Coach fired after Colorado remarks
Jeffcoat refused recruits from state
Texas Wesleyan has fired head baseball coach Mike Jeffcoat, school President Fred Slabach and athletic director Steve Trachier announced Thursday.
The announcement comes less than 24 hours after the former Rangers pitcher made controversial remarks about Colorado politicians and the state’s marijuana laws. Jeffcoat stated that he and the program would not recruit from Colorado because players from there might fail a drug test.
The comments were sent in an email to 18-year-old Gavin Bell, a senior at Cherokee Trail High School in Aurora, Colo.
“(Jeffcoat) was separated from the university due to the discriminatory remarks contained in an email to a potential recruit from the state of Colorado and for another factor that we have been investigating for the last week,” Slabach said at the news conference. “This additional factor is an NAIA rule violation that has recently come to our attention.”
Slabach would not go into detail about what the NAIA rule violation was, but he did say it concerned the “eligibility of players and in no way centers around Title IX violation.”
In an interview with KCNC-TV in Denver, Bell said he “didn’t know what to think” when he got the email from Jeffcoat.
“My intention really wasn’t to do anything to hurt anybody or get anybody fired,” Bell said.
NUTTY NO-HITTER: Pittsburgh Pirates pitcher Dock Ellis might have thought he was tripping on acid if he read the recap from Virginia’s 4-3, 11-inning win over William & Mary on Wednesday in Charlottesville, Va.. Ellis claimed he was under the influence of LSD when he walked eight batters in a no-hit victory over San Diego in 1970.
Virginia trailed 3-2 with two outs and the bases loaded in the bottom of the 11th inning when Justin Novak hit a chopper to Tribe third baseman Patrick Ryan. A routine play would’ve ended the game, but Ryan bounced his throw to first baseman Colin Lipke, who couldn’t make the pick. The ball trickled into foul territory, allowing Tanner Morris to score the winning run from second base.
The walk-off win clinched Virginia’s first combined no-hitter in program history, a six-pitcher effort that included seven walks, four errors, three wild pitches and a hit batter by the Cavaliers.
“You hear this all the time but if you stay around the game of baseball long enough you see something you haven’t seen before,” said Virginia manager Brian O’Connor, in his 15th season with the Cavaliers. “