Price man with plan

KU baseball coach already making his mark

Kansas University baseball coach Ritch Price sits in his Allen Fieldhouse office, occasionally glancing out the window at Hoglund Ballpark, a field that’s suddenly the place to be on a sun-soaked spring afternoon.

When looking at his home field, though, Price sees more than the normal eye. Price envisions sellout crowds, a festive atmosphere and a successful product on the field.

Price certainly has the right to dream.

He has been at KU less than a year, but already Price has sent shockwaves across the college baseball nation. He has rejuvenated a program that he knew, before he even arrived in Lawrence, was just itching to succeed.

In some of his first interviews last summer, he talked of “waking the sleeping giant.”

Price is still poking at the Kansas baseball monster, but he’s getting a response even he didn’t expect so soon.

“We’re trying to lay the foundation of becoming a top-25 program,” Price says, “and we feel like we’re two years ahead of the process where I expected us to be.”

Much of the talent, he admits, was already in Lawrence, needing a kick in the backside to turn promise into production.

Price has done just that.

First-year Kansas University baseball coach Ritch Price looks out of the KU dugout at Hoglund Ballpark during a recent Big 12 Conference series. The Jayhawks are on the verge of qualifying for the league tournament for the first time in school history despite 2003 being what Price considers a rebuilding year.

The Jayhawks, with a 34-24 record, are on the verge of qualifying for the Big 12 Conference Tournament for the first time ever. The top eight teams go, and the Jayhawks are currently clinging to the eighth and final spot with three games to play.

Since arriving from California last summer, Price pleaded for his players to buy into his plan, his methods for rebuiliding and his faith in his team.

So far it’s showing.

Migrating to the Midwest

Kansas associate athletic director Richard Konzem snagged Price from Cal Poly-San Luis Obispo July 1.

Price replaced Bobby Randall, who spent seven years searching unsuccessfully for a way to win in the Big 12 before resigning at the end of last season.

With the warmer climates and better support for Big 12 baseball programs in Texas and Oklahoma, critics say conference success isn’t feasible for a northern school like Kansas.

Price says that’s simply not true.

“You have to have the mind-set that you can’t have any excuses,” he said. “We have to find a way to get it done.”

His willingness to break down such barriers caught Konzem’s eye immediately. Price stood out in a fierce competition for the vacancy, which included Division II Chico State coach Lindsay Meggs, Baylor assistant Mitch Thompson and longtime KU assistant Wilson Kilmer.

Perhaps it was a bit of familiarity to a Kansas icon that gave Price the edge.

“To be honest with you,” Konzem said, “we saw a lot of qualities that we had seen in Roy Williams.”

Price spent seven years at Cal Poly, frequently playing against college baseball giants like Cal State-Fullerton and Long Beach State. Having played against the best of the best made the transition to the Big 12 no problem.

First-year Kansas baseball coach Ritch Price credits the team's surprising season to a better-than-expected talent base.

Upon hearing of the Kansas opening — through Nebraska coach and longtime friend Mike Anderson — Price applied for the job, despite the good relationships he had formed in San Luis Obispo.

“We just built a brand-new stadium there,” Price said. “It was definitely hard to leave.”

Soon after, Kansas signed Price to a one-year contract. Price then embarked to Lawrence to see just what he had to work with for his first season.

“There was a lot of curiosity about what was going on with the program,” junior first baseman Ryan Baty recalled. “When he was hired, it turned into excitement .

“It was a fresh start.”

Spectacular debut

Price moved into his Allen Fieldhouse office, bringing with him a blueprint for success, patience for inevitable growing pains and a remarkable, switch-hitting, smooth-fielding son, Ritchie, now KU’s starting shortstop and one of the Big 12’s top freshmen.

Almost everyone else was inherited from Randall.

Considering the team had back-to-back finishes in the Big 12 cellar prior to the coaching change, Price was impressed with what he was left with.

“The only reason we’ve done as well as we have,” Price says, “is that the talent base was better than I thought it was.”

The Price era kicked off in Hawaii, where the Jayhawks won four of six against Hawaii-Hilo in late January. It wasn’t a great start, considering Hilo finished last season 9-38. But with the men’s basketball team in the middle of a Final Four run, Kansas fans didn’t seem to take notice.

That is, until Feb. 16.

Then, Price — never one to back down — marched his squad to Baton Rouge, La., to play a three-game set with No. 6 Louisiana State.

Nonconference series are often swapped, but in this case, the Tigers made no plans to return the favor and play a series in Lawrence. It was simply an opportunity for Price’s team to play three games against one of college baseball’s all-time great programs.

Kansas won all three.

After a 9-6, 10-inning victory Feb. 14 and a rainout the following day, the Jayhawks played a doubleheader with LSU Feb. 16.

As the stunning score updates made their way back to Lawrence, they were announced to a sellout crowd watching the men’s basketball team play Iowa State at Allen Fieldhouse.

Each update was followed by a deafening ovation.

The Jayhawks swept the doubleheader, 6-4 and 9-7, and the series over mighty LSU. In an instant, Kansas baseball was the talk of the basketball-crazy KU community — and of the college baseball world.

When Price returned to Lawrence, his phone never stopped ringing. Coaches nationwide called to congratulate him and his team. One publication named KU the national team of the week. Another named sophomore Travis Metcalf the national hitter of the week.

KU entered the top 25 polls and didn’t leave for a month and a half.

“The magnitude of that series for our program has been immeasurable,” Price said. “The biggest thing it did was give us credibility.”

It also brought more winning ways. The LSU sweep was three victories in a stretch that saw KU win 15 of 18 games. Until getting swept by Missouri in mid-March, Kansas peaked at No. 17 in the national polls.

More importantly for Price, it gave his plan a jolt of life.

“That weekend laid the foundation,” Price said. “It completely sold our players on our philosophy.”

The Big 12

With three games against Kansas State left starting Friday, the Jayhawks are hanging on to a conference tournament berth.

The top eight teams advance to Oklahoma City for the tourney that starts Wednesday, and right now KU is eighth.

K-State is out, and, currently, Texas Tech is, too. Colorado and Iowa State do not field teams.

The potential berth in the tournament isn’t headline news, but it is significant for Kansas baseball.

Since the Big 12 was formed prior to the 1997 season, Kansas has never qualified for the conference tournament. In Price’s first year, KU is in position to do so.

“Our whole is better than our parts,” Price says. “We’ve been able to play better than our talent base is.”

After stumbling to an 0-5 Big 12 start, the Jayhawks have stabilized. After the first five defeats, Kansas won two of three from Oklahoma and Texas Tech and grabbed single victories against Oklahoma State, Nebraska, Baylor and defending national champion Texas.

Last year, Kansas was 4-14 against those six teams. This year, the Jayhawks were 8-10.

“I think for the first time in my career here,” Baty said, “I’ve felt respected in the other team’s eyes.”

The future

Of the everyday starters, KU will lose four to graduation after this season.

Two others — Baty and junior outfielder Matt Tribble — likely will be drafted in June and will face the decision of playing professionally or returning for their senior seasons.

Regardless, Kansas looks to be on the way up, with 10 players signed for next season, a core of returning offensive sluggers and a drastically expanded fan base.

Thanks to the team’s sudden success, Hoglund Ballpark has drawn more than 1,000 fans 10 times this season, compared to just once a year ago.

It’s no surprise to Price.

He envisions fans filling up Hoglund every time he looks out his office window.

And he made a believer out of Konzem last summer when he said he was going to change the image of Kansas baseball once he moved into that office.

“What we were told we’d get,” Konzem said, “is what we got.”

This season is close to closing, but Price’s days in Lawrence don’t appear to be. He said he wants to finish his career at Kansas, and if the improvement that was seen in 2003 continues, certainly no one would dare object.

“He’s completely transformed the perspective of this program,” Baty said. “He’s the greatest coach I’ve ever had.”