Troy Buckley "Blessed"

A catcher once upon a time at Santa Clara, Troy Buckley is now in his 3rd year as the head coach of the Dirtbags at Long Beach State. Buckley has a plethora of experience coaching as an assistant in both the minors and at the college level.

Dirtbag faithful will always remember Buckley for being the pitching coach in the early 2000's when he molded future major league pitchers like Jered Weaver, Cesar Ramos, Vance Worley, and Jason Vargas. This was also the same time that Troy Tulowitzki, Evan Longoria, and later Danny Espinosa were playing on the diamond at Blair Field.

When interviewed on Kbeach Radio's "3Up 3Down" on March 27th, Buckley told the hosts he "was very fortunate" to have had a chance to work with these future All-Stars and says his relationship with his past players have turned into "legitamate friends."

"We just talk, sometimes that's what they need" says Buck, "everyone's trying to tweak them and these are top major league pitchers."

Weaver and Vargas who were teammates at Long Beach State in 2004, have been reunited with the Angels here in 2013. Buckley discussed the personalities of each of his past players calling Vargas the "ultimate teammate" and Tulowitzki "one of the best baseball people I have ever been around" breaking down little small details of the game. "When Tulo talks, you're going to listen."

This years Dirtbags have had some key injuries, but his team has fought through adversity. Buckley preaches being aggressive and being competitive. Obviously there have been some high standards set by guys who have come through Blair Field, but a Dirtbag is also the guy still fighting for a spot at the AA level and laying out for a ground ball in high A. Ino Patron is a left-handed utility player who hits in the middle of the line-up and is by no means the fastest guy on the team. Down 10-3 in the 8th on a Friday night against Northridge to open up conference play, Patron led off the inning with a ground ball base hit up the middle. Watching the centerfield take a knee to pick up the ball, Patron shifted into high gear and turned his single into a hustle double. The next night, Patron was 2-2 with 3 RBI's and 2 BB leading his team to a 14-2 victory. That's what a Dirtbag does.

Long Beach State will continue it's tough conference play against schools like Cal State Fullerton and UCI. If your looking for bunt, steals, hit & runs, and solid fundamentals and a lot of passion, go watch a good college baseball game this spring. Great seats and entertainment for under $10.

If you would like to listen to the full interview with Troy Buckley, visit www.3up3downkbeach.com. Buckley talks about the Fullerton rivalry, college recruiting, the next level, and more baseball talk.