Stanford back on top:
Former standout David Esquer moves from California and has the Cardinal at No. 1 after replacing a coaching legend.
When longtime former Stanford coach Mark Marquess decided to retire before one final season, one of the first people he told was former player David Esquer.
“I was honored that he would call me before he did that,” Esquer said.
The coach of California at the time, Esquer didn’t know that he would ultimately be the man to take over for Marquess a year later.
“I never really had my eyes on it,” he said. “It would be the only place I would’ve left Cal Berkeley for, but it didn’t seem like something that was even possible.”
Esquer was a walk-on at Stanford under Marquess in 1984, and he eventually won the starting shortstop job. When Stanford captured its first College World Series title in 1987, Esquer was a key player, earning all-tournament and all-Pac 10 Southern Division honors that season.
After playing four years in professional baseball — spending time in the minors with the Baltimore Orioles, California Angels and Milwaukee Brewers — Esquer returned to Stanford as an assistant coach. He spent six years back at The Farm and three as an assistant at Pepperdine before taking the coaching job at Cal in 2000. Esquer stayed there until Stanford hired him to replace his former coach last June.
“I probably was scared to death that I wouldn’t sink the ship,” Esquer said of the challenge of following Marquess. “I don’t know that there’s been a lot of history of success with people taking over for legends.”
Marquess certainly was that. He spent 41 years as Stanford’s coach, carving out an impressive legacy to follow, winning national titles in 1987 and 1988 and taking 12 other Stanford teams to the College World Series with three runner-up finishes. He retired with 1,627 victories and a .649 career winning percentage.
Replacing Marquess was Stanford baseball’s version of replacing John Wooden. Yet under Esquer, the change has gone better than expected, and the Cardinal are hopeful of reaching their first College World Series since 2008. Helped by one of the nation’s top pitching staffs, the team is 43-8 and ranked in a tie for No. 1 in the latest USA TODAY Coaches Poll.
“There’s bound to be some transitional struggles, but they actually did a really good job of voicing what they’re all about and what they are expecting of us,” freshman Brendan Beck said about the new coaching staff. “It never really felt like a transition, (it felt like it was) just kind of picking up as if it was the same coaching staff as last year or the last five years.”
Because of Esquer’s history with the program, he never felt any resistance from the commu- nity. In fact, he thinks his experience as a Stanford walk-on helped him more than 30 years later.
“There’s probably no bigger challenge than being an unrecruited walk-on having to fight their way to make the team and actually get some playing time,” he said. “I’ve always been up for a challenge.”
Esquer tries not to mirror Marquess’ coaching style. Instead, he has taken some of the attributes from his former coaches and brought them with him in his own voice.
“I’ve told my former high school football coach that I take him to practice every day with me,” he said. “My former coach … at Pepperdine University, Frank Sanchez, I tell him that I take him to practice with me every day. I’m taking a piece of everybody that I’ve ever been around, with Coach Marquess being as big of an influence as anybody.”
These attributes have helped mold Esquer into one of the game’s premier college coaches. At Cal, he complied a 525-467-2 record and made five NCAA tournament appearances, including a trip to the College World Series in 2011.
“He was Cal’s version of Coach Marquess,” sophomore Andrew Daschbach said. “We got a coach that is just as talented, just as in tune with the game, has a similar understanding for his players and a similar passion for the game.”
Esquer has updated many of Stanford’s traditions while keeping the tenets of its culture. Under Marquess, players had to remain clean shaven and wear their socks up during every game. Esquer allows his players more leeway, as many players decided to grow facial hair this year or wear their pants down.
“He’s never really been the coach to scream at you at practice when you’re doing something wrong,” Beck said. “Even on days when everyone is a little sluggish, he recognizes that and just positively challenges us to change the attitude.”
Esquer’s biggest influence comes from his 1987 championship team, as he is trying to replicate that type of atmosphere with this year’s squad.
“It starts with the culture and the type of camaraderie that the players have,” Esquer said. “If you can do that, that’s what I experienced, then sometimes you can have those magical years like we had in 1987.”