DAVIS, Calif. -- When Ralph Rago finally announced the end of his coaching career, the local baseball world noticed. 

The former UC Davis assistant earned loving tributes from both Bruce Gallaudet of the Davis Enterprise and Joe Davidson of the Sacramento Bee, and for good reason: Rago graduated from Fresno State the same year Mickey Mantle won the Triple Crown, and yet at the age of 87, he was still hitting fungoes to teenagers at Capital Christian High School. The Cougars' 2020 season would have been Rago's 62nd of coaching. Instead, the COVID-19 pandemic shut down the schedule and Rago considered that a good stopping point to finally hang it up. 

To put this longevity into baseball context, consider the following: Joe Torre and Bobby Cox both entered the National Baseball Hall of Fame in 2014 for managerial careers that each ended more than a decade ago. Now realize that Rago is seven years older than Torre, and eight years Cox's senior. Rago was born the same year as Tito Francona, father of current Cleveland manager Terry Francona; Pumpsie Green, the first black player in Red Sox history; and Marvelous Marv Throneberry, a fan favorite on the original 1962 New York Mets team. 

Not since Satchel Paige has the term "ageless wonder" been so aptly applied to a baseball man. (For what it's worth, Rago's fellow Capital Christian coach, Guy Anderson, is also 87 and still coaching.)

As much as he extended his career through his 60s, 70s and 80s, Rago admits that finally stepping away from the game was not a difficult decision. Pain in his back had worn on him, plus retirement means he no longer has to navigate the commute to CCHS, which located in the Rosemont area of Sacramento. "Each year, trying to come home, the traffic at night seemed to get heavier and heavier," Rago said.

However, even in retirement, Rago will still do his part to make UC Davis ballplayers better. That part was true before he joined head coach Phil Swimley's staff in the late 1980s, and remained so long after he stopped wearing his No. 16 Aggie pinstripes. After all, Rago was one of the key volunteers who helped build what is now Dobbins Stadium, and has remained a steady financial contributor to the program in recent years.

Thus, when the Baseball Facilities Enhancement Fund was launched (link above), UC Davis athletics development director Liz Martin convinced Rago to pivot his annual giving into a five-year commitment toward the campaign's primary project: a covered training facility featuring four batting tunnels, three bullpens and a retractable net that allows for fielding drills.

Last February, the athletics department held a dedication ceremony for that project, with Rago among a few dozen alumni and program dignitaries to receive deserved recognition. Earl Koberlein, a star pitcher in the 1960s; and Denny Holmes, a team captain during the Aggies' 32-win 1972 season provided two of the lead gifts. Both Koberlein and Holmes have batting tunnels named for them, as does John Watson, a UC Davis golf alumnus and the former CEO of Chevron. (Sean Watson, John's son, pitched for the Aggies in the late 2000s.)

In other words, Rago's contribution to the project continues his coaching legacy at UC Davis. No, he is no longer a coach and as such, no longer perches on one knee to run soft toss drills to the Aggie hitters. Still, Rago can take pride that the facility will help UC Davis baseball playersto improve for years to come, and allow the program to continue ascending the tough Big West Conference. 

"I was happy to contribute that amount of money. It's what Matt [Vaughn] and the program really needed," said Rago, referring to his former co-assistant and the current head UC Davis baseball coach. "With the covered cages, they can go in there during rainy weather and hit or even take ground balls."

Indeed, Rago recalls the days when inclement conditions forced the UC Davis baseball team indoors. The Aggies ran drills in Hickey Gym, vying for floor time with other student-athletes looking to avoid the same weather. The new baseball facility means an end to scheduling conflicts with other teams, a farewell to fielding grounders on a hardwood floor. Best yet, the cages' canopy and lighting allows the players to remain on the Dobbins site and get in their hacks until well into the evening at any time of year. 

"Had we had the cages to bat in during bad weather, we could have been a lot more successful," Rago said, of his time with UC Davis baseball. 

In fairness, the Aggies enjoyed some of their best seasons in program history during Rago's span at Swimley's side from 1987 through 2002. The 1990 team ended an 11-year NCAA postseason drought, only to fall to eventual runner-up CSUN at the West Regional. The 1993 and 1994 teams combined for a 90-26 record, continually ranking among the national top five. Then the 1995 UC Davis squad hosted and won the West Regional, thus earning the program's first-ever trip to the Division II College World Series.

As Martin notes, several of the names that join Rago's on the facility donor wall belong to student-athletes whose careers he impacted. Jason Shapiro was an All-American on the 1994 team, while Greg Morris rated among the top Aggie hitters from that same span. Colby Craig, now Swimley's son-in-law, was the staff ace for the 1995 regional champs. John Dietz earned a spot on the program's All-Century Defensive Team. Robby Tulk and Matt Kamigawachi, now members of the Cal Aggie Athletics Hall of Fame, were sophomores in Rago's final year on the UC Davis staff. 

Pete Soskin, Cody Noghera, Derek Wilson, Ryan Conners-Copeland, Mike Norris, Dave McKae, Aaron Patella and Vaughn himself are UC Davis players whose careers spanned Rago's Aggie tenure, and either their names or that of their families grace that donor board.

"I enjoyed my experience there," says Rago. "It was a great experience. I got to work with Swim and with Matt Vaughn, who of course is now the head coach. I worked with Steve Jones, who is now the head coach at Texas A&M-Texarkana."

Rago's actual service time as Swimley's right-hand man with the Aggies represents only a small fraction of his long coaching career, but his relationship with the university and its athletics program dates back much further. His American Legion coach played for UC Davis during before World War II, and a couple of his fastpitch softball teammates were state milk inspectors who were certified at the old University Farm.

When Rago graduated from Los Banos High School in 1951, he was encouraged to consider UC Davis. However, the school was still little more than an agricultural branch of the University of California at that time, and he already had his sights on becoming a coach and a P.E. teacher. Rago earned a scholarship to play football and baseball at Fresno State.

In 1961, with two years of high school coaching under his belt, Rago came to Davis to form a three-man coaching staff alongside Bud Henle and Royal Morrison at Davis High. That trio essentially ran the entire athletics department, with Rago even coaching tennis and launching a boys' swimming program. In fact, veteran Davis Enterprise columnist and sportswriter Bob Dunning played No. 1 singles for Rago's tennis team. 

For that matter, Morrison should be a familiar name to many Aggie fans: he took over the Davis Sport Shop from George Belenis in the 1960s and ran the store for most of the next decade until selling it to John Patella in 1978. Furthermore, when Pam Gill took a sabbatical year off in 1979-80, Morrison stepped in as interim head coach for women's basketball – and guided the Aggies to its first 20-win season in history.

"Back then, they had a Monday Morning Quarterback Club breakfast. That's when I got to know the UC Davis head coaches, like Will Lotter, Herb Schmalenberger and Bob Brooks," Rago recalls. "And that's how I got to know Swim." A former Yankee prospect, Swimley arrived at UC Davis in 1965 to coach baseball and assist with football, similar to what Rago was doing at DHS. Lakie then moved to the front office to replace Vern Hickey as athletics director, putting Swimley at the baseball helm in 1966. 

Rago helped Swimley coach annual summer camps, and reguarly attended Aggie baseball games at the old home diamond, then located adjacent to Toomey Field. The fence along the west side of what is now the university's track-only facility served as the right-field wall for baseball. Areas of the old baseball field are now occupied by the beach volleyball courts and some of the North Entry Parking Structure, making it even more difficult for younger Aggie fans to visualize the environment.

When a massive volunteer effort was launched to build a new baseball stadium near Recreation Hall (now known as the Pavilion), Rago joined the cause. "I was just one of the laborers out there," he says. "There were some of us who put more than 15,000 hours on the field. I remember the first summer, we were out there from sun-up to sundown. The wives of the guys would come out and bring us lunch."

Among the most tireless workers to the stadium project was Jerry Ling, one of the inaugural winners of the Cal Aggie Athletics Hall of Fame Special Recognition Award for volunteer contributions to the department. Ling and Rago started an American Legion team in Davis – yet another entry on Rago's list of coaching credits. 

During the many arduous days working on the stadium, Swimley was himself in a bind: he was short-staffed, and needed some help with fall ball. He turned to Rago, who by then was no longer coaching Davis High football and thus had more time in the fall. "One thing led to another," said Rago, "and it just went from there." 

During his tenure as Swimley's assistant, Rago took a hiatus to serve as Director of Game Development for the British national and junior national baseball teams. Under his guidance, Great Britain went 6-0 at the European 'B' Championship for its first international title in eight years. This moved them up to 'A tier for 1997, during which they posted late wins over Germany and Slovenia to secure a ninth-place finish. The star pitcher from those teams, Gavin Marshall, later became the first British player to sign a U.S. professional contract. For his part, Rago earned European Coach of the Year honors for the 1996 crown. He returned to the Aggies in 1999, and remained on staff until Swimley's retirement in 2002.

Rago's ambassadorship saw him devote an additional 15 years as a Major League Baseball envoy, during which he taught the game on three total continents: Europe, Africa and North America. He assisted one of his former pupils, Davis High head coach Dan Ariola, and helped the Blue Devils win a pair of Sac-Joaquin Section titles in the early 2000s. Rago further coached the Solano Thunderbirds, the independent wood bat team in Vacaville, and at Solano College. He then joined Guy Anderson at Cordova High School and followed him to Capital Christian, a span in which Rago earned induction into the American Baseball Coaches Association Hall of Fame.  

With coaching in the rearview mirrow, expect to still see Rago out at UC Davis baseball games, whenever that opportunity returns. "I'd like to see them win the league, get back to the playoffs and go to Omaha for the College World Series," he says.

Needless to say, the efforts of Rago – and all of the donors to the batting cages project – brought the Aggies a few steps closer to that goal.

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