Well let's see here. UCLA baseball wins its first national championship in its igniting the entire Bruin Nation. The whole UCLA community is all fired up after the Bruins put together a dominating run through NCAA tournament and the CWS establishing themselves as the new power from the West Coast.
So how does Dan Guerrero - you know the former UCLA baseball player who likes to be known as the "warrior" - do to show his appreciation for Coach John Savage and his program?
Well reportedly Guerrero showed his appreciation for Savage and his boys by heading to Italy and ditching the official "championship celebration" the athletic department was hosting at Jackie Robinson Field.
No, apparently this is not a joke. Chrisorr fanshotted this already. And we have confirmation from others including uclaluv and Ryan who were at the ceremony. Guerrero couldn't be bothered to show up at the championship celebration because he was headed to Italy. Apparently it's too much to ask for from someone who makes almost $1 million per year to change his flight so he could be around in person to celebrate one of the more meaningful championships from the UCLA athletic department in recent years.
Meanwhile, Chancellor Gene Block also couldn't be bothered with celebrating the championship as if he was off to Russia. Rhea Turteltuab, the Vice Chancellor for UCLA's External Affairs was there (as shown in the video above) but neither Guerrero nor Block couldn't be bothered to show up.
As mentioned before Guerrero wasted no time in making himself visible after the Bruins won our first national championship. This after his department has basically done nothing substantial to promote Savage's program while other Pac-12 teams continued to invest resources in improving their facilities. Guerrero has never really bothered to show up at games giving this program any kind of visible support over the years.
So this shouldn't be a surprise. Of course his apologists are out there spinning away nonsense about how Guerrero somehow deserves credit for Savage's accomplishments but what happened today just makes it pretty clear. We have a tonedeaf and incompetent athletic director (and a checked out Chancellor) who rather be chugging Chianti in Italy than spending time caring about his athletic program.
GO BRUINS.