Earl Weaver, one of baseball's legendary gurus and mastermind of the Baltimore Orioles machine in the early 1980s, subscribed to the simplest of offensive philosophies.

"Give me the three-run homer," Weaver was fond of saying. "I don't want to worry about somebody missing a sign or lousing up a bunt. Just give me the three-run homer."

Weaver's formula has become hardball shorthand for the quick-strike offense, the lineup capable of breaking a game open with one or two well-timed drives. And that approach rules in college baseball's dominant South and Midwest.

Harvard Coach Joe Walsh, something of a guru in his own right, won't turn down any three-run homers, but he certainly isn't looking for them.

"We try to do some of the little things in each ballgame to get guys on base," Walsh said. "We rely on the bunt, we rely on the hit-and-run, we try to steal bases. If we can do those things, we're going to score some runs. If we try to rely on guys going yard each time, we're not going to have much success at all."

Walsh can probably afford to be iconoclastic. In two short seasons, his brand of scrappy, throw back baseball has turned a team that finished last in 1995 with a 10-25 record into a two-time division champion and a giant-killer of the first order.

Walsh's Crimson last season posted what was arguably the finest campaign in Harvard baseball history, finishing 34-16 (20-3 Ivy) with wins over ranked teams Miami, UMass, and, famously, eventual College World Series participant UCLA.

But as the Crimson departs for its annual Florida spring training trip, more is on the table than a warm-up for another Ivy cakewalk. Harvard must address several key questions--foremost among them its revamped pitching rotation--in preparation for April and the beginning of league play.

Outfield of Dreams

The Crimson returns three starters to what must rightly be called the Ancient Eight's best outfield. Harvard's defensive anchor and defending Ivy League Player of the Year, senior Brian Ralph, will patrol centerfield and pull down superlatives from around the League for his leather.

"Defensively, Ralph is as good as anybody in the country," Walsh said. "Our pitching staff really believes in throwing strikes, because anything up in the air, Ralph's got a chance to get."

Ralph twins his top-notch defense with a potent offensive package as well. He led the Crimson in batting average at 390, adding six home runs and 36 RBI, murdering left-handed pitching all season.

A true sparkplug in the top of the order, Ralph mixes a consistently dangerous potential to go deep with an awareness of the short game and aggressiveness on the basepath.

Flanking Ralph are senior Aaron Kessler in left and junior jack-of-all-trades Andrew Huling in right.

"Kessler has great speed," Walsh said. "He knows how to play hitters and he knows how to play hitters and he knows our ballpark extremely well. He plays an extremely shallow left and takes away base knocks from a lot of hitters."