Ugh.

Is counseling available for our resident baseball aficionado?

Woof. Hate to see this kind of thing. Hopefully there will be a fair and fact-based investigation of the innocent-until-proven-guilty variety and any legitimate problems can be solved.

This is pretty serious. Based on the wording of the article and its use of the buzzwords "safety", "inclusion", as well as the suspension of both players and coaches, my guess is this might be related to hazing. You'd like to think that in these times that young men are above sexual misconduct and discriminatory acts. Hazing is something that can get coaches fired if they turn a blind eye to it.

And we have the Band-uh precedent as a frame of reference.

If this is the last year of Vaughn's contract this may be it. Guilty or not the University will want to distance itself from the allegations.

And we will hear about what happened. Unlike with Chima Moneke's suspension it involves the team, and that's too big to sweep under the rug.

They're gonna wait until Fall quarter to investigate? Speedy process. s/ ... so the program will be hobbled by ...

1. No summer workouts
2. No Fall workouts
3. Recruiting impacted
4. Slow process

Ugh.

If you're referring to me I'm good. If there's something wrong with the team they need to find out and take care of it. If there is a toxic culture on the team right now that may have contributed to why the team sucked so much this year. In 2009 Rex Peters cited a toxic culture (although he didn't mention hazing, mostly big egos) and that was the worst D-I season...until this one.

One detail I wonder about-there was a veteran player named Alejandro Lara who I recall being mentioned as a starter in Bruce Galludet's ((Davis Enterprise) season preview. Now Galludet's article was based on an interview with Vaughn so he wouldn't have just assumed Lara would be a starter. I seem to recall that Lara was on the first draft of the roster this year, but was not on the final draft. At the time I thought he may have graduated early or his health situation (he's a recent cancer survivor) had made it more sensible to sit it out.

Now he was a 5th year senior this year, but on Senior Day he wasn't mentioned at all, and they even honored the 2020 seniors whose Senior Day was cancelled. Now you would think they would honor him no matter what the situation, unless he left on poor terms or is planning to come back next year as a grad student. This may be grasping at straws, but it seems strange for a player to go from a prospective starter to a non-mention on Senior Day. I wonder if Lara's situation is somehow tied up in this in any way ?

I have noticed on several occasions the fielders seem not to be in synch. I had always attributed that to a lack of practice time, but perhaps some of the players legitimately don't like each other and it reflects in their play ?

There was a large portion of the schedule with no fan attendance so something could've happened that very few people would've seen.

And the pitiful Bee, always trolling to belittle UC Davis, is all over this. I don’t subscribe, but was sent some clips from a friend.

I got from the article that the investigation is starting now but that it could last well into the fall quarter. This tells me that they have lots of people to interview, maybe even going back to coaches Peters and Swimley.

The most likely implication in my opinion is that there's unlikely to be a 2022 season. They can't put together a schedule with the coaches on leave
. Prospective opponents will have moved on.

I guess we have to put the lights on hold. Bad thing. But we now don’t have to worry about firing the coach or hiring a new coach. Good thing. Probably not a bad idea to have the faculty athletics rep having a son on the BB team. Can’t very well lie to Dad can you. . . For long. Feel bad that Rocko inherited this thing.

. Probably not a bad idea to have the faculty athletics rep having a son on the BB team. — 69aggie

it was about to be two sons in the program...not sure what will happen now.

Clearly its something major, shutting down a program for months just doesn't happen in D1 sports. Very bad look for the Aggies. Hopefully its not as bad as it appears, but if it was more isolated we can assume they would have just booted the people directly involved.

I agree. I believe there was a storm brewing this year because of COVID-19 and the miserable season.

The timing of the allegations suggests to me whoever made them was waiting for when they wouldn't be facing retaliation, such as some outgoing seniors or students transferring to different colleges. Of course they could have known about this earlier and chose to release the information after the season in order to not distract those who weren't involved while they were still playing.

One thing it's tough to get your head around is that any players or team representaives would engage in any improper behavior, that they're mentally and morally superior and above doing such things. Intelligence, however, is not a guarantee of good citizenship. Just look at the capitol riots. That wasn't just a collection of dumb, slack-jawed rednecks.

The allegations came out not so long after the topic of the problems with UCD baseball was started. It's a longshot, but could it be that the accusers read the posts on aggiesportstalk, and became emboldened to speak up ?

And I've heard rumors of player impropriety in the past casually dropped at games before, like a player (in the late 80's or early 90's-don't recall the name) who had a big gambling problem and whispers of raunchy American Pie-style parties.

Presuming that everyone on the team knows what led to this, somebody will leak the gist of it soon. It is also possible that some or most of the team does not know any more than we do. The main categories that have to be hush-hush are Title IX, education matters, or medical matters. Based on notes about safety and counseling, my speculation might be on the first one. Usually when it's ethics-related (like finances, recruiting, sportsmanship), or other bad behavior (like theft, vandalism, alcohol, hazing), the allegations aren't secret.

If the investigation around the band is any precedent, it took about 4 months. My speculation is that somebody was unsatisfied with how a complaint on one of this year's lighting rod topics (could be legitimate or nonsense) was being handled and was getting ready to go public. In this way, the University is managing the narrative to make themselves look proactive, rather than allowing accusations to run wild in the Bee and then react from the back foot. Whether the investigation is completed in-house or with an outside firm, it is important to recognize that evidence, truth, and justice are not really the goal. The real goal will be ordering parties from most to least likely to win damages or spread bad PR and identifying the least risky fall guy if needed. Sometimes this aligns with truth and justice. But not always.

KCRA report includes excerpts of a letter ICA / Rocko sent to incoming baseball recruits. I see articles in USA Today, etc.

https://youtu.be/TzsZqi8MjG4

UCD baseball - to be determined
Banda - purged, renamed (early Wokeism)
Moneke - investigation, no leaks
SAE - banned (thankfully)
Lonnie Williams - removed

I don't really see a Title IX connection here. The reason I think that is because that's more of an athletic department-level issue- the team and coaches are being suspended. The coaches only control the money and facilities they are given; they aren't involved in the distribution of resources, aside from scholarships.

I guess I could see a Title IX connection if a female or transgender student-athlete wanted to compete and was denied the opportunity to at least get a fair try-out (coaching-level problem) or the team members made them feel unwelcome and they quit (player-level problem, but coaching problem too if they knew and did not resolve the issue or at least escalate the issue to the university through the proper channels). This is reaching a bit though. Unfair fundraising tactics would be a coaching'-level problem.

Now I can't get the buzz words out of my mind. Inclusion, misconduct, safety. This could be a smokescreen, but this really makes it seem that players were the ones committing the acts of misconduct. May be nothing, but the coaches being placed on administrative leave seemed almost an afterthought since it wasn't mentioned first. Ii kind of see it like big brother getting punished for something little brother did because they weren't doing a good enough job of babysitting him.

A couple of points to consider. One is that you know there will be a diversity and inclusion probe into this. College baseball is predominantly white (in terms of total players on each team, not quality of the athletes) and then to a lesser extent-Hispanic, but UCD has a less diverse team than most, despite being affiliated with a university that prides itself on diversity. But how do you explain the lack of African-American and Asian-American participants ? I don't think you can without bringing up stereotypes, so I won't address that directly.

I'm thinking overt discriminatiion is perhaps not involved here, but disparate treatment might be. In other words, if you're doing the majority of your recruiting in affluent areas the pool of players may be much less diverse. Now you may be recruiting free of racial bias, but you eliminated many potential student-athletes by narrowing your area of focus to such an extent. If disparate treatment is in any way involved here the university and how it funds the program may be partially to blame.

The other thing to consider is that these players are usually on their best behavior at games (moreso than their opponents usually) but at fall practice games Vaughn (Acosta too I think) is not allowed to attend they can be pretty rowdy, and they rip on each other a lot. It is possible people went too far and whichever assistant was running the show (typically the volunteer I think..they don't even have umpires) dropped the ball in addressing the issue. This seems like more of an in-season problem though involved here.

"But how do you explain the lack of African-American and Asian-American participants ?"

For decades, colleges & universities like UCLA, USC, Howard, HBCU, and urban schools, have been more attractive and closer to SoCal families.

We're a science oriented school - no business school or majors like Recreational Management.

Last I read, there is a nationwide decrease in African Americans playing our pastime. Coach Swimley early in his 'retirement' joined an effort to reduce this trend.

You mentioned a slippery slope - from a potential infraction / hurt feelings, to recruiting.

I guess a potential solution would be to fund recruiting in Los Angeles, but baseball fans here say we have loads of competition in SoCal. We could recruit in the Carribean.

https://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-9792383/UC-Davis-suspends-entire-varsity-baseball-team-misconduct-claims.html

Things processed under guidance of Title IX can be very broad to encompass anything tangentially related to sex, gender, sexuality in education, not just participation levels. Something as benign as a “that’s what she said” joke told in the living room of your own home could be processed as harassment under title IX if the wrong person heard it.

I am getting very dizzy. I have gone around the circle on MBB over lights and coaching and the BWC and the poor seasons of play we have had the past few years more than I choose to recall. But this development pretty much seals the deal for me. I do not care what the final outcome of this potential debacle is, whether it’s a small IX issue, weed in the dugout, or some larger thing that I don’t care to imagine, I think UC Davis MBB is gone, cooked like a goose, disrespected and dead. Not any more UC Davis MBB seasons in our lifetimes. The mind is boggled by this development. Did Blue know and leave? What about the faculty rep that I so recently praised, did he know and do nothing? Matt Vaughn? Once the respected alum and beloved coach, what in heavens name happens to him? Not a happy week in Rocko or Chancellor May’s land this week. Bee will chew on this for the rest of the year: “Hey, this might be better than Katehi, Ha, Ha. . . . . .” Stay tuned, won’t be good.

It happens to be the first year that Faculty Athletic Representative Scott Carrell's son was on the team.

It may very well be that the program is done. If it had been more succesful it would have greater staying power after a challenge like this.

Now in all these discussions of baseball getting cut for financial reasons we've talked about what women's sport would be cut to compensate, but there's one angle we haven't discussed-what if they decide to replace it with another men's sport ? The numbers of potential student-athlete spots doesn't quite match up, but perhaps they're considering adding men's volleyball, which is a Big West sport ?

I feel sympathy for the student-athletes directly impacted by this. What do you do ? If you chose UC Davis for the academics and athletics and the latter is taken from you, do you stick around ? Or do you transfer out and go to a lesser school ?

indeed I too feel bad for any collateral damage participants. New recruits have clearly done nothing wrong. We don’t know yet how many current participants are implicated, but could be a lot of innocent people there too. As for transferring, one- you’re probably not in great demand coming off a 40 loss season, two- how many schools are going to interested at least before the investigation is complete? When the details come out, it better be something severe that justifies all of those impacts to others. If it turns out to be unsubstantiated nonsense or something involving a couple of people that could have been handled over email, then the uninvolved parties will have a real right to be pissed.

As for what happens to the program, these are the options that were laid out in the band controversy and are probably the ones being considered here-
1. Probation, 2. Remove problem participants but otherwise status quo, 3. Reboot under new leadership, 4. One to four year hiatus to reset participant pool, 5. Cancellation. The university under May is into the “front porch ideology” that things like athletics can be a bridge to communities that wouldn’t otherwise interact with the university. In the case of the band, they opted to reboot instead of cancel because the lifetime positive contribution was too great. Does baseball have a relevant place on the front porch? That’s the real question. With the right leadership and financial investments, a W-L record or problem individuals can be solved. To wave the flag of surrender and say baseball is unfixable would seem kind of cowardly without having other strategic reasons. If it were cancelled or replaced, the current events might be a catalyst but I think the ultimate reason would be based on front porch relevance.

I’m not sure if Title IX cares if men’s sports are underrepresented. Pretty sure it’s a one way street the other way. But if baseball were to be replaced with something else, all the normal considerations would apply about facilities, opponents, etc. But I think they would look for a sport that is popular in the San Joaquin valley since the university in general wants to increase enrollment from that area. Not sure if truck pulls or destruction derby count as collegiate sports.

I think we're jumping the gun without any facts or context, especially since baseball has been a part of the community since at least 1912. Unless 'Woke' hysteria rules.

Then again, we lost the Aggie Banduh & Physical Education.

Re scheduling needs: couldn't we have an interim leader, Coach Swimley or such?

The Bee today regurgitates the Cal Aggie Band story, etc. Sports law expert says the last program shutdown - USF basketball 30 years ago?

The Sacramento Bee: Baseball team suspended. Marching band dissolved. Does UC Davis have a culture problem?

I would think that if they planned to have a 2022 season for sure they could appoint a neutral party to handle administrative matters. It is unfair to prospective opponents, however, to be in a position where they don't know whether or not UCD will honor its commitments, and this will put a real roadblock in the way of scheduling non-conference games. Conference games too. Since there's an odd number of teams it's not like they can just plot out games in advance with UCD as a placeholder. If they're still investigating this in the fall they miss the opportunity to schedule alternate opponents.

The players cannot enter the spring 2022 season with a severely reduced practice schedule. They miss their fall practice and that's it. Aside from reduced competitiveness it's also a situation where more injuries could happen.

We do have a few facts.

1. The team is suspended, as are the players and coaches.

2. The parties conducting the preliminary investigation believe it will continue well into the fall.

3. Until the investigation is completed no one is competing, coaching, or practicing for the UCD baseball.

4. The university felt the need to highlight safety and inclusion in its statrment. They also emphasized that it is the team (as opposed to the department) that is accused of the misconduct.

F**k the Bee. Not even suitable to line a birdcage. Really reaching to make something out of nothing.

SacBee: UC Davis chancellor confirms hazing is tied to suspension of baseball team, coaches

"Hazing allegations are at the root of why the UC Davis baseball program was placed on suspension Thursday by the school administration, according to a statement posted online Friday by UCD chancellor Gary S. May.

"May wrote to UCD faculty and staff and in a statement posted midway through a page on the UCD website under the headline “Checking in with Chancellor May: Onward Toward Fall”: “I know many of you have read or heard that we have suspended the baseball team pending an investigation. We are responding to credible allegations of misconduct primarily related to hazing. A thorough investigation is underway, and we will take appropriate action at the conclusion of the investigation.”

"May concluded the statement with, “Let me be clear that whenever there are credible allegations of misconduct of any kind, the university will take appropriate steps to review those claims. The university has a posture of zero tolerance with respect to hazing. Our students’ health and well-being is our No. 1 priority.” ..."

Oh,who called that one ???!!! *MC HAMMER DANCE*

1. I'm surprised the Chancellor said anything.

2. A 4 month or more investigation, when they already have some type of solid evidence & corroboration?

I'm surprised the Chancellor said anything.
Certainly not the sharpest tool in the tool box. Not a fan!