Although there are eight New Mexicans on the University of New Mexico’s baseball roster this season, that number should increase substantially next season.

First-year Lobos head coach Ray Birmingham says he expects “10 to 12” current seniors to join his team next year and there will be even more in the future.

“It’s difficult,” he said, when asked how often he attends prep games. “So you’ve got to have help. … I do a lot of calling and I have guys. I’ll say, ‘Did you go to that game? How did that guy look?’ So I have eyes.” Can you imagine former New Mexican high school standouts Hank Baskett and Brian Urlacher on the diamond? Birmingham can.

“The athletes in this state, the athletes that play football and basketball, need to play baseball,” he said. “We need those kids (like Baskett and Urlacher) to play baseball in this state.

“I think (New Mexico) needs to step it up, and I’ve talked to other high school coaches in the state of New Mexico and they want to step it up,” he said. “So we’ve got to figure out a way, we’ve got to collaborate, through clinics, communication and promotion. We’ve got to promote high school baseball.”

Birmingham was quite complimentary when Rio Rancho High School baseball coach Ron Murphy’s name popped up.

“Murph’s one of those guys that’s getting after it. He gets after it — I love that guy,” he said. “You look at the facility he’s done there. Who else has done that in the state of New Mexico?”

It’s no secret UNM is looking at Rams ace Anthony Haase, although Haase is being looked at by major league etams and other universities as well.

“One of my dreams is to improve (Lobo Field), to make it a showcase field, so that the high schools and summer leagues in the state of New Mexico can use it for all their tournaments,” Birmingham said. “And they can come here and play all the time, and they’re proud to be on this facility. And this facility needs to jump into (the 21st century) instead of 1967.”

Speaking of 1967, when the St. Louis Cardinals beat Boston in the World Series, Birmingham was still six years away from graduating Mayfield High School.

And that’s where his coaching career began after he’d obtained his B.S. degree in journalism education from New Mexico State University in 1978.

Birmingham’s Trojans won the Class AAAA diamond crown in 1981, but he departed Las Cruces in 1983 to become the public relations officer and an assistant baseball coach for Ron Black at New Mexico Junior College in Hobbs.

Birmingham left those jobs but not Hobbs, where he started a baseball program at College of the Southwest in 1987, and success there may not have been overnight but within two years the Mustangs won 33 games and were ranked as high as 25th in the nation (NAIA).

In 1990, Birmingham was back at New Mexico Junior College, where he was the baseball team’s head coach through the 2007 season.

In 18 years with the T-Birds, Birmingham’s teams went 765-255-2.

“Ray is certainly the right fit to lead the New Mexico baseball program,” UNM athletics director Paul Krebs said last June when he announced Birmingham had been named to succeed Rich Alday.

“He has a lot of ties to our state and his success at NMJC is extremely impressive,” Krebs continued. “He is a tireless worker who will bring energy to the Lobo program.”

This year’s Lobos from New Mexico are Bobby Moore (Moriarty), Scott Gracey (La Cueva), Quentin Andes (Cibola), Adam Skelton (Taos), Ryan Escarcega (West Mesa), Brett Haggerty (Eldorado) and Adam Kramer and Brian Cavazos-Galvez (Manzano). Andes, who was at Arizona State for two seasons, and Skelton are the only seniors among the eight.