Jim Schlossnagle’s abrupt departure from Texas A&M to take the Texas baseball job is the foundation for the growing angst about anything that comes with high-stake sports. Because, you hope for something more in people.
Former Texas A&M coach Jim Schlossnagle eliminated all doubt Tuesday when he took the University of Texas baseball job twenty four hours after his former team, Texas A&M, lost to Tennessee in the College World Series. He proved…that just because you say it doesn’t make it so.
First, Jim Schlossnagle said he planned on staying at Texas A&M regardless of the World Series outcome, a gut-wrenching scenario following A&M’s bid to win its first NCAA baseball title in school history…and eleven tries.
Second, he ripped the media person who dared ask him moments after…if the rumors were true that he was leaving his just-disheartened team to take another job after the worst competitive experience in their lives.
Schlossnagle actually called a reporter “selfish” for asking the question…have you already taken another job?
He called a reporter “selfish” for asking the question, when in fact he was just…doing…his…job!
And the fact that Schlossnagle did, in fact, take the Texas job 24 hours later only certifies the feeling in the minds of most that he’s second only to Clyde Barrow for being the best at what he does…the best!
It’s a little close to the fire in central Ohio – in Buckeye Nation – because Bill Mosiello just left in the middle of a five-year contract to go back to his home in Fort Worth and his old job at Texas A&M. Mosiello said he needed to be closer to his family.
Ironically, that’s what Schlossnagle said, too. This after telling the world that he loved Texas A&M, and that he had fallen in love with the mythical “12th man” of Aggies’ sports. But, it was a family matter.
And he said this knowing that he was set to recouple with Texas athletic director Chris Del Conte, with whom he worked at TCU for 17 years, before taking the A&M job. Is it any wonder that normal people read things like this and chug Pepto Bismol?
Fort Worth Star-Telegram’s Mac Engel puts it this way, “If Texas wants it, Texas is going to get it. No one bullies up to the bar and throws around their wallet like Texas as they leave you to pick up the tab.”
That’s Pulitzer good!
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By the way, this is not the same situation as Bill Mosiello and Ohio State, because after digesting his two years at Bill Davis Stadium I’m of the opinion that he was never comfortable there in the first place. In his own words Mosiello admitted, “I took that job as a selfish gesture. My arrogance got the best of me.” At least he didn’t say…that he loved Ohio State and ‘Buckeye Nation’.
Schlossnagle could have similarly come clean, but instead he called a reporter “selfish” for simply identifying the elephant in the room.
In this case you don’t have to guess if his decision to leave for Austin wasn’t made before the College World Series began. Negotiations of that kind don’t happen in the matter of one phone call; and the rumors had circulated for months. But again, why lie?
Cold, calculated, and thoroughly devoid of the kind of character that the rest of us covet, here’s another example of how the game is played when there’s that much selfishness to go around.
“What a home run hire,” said Texas president Jay Hartzell, announcing the hire Tuesday night. “Coach Schlossnagle is the best in the business, his long list of accomplishments is incredible, and his track record of building great programs is well documented. We are the premier baseball program in the country with legendary coaches, our six national championships and record 38 College World Series appearances. So it’s certainly fitting that we hire a coach of his caliber to lead us.”
Oh…my God, with apologies to taking His name in vain.
There’s so much wrong with this that the length of a James Michener novel can’t come close to explaining it. Simply put, it smells like dead fish.
There’s no question that he got more money if Jay Hartzell was that committed to taking another team’s coach. And how much do you need, when the Texas A&M job pays five times the average salary of a coach in the Big Ten…in the neighborhood of $1,250,000 annually?
Is it any wonder that outside the borders of Texas, itself, Texas sports is known as the s- -thole of character and ethics.
But it’s the poor beat writer who’s selfish, right?
There’s also the question of whether Schlossnagle actually did take a better job, considering that he’s replacing David Pierce as coach at Texas, who in eight years won three conference titles and took the Longhorns to the CWS three times…and got fired. Words to the wise. Keep your head on a swivel. You’re only as secure as the next winning coach at Rice.
On the other hand, Texas A&M has had the reputation for years of micro-managing coaches according to the size of checks received, which is the ante if you want to play in a place like Texas.
Editor and publisher Sonny Fulks writes OHSAA sports and Buckeyes baseball for Press Pros Magazine.
So let’s remember the realities with which we’ve become all too familiar.
One, when a Rick Pitino pours his heart out and says that he’s in it for the sake of the kids…do you believe him? Sure you do.
Two, does the example they set for student athletes give you confidence in how those young men will conduct their own lives as husbands, fathers and businessmen? It does…in Texas!
Three, how can anyone condemn the practice of name, image, and likeness, when athletes are always the last to know?
Last…could it happen to you?
It makes you question. Thou shalt not lie, but in Texas……..!
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