Matador Hall of Fame Spotlight: Perry Husband

While in the thick of a championship run in the Division II College World Series, one of Perry Husband's defining Matador moments would take place.

A day after going 8-for-11 in a doubleheader, Husband was asked by head coach Bob Hiegert to show bunt then swing away multiple times against Florida Southern. A dejected Husband, who felt he should just be swinging away, did what he was told.

In his third at-bat, Husband was struck by a 0-2 fastball to the jaw. According to him, the blow knocked him out briefly.

Seeing his hottest hitter go down, Hiegert had intentions of taking Husband out of the game.

"I was having none of it," said Husband. "We had a really brief discussion."

Husband rebounded to help CSUN win the school's second national title.

Inducted into the Matador Hall of Fame in 2004, Husband lettered three seasons from 1982-84. A career .328 hitter, Husband hit a personal-best .351 as a senior, capped off by a College World Series MVP award.

A member of one of the top teams in Matador history, Husband went on to play professionally in the Minnesota Twins organization. But his contributions to the game were far from done following his retirement. After taking up coaching, Husband has since become a prominent figure in the world of baseball science.
Perry Husband

However, his storybook ending to his Matador career had humbling beginnings. Four years before his MVP performance, he was a walk-on hopeful.

Husband was coming off a successful prep career at Quartz Hill High School where he played three sports. He was an all-league selection in baseball and was named the school's athlete of the year.

"I was a 5-foot-7, 135-pound senior," said Husband. "I did play varsity as a sophomore and I think I was the fourth or fifth guy ever to do that there."

Despite his success, Husband was unclear where he would play college baseball.

Husband decided to try out for the Matadors. However, his first meeting with Hiegert was an auspicious one.

"I ran up to Hiegert and he didn't even slow down," said Husband. "I told him I decided to come to his school but he didn't have any idea who I was."

Husband stayed with the Matadors through the fall but was told he wouldn't start in the spring. As a result, he decided to play for Antelope Valley College, which was managed at the time by future Baltimore Orioles manager Dave Trembley.

"When I went to JC, it was a step down for sure but I hit like .199 at CSUN," said Husband. "In my mind though I thought I was so much better than these junior college kids."

After being told by Trembley that a player from Allan Hancock College was leading the state in hitting, it didn't sit too well with Husband.

"I thought to myself 'oh hell no, that's not happening on my watch,'" remembered Husband. "No J.C. kid is beating me. Then I went on this crazy mental vision quest to lead the state in hitting."

Husband hit .439 for the season including setting a national record with a 32-game hitting streak. Becoming the top hitter in the state, his accomplishments drew the attention of a familiar face back in Northridge.

"Hiegert called me back every day for two weeks during that time," said Husband.

With new-found confidence, Husband returned to CSUN and soon earned a starting job at second base. As a sophomore, Husband hit just under .300 in helping CSUN advance to the 1982 postseason.

Under Hiegert, the Matadors were no strangers to the NCAA Tournament. A perennial Division II title contender, CSUN also held its own against the best Division I teams.

"We were an above-average Division II baseball team but based on what we did against Division I teams, I would put us near the top of D1 programs," said Husband. "We beat Joe Magrane (Arizona), we beat an Arizona State team with Barry Bonds in left field and we lost 2-1 to Randy Johnson and USC – we were beating him 1-0 in the ninth. Our record against them speaks a lot of Hiegert and how we went about his business."

Over 18 seasons (1967-84), Hiegert led the program to 11 NCAA Regionals and five College World Series, winning two national titles.

"He's brilliant," said Husband about Hiegert. "I took a coaching baseball class he taught and I was so impressed with the depth of thought that went into designing practice and every single detail. I saw tons of players that came out of his program that went on to coach and I never saw one of them not follow his thought process. I never had a better coach."

Under the direction of Hiegert, the Matadors were not only successful, they were also a tough-minded group that didn't shy away from competition. According to Husband, Jim Walker – a teammate of Husband for two seasons – epitomized that toughness.

"The junior college coach that Walker played for would have a fundraiser where they put up a boxing ring and had people pay to go one round," recalled Husband. "For two years, Walker was undefeated. He was so tough even though he threw about 85."

Walker is third in school history with 26 wins while tallying 19 complete games in two seasons. He is one of the many players from that era that produced staggering numbers for CSUN.

In 1984, the team fielded a loaded squad, led by offensive machine Mike Solomon who hit above .400. Husband was third on the team in batting (.394), racking up 92 hits.

"The tone was super competitive within our team," said Husband. "Getting on the bus, you experienced non-stop verbal abuse. That was a big part of the game back then. When the other team was trying to get in our heads, we were extremely good in dealing with that because we did that to ourselves, and way worse too."
Perry Husband

CSUN's high-powered offense averaged eight runs per game en route to a school-record 38 regular-season wins. While reaching that milestone was impressive, the Matadors still had one other goal to reach.

"For about a month, we started this thing where we came together, as crazy as we were, and we would put our hands in. We asked what the ring would feel like," said Husband. "It was one of those powerful things that helped us when we got down."

After going 3-1 in the regionals, CSUN returned to the College World Series and began with a 17-2 win over South Dakota State. The mood changed quickly, however, when the Matadors fell to Florida Southern in their second game.

Forced to the brink of elimination, Hiegert decided to take his team to the movie theater ahead of their next game.

"Hiegert took us to the Natural," said Husband. "In the movie, when something cool was going to happen there would always be lightning. We came out of that movie so fired up that guys started taking sharpies and drawing lightning bolts over everything.

"We were stretching before our next game, the clouds came over us and we saw a little bit of lightning," continued Husband. "We knew it was on."

With newfound inspiration, the Matadors went on to outscore their opponents 41-12 over the next four games. CSUN also gained a measure of revenge, beating Florida Southern consecutive times to clinch the title.

"Winning the World Series was something we set out to do and we committed to it as opposed to giving it lip service," said Husband. "Every aspect of our team was good. We were fast, we had great defense and we had outstanding pitching."

Similar to his junior college season where he led the state in hitting, Husband's MVP award was another mental vision quest realized.

"In my head, it was I will win the MVP," said Husband. "Solomon carried us offensively throughout the year – he was a stud. I knew that if I beat him in the series, then that meant we're going to be really good."

Five Matadors were selected in that year's MLB First-Year Player Draft including Husband who went in the 16th round to the Minnesota Twins. He played two years professionally, managing second base where he formed a relationship with future MLB All-Star and World Series champion, Jay Bell.

The duo became a formidable unit up the middle for the Twins' rookie ball team before moving up to the Class-A ranks. While developing a bond off the field, the tandem broke the double plays record in their first year together. The next season, they were on pace to break the California League record before Bell was traded.

"They called us into the office one time and told us that we would be going to the Big Leagues as a combo in the future," said Husband. "After Jay was traded, it was like the whole world changed."
Perry Husband Instructing

After retiring from baseball, Husband took up instruction as a golf teacher and a baseball coach in the American Legion and at Antelope Valley College. He also opened and operated a baseball academy in his hometown of Quartz Hill. It was in his instruction where he developed a passion for baseball science.

Husband introduced a new way of approaching pitching and batting. His work led to the theory of effective velocity (EV), which studies pitch speeds and how location changes the reaction time for hitters.

In his testing, he enlisted the services of Bell, who at the time was playing for the Arizona Diamondbacks. The testing measured whether Bell was early or late and up or down on contact when trying to hit the ball to a location. Husband also measured Bell's timing with his foot and the effectiveness of hitting the ball to different locations.

"The video we did was the first time anyone has ever done exit velocity and launch angles," said Husband. "We used both to add 10 miles per hour to his exit velocity on his swing."

Husband went on to work with Boston Red Sox hitting coach Tim Hyers, testing 200 high school players to further examine effective velocity. His testing included keeping the pitch speed constant but moving the ball to different points of the strike zone to see how effective of a swing the batters could produce.

"It showed that hitters average .187 hard-hit ball rate on a 70-mile per hour batting practice pitch," said Husband. "If you could do that with a zero mile per hour difference, imagine if you have four pitches that have a 30-mile per hour difference.

"Effective velocity was the result of the testing and it was like discovering math or electricity," continued Husband. "Slumps happen for a reason and players are getting fooled by the speed because of effective velocity and they don't know it."

Husband has since become a pioneer in the world of baseball science. He has authored numerous books further detailing his research and metrics. His science has also since been adopted by current and former MLB coaches and players.

"What prompted me to keep going was every time we discovered something new, it opened the door to a million questions to why things happen," said Husband. "There's still a lot of my studies that have not made it to the forefront of Major League teams because when Moneyball came out, everything that didn't come out of their database didn't matter anymore."

Much like Husband, all those years ago getting back to his feet, he believes EV is returning back to the mainstream consciousness of Major League Baseball.

"EV took a backseat for a while but it's making a ridiculously strong comeback," added Husband. "All of the top teams in baseball, the top five for sure, all have a massive effective velocity history."

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Matador Hall of Fame Spotlight: Perry Husband

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