Dirtbags Baseball - Long Beach State 49ers

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Thursday, April 08, 2004

Thanks go to Bill Tamburrino for a feature story written about Neil Jamison in the April 1 weekly edition of Neil’s hometown newspaper, the Ramona Sentinel. Unfortunately, the article is not in the online edition, so I can’t link to it. Here are a few excerpts:

“When the public address announcer at Petco announced the starting lineup for the Long Beach State baseball team for the first time, many in the crowd shuttered when he referred to them as Dirtbags. They didn’t understand. They thought that the term Dirtbag was a derogatory term. In this age of political correctness how could a group of clean-cut college athletes be referred to as Dirtbags?

Long Beach State (aka CSULB, the Beach State) is officially the 49ers because the university was founded in 1949, but the baseball team is unofficially the Dirtbags because they play hard and don’t care how they look….

This year the Dirtbags are ranked seventh in the nation (18-7 and 12-4 against ranked teams) and there is a Ramona connection. Neil Jamison is the closer for the Dirtbags.

The 6’3” right-hander is a 2001 graduate of Ramona High School. He set the Bulldog home-run record his senior year with 11 round trippers. He was a three time all leaguer, an all CIF selection and All North County.

In his first two years at Long Beach State he had 47 appearances and compiled a 6-3 record. He was named honorable mention to Collegiate Baseball Freshman All American Team…

Jamison is among the nation’s leaders in saves. He has a 1-0 record with eight saves. He has struck out 16 batters in 13 innings and has compiled a 2.03 ERA against some of the top teams in the nation….

“I was well prepared when I came here but the help they give you here is fantastic. I had to get the mechanics in my delivery down so I could have command of all of my pitches without giving them away. Delivery (pitching) Coach Buckley has helped me tremendously. In college you face nine good hitters instead of two in high school,” said Jamison….

So far his biggest thrill is winning the regionals last year at Blair Field (Beach’s home field) before a full house….

For now all he is concerned with is getting his beloved Dirtbags into the NCAA Regionals, Super Regionals and, hopefully, a trip to the College World Series in Omaha in June. The Dirtbags have been there four times: 1989, 1991, 1993 and 1998.

The PA announcer in Omaha knows that the name Dirtbag is a compliment.”

posted on 4/08/2004 by Jeff Agnew

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