File photo WVU’s Steve Sabins is shown from a contest from this past season.

MORGANTOWN — Earlier this month, Steve Sabins was named National Collegiate Baseball Writers Association Coach of the Year for the job he did in managing West Virginia into the College World Series and into the Final Four of that event and rightfully had praise heaped upon him for the job he did in leading them there.

But, as universally accepted as that honor was throughout the sport and the media is, it didn’t go far enough in recognizing what he did in carrying on shaping the program whose structure had been created by Randy Mazey and upon which he had built his own philosophies.

A recent post on X from the 1986-92 Pirates served as a reminder that Sabins’ managerial style — knowingly or not — had roots in the style that carried Jim Leyland into the Hall of Fame in Cooperstown last year.

“A plethora of Pirates notes in the 6/28/92 South Florida Sun Sentinel (picked up from a notes column I had written…can it really be 34 years ago in the Pittsburgh Press?), including this gem from Leyland, on playing Jeff King at 5 positions: 1B, 2B, 3B, SS & RF: “In the National League, you have to get guys who can do as many things as possible.”

While baseball was very different then, what wasn’t different was what Leyland had used to make a very good team better and that was elevating the value of a player who can help at more than one position. Now baseball always had valued the “utility player”, normally a back-up player who was used to fill in where needed for short periods of time.

The always entertaining Chico Ruiz of the Cincinnati Reds had elevated the public perception of this role when he was once called upon to play shortstop for the injured Leo Cardenas for more than a week when he burst into manager Dave Bristol’s office with a new twist on the baseball ultimatum where a little-used player demands “play me or trade me.”

“Bench me or trade me,” Ruiz demanded, comically inferring he was tired from playing so much.

When you consider what made Sabins’ team so intriguing it was the way it was constructed with interchangeable parts, most notably Armani Guzman, whom he used as a regular player, not at one position but instead at first base — which he never had played before this year — or the outfield after last season having played him at third base in the postseason, another position he had never played before.

This was not part of a platoon system, but set up a situation that he could play first base or move to the outfield, allowing Sabins to move his All-American catcher Gavin Kelly to second base and his second baseman, who was last season’s shortstop, Brodie Kresser, to first base while moving left-fielder Matthew Graveline into Kelly’s catching position.

Such versatility allowed Sabins to give a needed day off to some players, to give them a fresh look at the game from a different position, to take advantage of pitcher-batter matchups and generally give opposing teams far more complicated game preps.

At the same time, this was increasing all of their draft value while increasing his managerial options throughout the season.

King was an interesting study when looking at Guzman or Kelly, for in 1986, he was National Collegiate Player of the Year at Arkansas and the Pirates’ choice as the No. 1 pick in the free agent draft.

He wound up with an 11-year major league career, playing 586 games at third base, 488 at first base, 121 at second, 19 at DH with the Kansas City Royals, 11 at shortstop and one in the outfield.

While he wasn’t a star, he did develop into a very good power hitter toward the end of his career as he hit .271 with 30 homers, 111 RBI and 15 steals in 1996, .238 with 28 homers and 112 RBI in 1997 and .263 with 24 homers and 93 RBI in 1998.

While Guzman’s style relies on speed, not power, as his greatest weapon, one can project him being used very much like King.

In fact, it got to the point that during the College World Series Sabins said of him, “I don’t know if he’s a first baseman that plays right or a right fielder that plays first. Or he tells me he’s a shortstop. So, all of those are probably true. In the future, I think he may even change positions for us. If he returns to West Virginia, he’s a guy that could definitely play middle infield, could play second base. He played third base in the regional and the Super (Regional) last year for us.

“And so being able to put his athleticism in the middle of the diamond is a progression that I would really like to make. He’s also one of the most selfless guys, with the highest baseball IQ guys that I’ve ever coached. So the reason he’s at first is because he is selfless.”

And as for Kelly, it is fair to compare his future as having the look of Craig Biggio’s, who went from being catcher with the Houston Astros to being a centerfielder and then a Hall of Fame second baseman.

He wound up with a 20-year career, which he might not have seen had he spent all of it taking the physical stress that comes with being behind home plate.