One-on-one with Ryan Chiarelli
Entering his third season with the Santa Clara baseball team, junior outfielder Ryan Chiarelli took a few minutes to talk with Sports Editor Brian Betz.
BB: Let's cut to the chase, Ryan, do you consider yourselves favorites in the WCC this year?
RC: You have to. You have to at least think that you are. This team has the talent to go even beyond the WCC.
BB: To Omaha?
RC: Yeah, to Omaha. We have a coach that's coached three teams that have gone to the [College World Series]. Obviously coming from Stanford, he knows great talent. And if he believes we can then we definitely have to believe we can. And when you have a coach saying we have enough talent and a player who's played in the World Series and actually won the World Series, a transfer from Texas (Nic Crosta), and he believes we have the talent, you have to believe it.
BB: Is this the first year Coach [Mark] O'Brien has mentioned Omaha?
RC: First year he's actually mentioned Omaha.
BB: Wow.
RC: So we take that as though he really means it.
BB: Since the season hasn't really kicked into high gear yet, what players should fans take notice of?
RC: Hitting wise, we've got [Nic Crosta] who had a great series. We've got Will Thompson who came back for another year and is a big-time guy to watch and [Jason] Matteucci, everyone knows about. Robert Perry's one of the freshmen, he's playing center field for us right now and looks like he's gonna be able to help this team right away.
BB: How do you replace Scott Dierks?
RC: You can't. The guy had an All-American type year. You can't replace one guy, but the thing is, we have all the guys who started last year that are better now than last year. Once everybody gets better that's how you replace a guy like Scott Dierks.
BB: What teams scare you in the WCC?
RC: You gotta take the typical Pepperdine and San Diego, but what we've learned in the past, for example last year, we lost to some teams we shouldn't have. Even though we went 21-9, little teams can bite you. So the big thing is to take every team the same way as if they're No. 1 in the country. Cause you never know, one win or one loss could make the difference for regionals and, ya know, what if one loss to a bad team takes us out of regionals?
BB: Exactly, you'd feel even worse about it if you didn't make it because of a bad team. Changing gears, can you explain the concept of "baseball chatter."
RC: It's another language. If you don't play baseball it's hard to understand. I mean, you learn it as you grow up. It's a lot of slang.
BB: What words do you use a lot?
RC: Uh, geez, let's see...
BB: Words that aren't suitable for print?
RC: No, no they're suitable. There's just so many that I'm having kind of a mental block.
BB: Alright well tell me this, everybody does it right?
RC: Oh, by far. If someone walked into a locker room and listened they'd have no idea what we were talking about. We'll be hanging out and we'll say the lingo not realizing that the person next to you knows because he's a teammate, but the other people around you don't have any idea what you're talking about.
BB: Is baseball your favorite sport to watch?
RC: Um, it's up there with football. I'm a big football guy. To watch on TV, yeah I'd have to say football's more exciting to watch. But to be in person, I still enjoy baseball. But it's hard to watch baseball games, I'll admit that.
BB: Yeah, I love going to baseball games. So being from San Ramon, are you a Giants fan or an A's fan?
RC: I'm a huge A's fan. Not because [Steve] Schott donated money toward our stadium, but I've been an A's fan for a while. You know, I don't want to downplay a local team because I'll cheer for a local team over any other team.
BB: Yeah, they've got such a low payroll and yet Billy Beane does such a great job every year putting out a winner. I don't like the A's, obviously, cause I'm a Mariners fan, but if Seattle wasn't in the AL West, I'd be an A's fan. Do you feel strongly either way about the whole Pete Rose issue?
RC: He was in a lose-lose situation. He could admit it and everyone would call him a liar and say he shouldn't be in there and if he kept it to himself he'd never get in because they want you to admit it first. He was in a Catch-22. I mean, I believe he should be in there. The Hall of Fame is based on how you perform in the major leagues and for a guy that has the career-lead in hits, definitely.
BB: So how about this new stadium you're getting?
RC: Oh man, remarkable. Remarkable. From what I understand it will be one of the best college stadiums in the country next year. We want to host a regional and this is the perfect way to do it. And also to host a regional you need talent and this is going to bring unbelievable recruits in. This will be the icing on the cake.