Will Trevor Bauer-Gerrit Cole beef ever die? 'Not going to happen,' says one

Bob Nightengale | USA TODAY

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Gerrit Cole and Trevor Bauer won’t bother to sugarcoat it: They can’t stand each other.

These two celebrated pitchers, former collegiate teammates at UCLA, still don’t talk to one another.

They refuse to even speak about each other.

They won’t even look at each other.

Now, they’ll have no choice.

For the first time in their professional careers, they’re scheduled to square off Sunday when the Houston Astros play the Cleveland Indians at Progressive Field.

Who knows, maybe when the game ends, they’ll exchange pleasantries, complement one another, and finally end this nine-year cold war?

Or maybe not.

“I would have to say the odds of the earth burning up are better than that,’’ Cal State Fullerton coach Rick Vanderhook, a former UCLA assistant, told USA TODAY Sports. “That’s not going to happen. It’s just not. They are opposites, just such complete opposites.

“Bauer was the professor. He did analytical stuff, trying to see how many revolutions the ball had, before they started paying these guys all this money to do analytics. Gerrit was the bear would just come out trying to throw 100 mph on every pitch.

“And you don’t ever want to poke the bear.’’

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There’s no known specific incident that triggered their feud when they were All-America pitchers at UCLA. Cole pitched every Friday night, reserved for the team’s ace. Bauer pitched on Saturdays. As juniors in 2011, they became the first collegiate pitchers from the same team to be picked first and third in the June amateur draft.

“They were not friends, but you’ve got to think they respected one another,’’ Vanderhook said. “Really, I think they made each other great by always trying to out-do each other. Whatever Gerrit would do on Friday, Trevor would try to out-do on Saturday.

“I can’t wait to see them go against each other now.’’

The difference in Cole and Bauer’s personalities is even more pronounced today. Cole regards himself as a traditional old-school pitcher, even at 27. Bauer is constantly tinkering in the pitcher's lab, either on his own or at Driveline Baseball, the Seattle-area training facility that strives to build harder-throwing pitchers.

Cole, married to the former Amy Crawford, sister of Giants shortstop Brandon Crawford, prefers a relaxing day at the beach with family. Bauer's lone-wolf mentality and affinity for developing and flying drones is now well-documented.

They even took different business approaches in arbitration. Cole filed and settled for $6.75 million. Bauer, trying to poke fun at the system, says he originally planned to file at $6,420,969.69, a wink and a nod to his online acolytes and the never-gets-old reference to marijuana and sex.

He eventually filed for $6.525 million, and now donates the difference - $420.69 a day for 68 days with a final $69,420.69 payment to his 69 Days of Giving campaign.

Cole doesn’t bother with social media, letting his wife handle the family Twitter account. Bauer makes it part of his everyday life, and is unafraid to express his beliefs, no matter who he offends.

Bauer stirred up a Twitter war three weeks ago when he coyly accused the Astros of doctoring baseballs, believing pine tar was the secret ingredient behind their historic success the first two months of the season.

The Astros were furious, prompting Cleveland manager Terry Francona to even apologize. When Cole’s teammates explored why Bauer would even raise the issue, they learned all about baseball’s Hatfield-McCoy feud, believing the allegations were intended simply to tear down Cole’s success.

One Astros starter, speaking to USA TODAY Sports on condition of anonymity because he promised Cole he would not comment publicly, attributes Bauer's claims as "all jealousy" stemming from their collegiate days.

"Now," the Astros pitcher says, "it's just killing him to see Cole having such a great year."

Well, considering the way both are pitching these days, they could actually become teammates again in two months with selections to the All-Star Game, requiring them to share the same clubhouse.

Can you say, awkward?

“They were never the best of friends,’’ UCLA coach John Savage says, “but I don’t think one guy sat there hoping the other guy would fail when he pitched. They were both Bruins, and respected the profession and the program.

“Just two completely different style of pitchers. Trevor was a scientist and Cole was the brute strength guy. But both power pitchers, both strikeout pitchers, and both highly, highly competitive people and self-motivated.

“You’re talking about the most prolific duo in UCLA history.’’

Cole, acquired in January from the Pittsburgh Pirates, is having the kind of season Cy Youngs are made of, going 5-1 with a 1.86 ERA, striking out a major-league leading 101 batters in 67 2/3 innings. It’s the second-most strikeouts in history by a pitcher in his first 10 games with a new team, trailing only Randy Johnson of the 1998 Astros.

Bauer, who had his finest season last year - 17-9 with a 4.19 ERA - has kicked it up another notch this season. He’s 4-3 with a 2.35 ERA, striking out 73 in 65 innings, averaging a career-low 7.2 hits per nine innings.

“He’s certainly as good as I’ve seen him since he left UCLA,’’ said pitching guru Alan Jaeger, who has mentored Bauer since he was in ninth grade, predicting Bauer would be a multi-Cy Young Award winner. “His stuff is electric now. The life on his fastball is probably as good as I’ve seen. He has that reverse slider going.

“But still, of all the things I’ve seen in baseball, I’m not sure I’ve seen anything like his junior year in college. It was Cirque du Soleil. He was making the ball disappear.’’

Bauer, who skipped his senior year of high school when he enrolled at UCLA, went 13-2 with a 1.25 ERA his junior season, and set a school record with 203 strikeouts in 136 2/3 innings. He went 38-4 with a 2.36 ERA his three years, and still holds the school record for victories, strikeouts, and innings pitched. And yet was still considered the second-best pitcher on the staff behind Cole, 21-20 with a 3.38 ERA, who was bigger, stronger and threw harder.

“It was just a situation where Bauer came to us in January his freshman year, and Cole had already established himself that fall,’’ Savage said. “We just felt like Cole would lead us on Friday nights for three years and Trevor on Saturday. So, we left it that way.’’

Certainly, a factor in determining his Friday night ace may have also been Cole’s decision to snub the New York Yankees out of high school and go to UCLA. The Yankees were preparing to provide him a signing bonus for about $3 million when they selected him 28th overall in 2008 - the current system of hard draft slots did not yet exist - but Yankees scouting director Damon Oppenheimer said they never had a chance to submit an offer.

“It was stunning,’’ Oppenheimer said, “they never even listened to an offer.’’

“I couldn’t believe it,’’ said infielder Cody Decker, who led the Pac-10 with 21 homers playing in 2009 with Cole and Bauer, “none of us could. “We thought he was just posturing for the Yankees. What is he thinking? He walked over the first day and I thought he was the most arrogant kid I ever met.

“I said, “Dude, you’re not coming here. You’re getting offered like $4 million. This is a great school, but why don’t you just go.

“He said, “I’ll pitch here three years. Go first overall. And then sign for $10 million.’ And then he laughed. You know what, he did exactly that.’’

Well, close enough. Cole received an $8 million signing bonus, the largest given to an amateur at the time.

Bauer, selected two picks later by the Arizona Diamondbacks, received a $3.4 million signing bonus. He was traded a year later to Cleveland, in what could be described as a clash of personalities.

“I keep up with Cole, and I know that he’s killing it,’’ said Decker, 31, now a first baseman with Class AAA Reno in the D-backs organization. “I like him a lot. But I can’t tell you I know Bauer. I spoke with Bauer one time, and I said, 'I’ll never do that again. I’m good. I got my fill for a lifetime.'

“So, I don’t want to say I’m rooting for Cole (Sunday), but I’m completely rooting for Cole. I would love to see Cole strike out 21 batters. And all on high spin-rate sliders.’’

Decker laughs, knowing that the Cole-Bauer duel may garner more attention for UCLA than Josh Rosen’s selection in the recent NFL draft. Why, even Cleveland rookie starter Adam Plutko, who toyed with a no-hitter until the seventh inning in Cleveland’s 1-0 victory Wednesday over the Chicago Cubs, can weigh in on the family feud. He was the Sunday pitcher in Cole and Bauer’s final season, two years later leading UCLA to the NCAA title.

“I think we’re all going to be checking that game out now,’’ Decker says. “If nothing else, it’s a fantastic, can’t-miss recruiting tool for UCLA. It’s going to have everyone talking.’’

Well, except for the two guys who want to bury one another, leaving their own legacy on this hostility.

“If you put these two guys in a room playing checkers,’’ Vanderhook says, “they’re going to bitch and moan at each other and pop off the whole time. So I can just imagine Sunday.

"I’ll tell you what, I’m going home to a Coors Light, and enjoy every pitch.’’

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