Culver makes pitch for CSUB

By Mike Stepanovich

Former major league pitcher and longtime Bakersfield resident George Culver is spearheading CSUB's effort to bring baseball to the campus as part of the fundraising team's work to move to NCAA Division I athletics.

"We are delighted that a person of George Culver's stature is helping to make this long-held dream of baseball at CSUB a reality," CSUB President Horace Mitchell said. "Baseball is an important program for CSUB as we move into Division I, and with George on board I'm confident that we'll be successful."

CSUB is raising $6 million to fund the move to Division I athletics. Culver will be working to raise $2.5 million of that total to fund the baseball program.

A right-handed pitcher, Culver grew up in Bakersfield and graduated from North High School in 1961. He pitched for two years at Bakersfield College before being drafted by the New York Yankees in 1963. He struck out 18 in one of his first professional games, and made his major league debut in 1966 with the Cleveland Indians. During his nine-year career, in which he compiled a 48-49 record and saved 23 games, he also pitched for the Cincinnati Reds, Houston Astros, St. Louis Cardinals, Los Angeles Dodgers and Philadelphia Phillies.

After his playing career was over, he managed for a year in the California League, then spent 18 years with the Phillies as a coach and manager in their minor-league system, managing teams at both the AA and AAA level.

He joined the Dodgers as a pitching instructor in 2001, resigning after the 2005 season "in order to be able to take this job if it became available," he said.

Culver said the time is right to begin a baseball program at CSUB. "Baseball has always had a huge following in Bakersfield," he said. "A lot of people are involved in baseball here. We have 12 Bakersfield people in professional baseball, and two of them in the major leagues. This year we could have as many as four high school pitchers drafted by major league teams.

"There's no doubt in my mind that we are going to raise the money," he said. "It's going to take everyone in this community, but this town never ceases amazing me with its generosity. If people here think it's a good project they get behind it. People always want to help."

Also supporting the baseball fundraising effort are three former major league players from Kern County: Junior Kennedy, an Arvin High school graduate and former No. 1 pick of the Baltimore Orioles, who played for Cincinnati and the Chicago Cubs; John Hale of Wasco, who played for the Dodgers and Seattle Mariners; and Rick Sawyer, who played at East Bakersfield High School and pitched for the Yankees and San Diego Padres.