Phill Casaus: An ex-coach puts a little pizazz in Portales

Mar. 11—I used to say Portales was the only town in the world where the neutron bomb had been successfully tested. The buildings are intact, but no people walk the streets.

Kidding, Portales! Just kidding.

(Sort of.)

Still, the sleepy little college town on New Mexico's eastern plains had better get ready. Ray Birmingham is about to roll into a regent's parking spot at Eastern New Mexico University.

P-Ville, you might want to order a few hundred cases of Red Bull, just to prepare. The newest regent on campus is not the shy, retiring type. Even in retirement.

Ray Birmingham? Mister New Mexico. Mister Baseball. Mister Positive.

And now, Eastern New Mexico U.

If Gov. Michelle Lujan Grisham catches some well-earned scrutiny (or hell) for some of her nominees to boards of regents throughout the state, the cheering she'll doubtless hear will come from Roosevelt County, where Birmingham's decades of commitment to education, uncommonly deep knowledge of New Mexico and honest-to-Pete, sunny side-up mentality make this one decision the guv won't have to sweat.

Which, given the state of Lujan Grisham's recent personnel decisions, is a welcome change.

Birmingham is the retired former baseball coach at the University of New Mexico, where he led what had been a long underachieving program to four NCAA Tournament appearances and basically constructed a 21st century stadium through the force of his own personality.

Before that, he'd coached New Mexico Junior College to significance, winning a pair of JUCO national titles. Before that, he coached and taught in Las Cruces. Before that, he graduated from New Mexico State. Before that, he was a public school kid in Hobbs. A lot of appointees have great résumés and better bank accounts, but few have the I-know-him/her contacts list in this state like Birmingham.

Even fewer have his viral enthusiasm.

"I am excited," Birmingham said last week by phone. "Education's a big deal to me in New Mexico. And wherever I can have a position of some substance where I can make a big difference, then I'm excited."

Truth be told, Birmingham wasn't looking for an appointment to anything, except maybe lunch with a friend or 20. But when Lt. Gov. Howie Morales, a fellow ex-baseball coach, started taking his temperature about a regent appointment, Birmingham figured it might be for a spot at Western New Mexico, where the school is rumored to be starting a baseball program.

But in a subsequent conversation with the governor, Birmingham learned he was off by about 390 miles. His destination, if not destiny, was Portales, not Silver City.

Either way, Birmingham's fine.

Asked about why he'd want to become a regent, Birmingham fired back, "Because we're 50th [in education]. I'm tired of 50th. And I want to find a way to be in the mix where maybe I can motivate enough people to change that. You know, there's a lot of people who say 'There's no way.' I've always been that guy who says like, 'OK, well, cool. Well, do you mind if I try? Because I'm about to show you.'

"There is a way. And that's my motivation. And you know, New Mexico's a big deal to me. Always has been. The kids, the people."

You think Ray Birmingham just talks this way to a reporter? He's this way around waiters, with the clerk at Allsup's, with the bank president. But maybe that shouldn't be a surprise, and not just because he's an ex-coach. He says in the '70s, he got addicted to Zig Ziglar, which sounds like a weird drug but actually was one of the best-known and popular motivational speakers of the day.

"That was me," Birmingham said. "I listened to every tape, read every book, bought it all, and felt like that was right. That's how I'm gonna go about my life: the can-do spirit, thinking all that stuff."

OK, so before we go any further, yes, Birmingham has donated to Lujan Grisham's campaigns. And he knew her, too, having coached the future governor to throw, hit and catch before a congressional softball game.

"But I've donated to a lot of people, you know?" Birmingham said. "I haven't been in politics very deeply, and I don't really have much of a taste for it. But I do care about people and I do know that I want to find out about them when they're not being pretentious."

Fortunately, there's nothing pretentious about Eastern New Mexico, which has an enrollment of about 4,000 students. I mean that in the most complimentary way. Its alums love their alma mater as much, if not more, than any Lobo or Aggie grad. But when you're closer to Amarillo than Albuquerque, you sometimes get forgotten in New Mexico.

That won't happen now that Birmingham joins the board. And yeah, though he's an ex-jock, I don't for a minute think he'll be giving the hit-and-run sign during a budget discussion.

But do I think this is an appointment that'll put a little pizazz in Portales and give MLG a much-needed win?

Oh, yes.

Phill Casaus is editor of The New Mexican.