Slimak Will Try to Make Name for Himself as CLU Coach : College baseball: He replaces Hill, who built Cal Lutheran into a Division III power, then took Division I job.

Marty Slimak is now a head baseball coach, but it appears that his rather ambiguous existence still is going to last a while.

As expected, Cal Lutheran on Tuesday announced that Slimak, the Kingsmen’s pitching coach the past four seasons, has been hired to replace Rich Hill.

Slimak received word in midafternoon that he had received the obligatory rubber stamp from top school administrators.

A few hours later, he was out at a Little League field. No, not recruiting. Slimak was watching his son Taylor, 12, who was playing in an all-star tournament on a field at Colina Intermediate School in Thousand Oaks.

And then, just in case Slimak might be feeling a bit too cheery, reality struck via the public address announcer:

” . . . . No. 10, Taylor Slime-er. Er, uh, Slime-ak. That’s Taylor Slime-ak,” the man stammered during introductions.

“Slim-ak. It’s Slim-ak,” the coach said quietly. Just like it’s spelled.

Even in a one-university town, Slimak has quite a ways to go before he makes a name for himself--at least one that is pronounced accurately.

Slimak, 40, has been a man behind the scenes as Cal Lutheran has climbed the ladder in recent years to take a prominent place among NCAA Division III baseball programs.

As pitching coach, Slimak is credited with molding the Kingsmen pitching staff into one of the strongest small college units in the nation.

But Hill, who has taken over as coach at the University of San Francisco, was the vocal point for most of the credit. “When I first came in, I never had any intentions of being the head coach here,” Slimak said. “I told Rich, the only reason I’d coach here is to go after the end result, a national championship.

“He looked at me and said, ‘Hey man, that’s exactly what I want to do.’ For four years, that was our goal.”

Cal Lutheran still hasn’t won a national title, but in 1992 the Kingsmen came close. Leading in the ninth inning of the title game, Cal Lutheran lost to William Paterson (N.J.) College, 3-1. Last season, the top-ranked Kingsmen bowed out of the double-elimination national tournament in two games.

Still, Cal Lutheran’s combined record the past two seasons is 75-15. Expectations, even for a team losing a dozen key players, will remain high.

“We’re going to have some adversity this year, no question about it,” Slimak said. “We’re going to be expected to do this and that, and we might be giving it all we’ve got and it might not work out.”

Slimak might prefer Hill’s new position. San Francisco was 8-44 last season, in last place, 19 games behind Pepperdine in the West Coast Conference.

“It’s true that Rich is in a little better situation up there,” Slimak said. “If he wins 15 games, he’s a savior. If he wins only nine, he’s still better than the last guy. If we don’t win 20 to 25 here, it’s going to be like, ‘What happened?’ ”

Slimak’s success on the recruiting trail likely will make or break his future. He hopes so. Selling happens to be his forte.

After two seasons of junior college baseball at College of the Canyons, a year playing tight end for Texas El Paso, and two more years playing baseball at UC Santa Barbara, Slimak was a success in the business world long before he came to Cal Lutheran.

He owned his own company, which marketed fashion accessories, and he had a long and profitable association with Bob Weiland, a master fund-raiser and inspirational speaker.

Weiland was a professional baseball prospect before he lost his legs during combat in the Vietnam War. Weiland later resumed his athletic career, becoming a world record-breaking weightlifter and a renowned race walker.

Weiland raced on his hands. He also founded the Spirit of America Corp., touring the nation to give speaking engagements and coordinate fund-raising events.

Slimak organized the events and took care of the details. Weiland gave speeches and took part in races or walkathons. The corporation got a percentage of whatever funds were raised.

The highlight of Slimak’s association with Weiland took place in 1988 when Weiland took part in a coast-to-coast bike race, the Race Across America. Top competitors completed the race in a little more than seven days. Weiland, pedaling a specially made vehicle with his hands and stopping to do promotional work along the way, took almost a month.

In the meantime, business was brisk in the accessories trade. Until the day Slimak looked at his wife and said, “Donna, I want to get back into coaching.”

He just happened to call Hill at the right time.

“He was struggling a little,” Slimak said. “He really didn’t have a staff. We came a long way fast.”

Last week, soon after accepting San Francisco’s offer, Hill called Slimak with the news. They exchanged pleasantries before Hill needled his former assistant about recruiting.

“He said, ‘OK, you’d better take out a pencil and paper,’ ” Slimak recalled. “I’m going to tell you who I’m going to take.’ ”

Slimak’s reply: “OK, you tell me who you think you’re gonna take.”

“We chuckled about it, but I’ll tell you what, out of the seven names he gave me, he already has two or three,” Slimak said. “And the bad thing is, six of the seven were pitchers, which is what we really need.”

Coaches from schools like USF, which can offer scholarships, always will have that edge. The Cal Lutheran program still has survived.

“I’m not going to make any promises about how many we’re going to win or how we’re going to do,” Slimak said. “I just know the purple and gold and the tradition is still going to be out there.”