How college coach shaped Kotsay
A’s manager to honor Augie Garrido, credits him for lessons on game, life and relationships
When Mark Kotsay became the Oakland Athletics' manager last offseason, he voiced a hope that his players would “know that I care about them” and see him as “an open book.”
Both are attributes Kotsay observed in Augie Garrido Jr., his coach for three seasons at Cal State Fullerton. Over two-plus decades playing and coaching in the major leagues, Kotsay did not forget those lessons.
Garrido, who died in 2018 at age 79 as the winningest coach in college baseball history, is still an influential figure for Kotsay. On Thursday, the A's manager will honor Garrido at the Game Changer awards and benefit, produced by the nonprofit Positive Coaching Alliance and NBC Sports Bay Area.
“I think the impact he had on me for those three years is really why I'm sitting in the chair I'm in now,” Kotsay said this week.
Born in Vallejo, Garrido played at Fresno State and in Cleveland's minor-league system before starting his college coaching career with a season at San Francisco State in 1969. He coached three seasons at Cal Poly before taking the job at Fullerton and turning its baseball program into a powerhouse.
Garrido had led Fullerton to two College World Series titles before Kotsay's arrival in fall 1993. Kotsay, a Southern California kid, knew of the Titans' success but of Garrido only by reputation.
In his 2011 book “Life Is Yours to Win,” Garrido recalled that instate rivals Stanford and USC had passed on recruiting Kotsay, who “wasn't big enough or fast enough, according to most coaches and scouts.” And though Kotsay intrigued then-Fullerton assistant George Horton, Garrido was slower to warm.
“I wasn't at all impressed the first time I saw Kotsay on the field,” Garrido wrote. “He proved me wrong in about every way possible.”
Kotsay cracked the Titans' starting outfield as a freshman, then flourished as a sophomore. He won the Golden Spikes Award as the nation's top player and led Fullerton to the 1995 College World Series title as an outfielder and relief pitcher. The Marlins drafted Kotsay ninth overall the following year.
Garrido wrote that Kotsay “overcame whatever limitations he had by playing every practice and every game with total commitment, intensity, joy and enthusiasm.” Such traits could separate “true players” from “mere prospects” in baseball, Garrido wrote, but applied more broadly as well.
In retrospect, Kotsay said he believes Garrido helped shape not only his own course but those of other pupils who entered different fields.
“It's the most impactful years of your life, 17 to 21, and if you don't have a good leader who helps you build a foundation for life — which is respect, trust, work ethic — you just won't succeed,” Kotsay said.
“Not only does he have majorleague baseball players throughout the game, managers and coaches, but he (coached) successful businesspeople. He laid the foundation for us to go out in life and capture whatever it was we were pursuing.”
Aspects of Garrido's coaching varied. He could be a firm disciplinarian. He ran most practices in baseball gear, but on occasion arrived wearing jeans and boots, Kotsay said — a sign that instead that day “we were most likely running for something that we'd done.”
En route to the 1995 national title, the Titans hit a late-season lull. His team facing a fourth straight loss, Garrido deemed the time ripe for a dugout talk — and asked a player, senior first baseman D.C. Olsen, to deliver it. “He had an amazing way about making every guy on that team, a 35man roster, feel like they were going to contribute or were a part of something bigger than themselves,” Kotsay said.
Fullerton closed that year with 19 straight wins. It faced USC in the College World Series title game in Omaha, Neb. One of Kotsay's favorite Garrido memories, he said, occurred on the bus ride to the stadium.
“Aug stands up and goes, ‘All right, boys, here's what I want you to think about today,' and he drops his pants and he's got these boxers with the Titan elephant (mascot) on,” Kotsay said. “Everybody started laughing. Something just totally out of character for him. But the meaning behind it was, like, loosen up, we're going to be fine.”
Garrido's methods often bore results. His teams reached seven College World Series in 21 seasons at Fullerton. He left in 1997 for the University of Texas, where he coached for 20 seasons and won two more national titles. He retired in 2016 with a then-record 1,975 wins, eclipsed later by Florida State's Mike Martin, and produced dozens of MLB players in a career that spanned six decades.
“I'm glad for the opportunity to help young men prepare themselves for professional careers,” Garrido wrote in 2011, “but I'm more focused on the man than the career.”
Kotsay, entering his second season as A's manager, values building relationships and traces that to Garrido. The two became friends over the years even as Garrido remained a mentor.
Garrido died in March 2018 from complications following a stroke. Months earlier, Kotsay said, they had spoken at a golf event organized by Phil Nevin, another Fullerton alum.
“One of the last things he told me was, ‘You know, Mark, there's more to learn from your failures than from your successes,' ” Kotsay said. “And the game (of baseball) is about failures. So there's so much opportunity to learn, about not just baseball but life.” Telecast: The “Game Changer” awards show debuts on NBCSBA at 9 p.m. Feb. 1.