Erik Bakich still has vivid memories of a simple life he was living two decades ago in large part because it had to be.
In 2002, Clemson’s new baseball coach was just getting started in the profession. Bakich was in his first year coaching as a member of former Clemson coach Jack Leggett’s staff, a group of rising stars that included current Vanderbilt coach Tim Corbin and Kevin O’Sullivan, now the head coach at Florida.
As a volunteer assistant at the time, Bakich didn’t do much outside of coaching. He remembers a Peppino’s Pizzeria down the street from his office that he frequently visited. The same goes for a local $2 movie theater, Bakich recalled, because he didn’t have cable television.
“I didn’t have much of a life to be honest with you,” Bakich said. “It was just coaching.”
Bakich said he still doesn’t have many hobbies outside of coaching, but a lot has changed for him and the program he’s returning to 20 years later.
Affording cable is no longer an issue for Bakich, who’s now going on his 14th year as a head coach. Bakich, who received a $400,000 bonus for signing a six-year contract that will pay him $850,000 in the first year, doubled his salary by making the move to Clemson from Michigan, where he spent the last decade leading the Wolverines’ program.
That Peppino’s Pizzeria has since relocated, and the Astro Triple theater, where Bakich frequently watched all those movies for cheap, is no longer in operation. And upon seeing Clemson’s baseball facilities last week once his hire was official, Bakich knew those weren’t the extent of the alterations.
Yet there was a sense of familiarity for him.
“It was a title wave of just almost like nostalgia and how you feel about something the first time you did it,” Bakich said. “It holds a special place.”
The renovations and upgrades were evident, but being back in and around Doug Kingsmore Stadium mentally sent Bakich right back to his lone season on Leggett’s staff. He remembered the batting cages where he said he worked with former All-America first baseman Michael Johnson on his swing, sometimes until the wee hours of the morning. Bakich also recalled Johnson – one of three Tigers to hit at least 25 home runs during Clemson’s Omaha run in ‘02 – swatting one of his homers into a tree well beyond the outfield fence, but Bakich said there’s now a light pole where that tree used to stand.
For Bakich, returning to Clemson is going back to the future.
“All that stuff, it just rushed back,” Bakich said. “I’ve been kind of just going down memory lane quite a bit, and I’m thrilled to get to wear the Tiger Paw again and say I’m part of the Clemson family.”
