive practices I’ve seen, not to mention it was not implemented by any means by the coaching staff. It shows the maturity, leadership and character of this team and those are some of the intangibles you need to win big games.”

 Gillespie said his memories of bringing his USC teams to Anteater Ballpark were not very pleasant.

But the record shows that since the resumption of the UCI program in 2002, USC teams coached by Gillespie split 10 meetings with the Anteaters and won three of five contests played at Anteater Ballpark.

 Gillespie said he has planned on being an assistant coach under Frank Cruz at Loyola Marymount, before the UCI position became available.

BARRY FAULKNER may be reached at (714) 966-4615 or at [email protected].