Long Beach State takes on Stanford for three games this weekend at Blair Field. Both Stanford (23-17) and LBSU (20-21) are fighting hard for their postseason lives and the series should be a spirited one. I talked with the Cardinal’s coach, Mark Marquess, on Wednesday morning about the series, his 34 years at Stanford and the Dirtbags program. 

Marquess graduated from Stanford in 1969 after being an All-American first baseman. He became the head coach at Stanford in 1977. During that time he has won nearly 1,400 games and two NCAA Championships (1987 and 1988). He has been NCAA Coach of the Year three times, won 12 Pac-10 titles, guided the Cardinal to 25 postseason appearances and his team has made 14 trips to the College World Series. 

Here are some of the highlights of our conversation, with some background to what he was asked. 

Stanford and Long Beach each have a storied past and each has historic ballparks that are two of the best on the west coast. Klein Field at Sunken Diamond was built on the Stanford campus in 1931 and coach Marquess played there during his Stanford career in addition to his time coaching. Blair Field opened in 1958 and much like Sunken Diamond has seen many upgrades but still maintains that old time feel. I asked Marquess about his home park and what he knew about Blair Field.

“Obviously Blair Field has a rich tradition as Sunken Diamond does. There’s something special about the older parks and the history they have. Obviously improvements have been made to Sunken and improvements made to Blair… It’s like Fenway in the Big Leagues. It’s nice, I think people like that, the players like that and everything is kind of going away from that. It’s a special situation not only for the fans but for the players. It’s unique, and we’re excited to go back down there and play, we haven’t played them in a long time. We’ve played in regionals but not down at Blair for a long time.

“We’re looking forward to it, should be a good competition. I’d like to play somebody a little bit easier, get a breather out of our league, but we are not going to get too much of a breather looking at their numbers.”

Despite playing many mutual opponents the Cardinal lead a very small career series with the Dirtbags 8-4. The two have played some big post-season games in the regionals recently. I wanted to know what his impressions of the LBSU program were from afar and what prompted this weekend’s series.

“They do a great job down there. When you play a Long Beach, whether they have a super team or are .500, you know they are going to play well because they are well-coached. They have a tradition, and it’s a winning tradition, especially when you play them at home. We know we have our hands full, but hopefully we’ll go down there and play well.

“We’ve always played Fullerton, but it just didn’t work this year. You want to play the best people and the best programs and Long Beach fits that bill. We were fortunate the open weekend matched and the timing was just right.” 

Stanford teams have done consistently well during his tenure. Long Beach State has built a winning program year in and year out for nearly two decades, but has struggled recently. I wanted to know how hard is it to put together a good team every season especially when everyone comes to expect it and with a changing college baseball landscape, where teams like Oregon State and Fresno State have won titles recently. 

“I think college baseball is very unpredictable now, there’s a lot of parity and I think that’s good. It’s not that easy anymore because there is parity. It’s not like it was 10, 15, 20 years ago where you could dominate, it’s just not there. It’s tough on the programs that have had a lot of success… Oregon State is a prime example of a cold weather school. The expectation now is that they’re going to be there all the time but the year after they won their second championship they didn’t make the NCAA’s. Parity is definitely here and I think that’s really healthy for the sport.”

Stanford has won ten of its last thirteen games, getting swept this past weekend by Washington. I asked Marquess about the make-up of his team and how they are shaping up towards the end of the season.

“We’re pretty young. We start three or four freshman as position players. We have some talented freshman players but they are freshman… We’re a pretty young team and at times inconsistent but for the most part we’re a pretty good balance between real young and veteran junior players.”

Stanford’s program, like the one at Long Beach, has seen a ton of players become big leaguers. I asked Marquess what that means to him to see his players go on and compete at the highest level.

“We’ve been fortunate we’ve had a lot of good players that have gone on and done well in professional baseball as Long Beach has. If you consistently have a pretty good program that will happen and that’s certainly happened with our two programs and hopefully it can continue. We are fortunate, as Long Beach does we get good players and if you keep getting that, well, good players make good coaches.” (laughs)

Stanford and LBSU open up their three game series Friday night. First pitch is scheduled for 6:30 p.m.