Univ. of California AD Sandy Barbour yesterday said that she “is ‘very hopeful’ the Golden Bears' baseball program is on the brink of reinstatement,” according to Jeff Faraudo of the OAKLAND TRIBUNE. Stu Gordon, an S.F.-based attorney who played baseball at Cal, met this week with Chancellor Robert Birgeneau and “presented him evidence of more than $9 million in private pledges to restore the 119-year-old program that is scheduled to be shut down after this season.” Birgeneau set $10M as a “target for baseball to stay afloat for seven to 10 years, during which time it would have to develop a plan for permanent self-sufficiency.” Gordon said, "We're within a few hundred thousand dollars of being there." Faraudo notes the “latest surge in financial support for the program came after the university announced Feb. 11 that men's rugby and women's gymnastics and lacrosse had developed funding for reinstatement but that baseball and men's gymnastics fell short.” Cal P Doug Nickle said that the “timing of reinstatement is crucial.” Cal “lost four recruits last fall who originally gave oral commitments to the program, and players on the team need to know whether they are moving on or have a home in Berkeley” (OAKLAND TRIBUNE, 3/30).
