 "Photo: Glenn Connelly / Assistant Photo Editor")
 "Photo: Glenn Connelly / Assistant Photo Editor")
After striking out New Mexico first baseman Justin Howard in the ninth inning of last Friday night’s 1-0 victory against the Lobos in Albuquerque, San Diego State baseball phenom Stephen Strasburg gave an animated fist pump.
Apparently, this is why Strasburg will fail in the major leagues.
“I tip my hat to the way the kid pitches,” New Mexico head coach Ray Birmingham told reporters after the game. “But I think he needs to work on his demeanor a little bit.”
This wasn’t the first time Birmingham has taken shots at the country’s best collegiate baseball player. Back in February, Birmingham told New Mexico’s Daily Lobo, “You know what you do when you square up a ball going (103 mph) - where the ball goes? Way far.”
Last month, according to Daily Lobo’s Sports Editor Isaac Avilucea, Birmingham sounded off on Strasburg during halftime of a New Mexico women’s basketball game saying: “There’s a guy down in San Diego State rumored to be worth $25 million. When he comes down here, we’re going to make him look like 25 bucks.”
But Friday’s postgame comment seemed to stir Strasburg and SDSU head coach Tony Gwynn the most.
“The thing about coach Birmingham, I understand he’s trying to keep his kids positive,” Gwynn said. “But a lot of this was brought about because he popped off earlier in the week about some stuff that he had no idea about; he had never seen (Strasburg) pitch. He said some things in their press conference last week that I was kind of hoping (Strasburg) didn’t get to hear, but he did.
“And that’s the reaction that he got (from Strasburg) was, ‘Well you know what, you said I need to do this, this and this, well here’s 14 for you and here’s shutting you down 1-0.’”
Strasburg dismantled a New Mexico lineup that Birmingham wanted to call “Murderers’ Row” back in February. The SDSU pitcher went the full nine innings, struck out 14 Lobos, allowed only seven hits and walked one batter en route to picking up his eighth victory of the season.
“He pitched with some fire Friday night,” Gwynn said. “He was focused on going out there and letting them know that he was the real deal.”
A few days before Friday’s game, Birmingham told www.golobos.com, “If he gets touched up by the Lobos, it could hurt his financial situation. The guy standing on the mound is sitting on $45 million. The pressure is on him.”
But Strasburg went out and did what he’s done in his previous nine outings: Dominate.
“Anything that another coach says about me doesn’t bother me,” Strasburg said. “Bottom line is if you’re facing a classy team like TCU, you want to represent your team the best way and you don’t want to show up the other team. But if the other team is going to slap you in the face, you really have to stick up for yourself.
“You can’t just back down. I was fired up that game, it was a big game for us and I guess if I showed a little too much emotion, I apologize. But I don’t think there’s anything wrong with doing a fist pump after striking out the last guy.”
New Mexico’s starting pitcher on Friday night, John Hesketh, also got involved in the war of words, telling the Daily Lobo after the game, “Where he’s going, he’s got to be able to control those emotions. He might as well try and start controlling them now.”
The two squads won’t face off again this season, unless they meet in the Mountain West Conference Tournament in May. Until then, Gwynn says, stay out of the Aztecs’ business.
“Just take care of your club,” Gwynn said. “I’ll take care of mine.”
11 comments
guess he knows more about being in the major leagues than this mouth