Augie Garrido - Life Is Yours to Win: Lessons Forged from the Purpose, Passion, and Magic of Baseball

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Designed by Joy OMeara

The Library of Congress has cataloged the Touchstone edition as follows:

Garrido, Augie.

Life is yours to win: lessons forged from the purpose, passion, and magic of baseball / by Augie Garrido ; introduction by Kevin Costner

p. cm

A Touchstone Book.

1. Garrido, Augie. 2. Baseball coachesUnited StatesBiography.

3. BaseballAnecdotes. 4. Conduct of life. I. Title.

GV865.G32 2011

796.357092dc22

[B]

2010050145

ISBN 978-1-4391-8693-0

ISBN 978-1-4391-8694-7 (pbk)

ISBN 978-1-4391-8695-4 (ebook)

This book is dedicated to all of the teachers and coaches who impart upon their students not just the facts they need to know, but the principles and values they need to thrive in a challenging environment. Your work changes lives and creates a better world. I know for certain youve changed my life and youve bettered my world. Bless your hearts.

Finally, I dedicate this book also to Jeannie Grass, my beloved, without whom there would be no stories worth telling.

by Kevin Costner

I was invited back to my alma mater, California State University at Fullerton, in 1992 to help dedicate the schools new baseball stadium. I didnt play baseball in college, but by that time Id made a couple of movies, Bull Durham and Field of Dreams, in which I apparently faked it pretty well.

I did learn a great deal about baseball and life at Cal State Fullerton. Most of it from one man in particular. I saw the invitation to the stadium dedication as an opportunity not only to thank that man but to introduce myself to him. You see, even though he had a big impact on my life, wed never met.

Augie Garrido was the baseball coach at Fullerton while I was there, but he wasnt my coach. I was a short, skinny guy who couldnt make the team. Still, Coach Garrido was a source of enlightenment and inspiration for me in my college days. I can honestly say that he inspired me to do much more with my life than anyone else, including me, had thought possible.

My response to the university president when he invited me to the CSUF stadium dedication was this: Ill come if youll give me thirty minutes alone with Augie Garrido.

Im told that my request threw the president and other school administrators for something of a loop. They agreed to my terms, but then they went to Augie and demanded to know why Kevin Costner wanted to meet with himof all people.

Augie, bless him, was dumbfounded by the whole deal.

I dont know Kevin Costner. Ive never met the guy. I have no idea why he would want to talk to me, he said.

He was telling it straight, as always. Augie did not know me then. But I knew him, and that is where this story and this book begin. It is the story of one mans ability to positively influence the lives of others. Even people he does not know.

Initially, I went to baseball games at Fullerton because the best athlete from my high school, Jim Irvin, was on the team. After the first few games, I kept going so I could listen to his coach, Augie Garrido.

Thirty years later, Im still listening to Augie. I still seek him out for advice, inspiration, insights, and camaraderie. Coach Garrido created a dramatic turnaround for the baseball team at Fullerton in my years there. He did the same thing for me. Augie simply changed my life.

Cal State Fullerton was not a glamour school like UCLA or USC. It offered an education for kids from working-class families like mine. We didnt have many resources and neither did the school.

Augie was hired to coach a Fullerton baseball team that had only won 35 percent of its games in the previous eight years. He built it into a national powerhouse, turning blue-collar grindersplayers no one else wantedinto champions. He had no scholarships to offer them. He barely had enough baseballs, bats, and uniforms to go around. There were no lights on the field and no locker rooms. The guys changed out of their street clothes in the parking lot.

The teams annual budget was $4,000 when Augie got there. They raised it to $6,000 when they moved to Division Istill the lowest budget of any team at that level. When Augie started at Fullerton, the gray felt Titan baseball uniforms were so wretched that he ordered his equipment manager to burn them. It was the only way the school would buy new uniforms.

In his second season, his team made it to the regionals but the school couldnt afford to send them, so Augie took out a second mortgage on his house to pay for the trip. Four seasons later, Fullerton won its first national championship. Under Augies leadership, my blue-collar alma mater won three College World Series championships, beating teams from the biggest schools in the countryteams with legendary baseball programs and budgets in the millions of dollars.

Obviously, Augie is a great coach, one of those who can always figure out a way to win, but even watching from the stands as a college kid, I could tell there was something more unusual about him. He didnt just coach baseball. He taught his players how to be better men. He was a student of the game, but even more, he studied each of his players to determine what motivated them and what they needed from him. He worked to bring out the best in each of them. He helped those young guys figure out who they were, where they were going, and how they could get there.

Most coaches have one speech. Augie has a hundred of them, and each is custom-designed to inspire his young charges; not just the stars, but every kid who needs guidance and encouragement. From my seat behind the dugout, I listened to Augie teach his players, and I learned along with them. I learned some baseball, but I picked up even more about being a man and chasing my dreams. The things Augie said resonated with me. Id had similar thoughts but wasnt sure how to apply them. I wasnt sure if they were even realistic. I saw that Augies players succeeded as a baseball team because of the people they became under his guidance. I came to understand that their growth and success as individuals meant more to their coach than all the trophies they took homeand Augies teams have picked up a lot of glass and brass.

Augie has a take on that too, and it offers insight into why so many people admire and appreciate him as a mentor and role model. He says, The real trophies in life are the relationships we have with others.

Ive been friends with Augie for nearly twenty years now, and I know that he believes that and he lives it. Thanks to him, so do I. He sometimes jokes that he is magical. By that, he is not claiming any supernatural powers. What Augie means is that pure magic is the only possible explanation for the blessings that have come to him, the humble son of migrant field and factory workers.