SJSU's Piraro closing in on milestone

SAN JOSE -- For a moment it seemed last night would be the milestone night. San Jose manager Sam Piraro is one shy of his 1,000th win as a collegiate head coach, and has been sitting on No. 999 since March 20, when the Spartans defeated Cal State Bakersfield. SJSU has since been mired in a six-game losing streak, including last night's 11-5 loss to Brigham Young. "We've had some very good teams here, and we've had some great teams here," said Piraro, heading into the weekend series in which he will likely reach the momentous plateau. "I've been very lucky over my career. This team we have this year, it's a rebuilding team. It's a lot of young players. We knew that going in and my goal is to try and improve these kids as they go along. And I know in a year from now, it's going to be a well-developed team. We've got to go through some growing pains right now." Piraro's 1,000 wins will be spread over three levels of collegiate play. He began his coaching career in 1974 of the SJSU junior-varsity team of the former Bay Area Collegiate League, which disbanded several years later. He posted a 74-43 record there, before moving up to an assistant coaching position with the varsity Spartans. "I look back on that experience as probably a turning point in my career," Piraro said. "I mean, having that opportunity to coach against Stanford, Fresno, Cal, Arizona ... all these teams when I was 23-, 24-years old. So that really prepared me for the Mission experience." It was 17-year Spartans manager Gene Menges that promoted Piraro into the coaching ranks. A shoulder injury Piraro sustained in high school rendered him unable to pursue a career as a baseball player. In those days, as Piraro explains, when you dislocated your shoulder, you just popped it back in and kept going. To this day, he does not throw batting practice. It was apparent from his earliest coaching days that Piraro had the technical and tactical know-how to forge a career in the sport. "I observed what he was doing here and he knew the game really well," Menges said. Said Piraro: "Coach Menges gave me a lot of responsibility. That was great. It was not a financial thing, believe me. I was not making any money doing it. You know, he gave me tremendous latitude in terms of practice planning. As far as when the games started, I called all the offense. It was quite an experience for somebody when they were in their very early 20s.... He threw me right into the fire and I probably wasn't smart enough to realize just what I was doing." After three years as Menges' third-base coach, Piraro moved on to manage the upstart Mission College team. He helmed Mission for seven seasons, posting a 190-70 record. It was also during this era that Piraro planted his roots in San Jose, marrying JoAnn -- his wife of 30 years this October -- purchasing their first home, and becoming a father of two. In 1986, Menges retired as manager of the San Jose State team, and the job was offered to Piraro. According to Piraro, Mission College asked him to stay, but he wanted to return to his alma mater, and to Division I baseball. "Sometimes I had my reservations, because I loved Mission, I loved the experience," Piraro said. "It was one of the happiest times of my life." Although Mission College offered him a one-year leave, Piraro did not hesitate, taking the job at SJSU on July 1, the first day he was eligible for hire. He has since posted a record of 735-553-6, winning three conference championships, and becoming the winningest coach in the history of San Jose State baseball. "He knew the game good," Menges said. "He could work the guys and work the drills. I knew the team was in good hands when I left." It certainly has. "This is my 36th year in coaching and I've only had three losing seasons," Piraro said. "So, I consider that a real blessing, because baseball in California is very competitive. So, we beat up on each other a lot. So, I've been lucky." In other action, Stanford (12-7, 2-1) is at UCLA (21-0) for a three-game series. Cal (14-10, 1-3) rode a five-run fourth inning to a 7-2 win over University of Arizona (20-6, 2-2) in the first of a three-game set at Evans Diamond. Today's first pitch is scheduled for 2:30 p.m. Saturday is set for noon. WCC play got underway last night in Santa Clara, with the Broncos (12-11, 0-0) hosting University of Portland (15-6, 0-0) in a three-game set.