What would Gerrit Cole do?
That was the question surrounding the 2008 Major League Baseball draft.
Would the 17-year-old pitching phenom from Orange Lutheran High sign with the New York Yankees, the team that had selected him with their first-round pick? Or would he honor his commitment to come to UCLA and pitch for coach John Savage in Westwood?
So, what would it be: Bruins — or Bombers?
“I was a big fan of college baseball growing up,” Cole says of his eventual choice to come to Westwood. “I wanted to get to the College World Series. I wanted to have a sense of community. I wanted to go to school. I wanted to further my education. I was lucky to be a Bruin. Not everybody gets to go to such a great school with such a great program that checks all those boxes.”
He would, of course, eventually land in the Bronx: In 2019, following stellar stints with the Pirates and Astros, Cole signed a nine-year, $324 million contract with the Yankees. Since then, he has built the kind of career that shines on a baseball card, recording more than 220 strikeouts in three straight seasons — setting the single-season mark for a Yankee pitcher (257) in 2022. The following year, he won the Cy Young Award, bestowed on the American League’s most outstanding pitcher.
But it was at UCLA that Cole saw the chance to be part of a sports ecosystem that went far beyond just baseball. And to soak up its energy: “I was interested in attending football games at the Rose Bowl, and basketball games at Pauley, volleyball games at Pauley. That was right up my alley.”
Then there was, of course, John Savage. The coach had a reputation for both developing and nurturing pitching talent. At a time when college coaches chronically overused their hurlers, Savage was known for shielding his guys, making sure their arms lasted well beyond their campus careers.
“I could trust that Coach was going to look out for my best interests long term. He continued to develop the mechanics: the throwing program, the pitches, the pitch sequences,” Cole says. Savage was simply teaching “how to play winning baseball."
“I got my butt kicked in school freshman year,” Cole says of his UCLA days. “I really started to turn that around sophomore year. I got a grip on the school/sports work-life balance. And that paid dividends in pro baseball.”
It worked right from the start. Cole earned Freshman All-American honors in 2009; as a sophomore, he shone as a Second-Team All-American while leading the Bruins to the 2010 College World Series Final. Alas, it didn’t end so well: Cole was knocked around in a 7–1 loss to the South Carolina Gamecocks.
Despite that season’s ignominious end, that season Cole had been brilliant. He’d posted a stellar 11–4 record, striking out 153 batters and boasting a 3.37 ERA. He’d come to UCLA looking for a chance to get to Omaha and the College World Series, and he’d done it. The following season, he would help take the Bruins back to the NCAA tournament, capping off one of the most remarkable runs by any baseball player in Westwood.
His three-year record as a Bruin ranks as one of the best in modern memory. With his more than 50 career appearances, Cole’s ERA sits at 3.38. Meanwhile, his 376 career strikeouts — in just 322 1/3 innings — today stands as second in program history. In 2022, Cole was inducted into the UCLA Athletic Hall of Fame.
Finding discipline "when no one's watching"
When the Pittsburgh Pirates selected him first overall in the 2011 Major League Baseball draft, Cole was ready. Not just to pitch professionally. But to live professionally.
“I got my butt kicked in school freshman year,” he says. “I really started to turn that around sophomore year. I got a grip on the school/sports work-life balance. And that paid dividends in pro baseball.” It all prepared him “to be disciplined when no one’s watching. You’re out in the middle of Pennsylvania playing AA baseball, and no one’s holding you accountable except for yourself. I learned how to teach myself some of those skills, both through the program but also through the high demands the school put on you through the classroom.”
Cole didn’t leave Westwood alone. He first met his wife, Amy Crawford ’11, while training in the weight room at 6 a.m. workouts. A member of the Bruins’ 2010 College Softball World Series Championship squad, Crawford belongs to a Bruin sports dynasty: Her younger sister, Jenna ’20, followed her into softball in Westwood; her older brother, Brandon, spent 14 years as a shortstop in the major leagues after leaving UCLA.
“There was an eight-clap,” Cole says when asked if there was a fight song rendition at the reception that followed the couple’s 2016 nuptials. “But no ‘Sons of Westwood.’ There were a lot of Bruins at that wedding.”
Even now, UCLA remains a constant presence in the Cole household. With two sports-loving sons, it’s a sure bet you can find Amy and Gerrit sitting with their kids to watch the women’s or men’s Bruins basketball games in baseball’s offseason. Last winter, the Cole family couldn’t not drive from the Yankees’ spring training facility in Tampa to catch the UCLA softball team compete in the Clearwater Invitational. “We follow the Bruins across the board,” Cole says. “We’ll always follow the Bruins.”
He needs that Bruin spirit now more than ever. After a superb start to spring last year, Cole underwent season-ending Tommy John surgery (often done to repair pitchers’ elbow ligaments) in March 2025. For the first time ever, he was forced to go through the entire baseball season without throwing a single pitch. And without Cole’s on-the-mound contributions, his Yankees teammates failed to return to the World Series, losing to the Toronto Blue Jays in the American League Divisional Series. Meanwhile, Cole has had to rely on that buttoned-up discipline, learned in Westwood, that you need when everyone’s eyes are elsewhere. The rehab is on track. Cole recently pitched a sharp 4 1/3 innings for Yankees' Class A affiliate Hudson Valley Renegades in his second outing since surgery.
In times like these, he falls back on the philosophy that Coach Savage — with whom he still talks regularly — preached to his teams. “When it comes down to it,” Cole says, “you can’t win and lose with one person. If you buy into the team, you buy into the commitment. To compete as a team, your focus is just on winning that game that day.”
That philosophy is something that’s stayed with him — through AA baseball in the middle of nowhere, through the heady beginnings in Pittsburgh and the almost-championship in Houston. Through the shiny spotlight of New York.
“It really alleviates the pressure of it,” he adds. “And it makes the focus on something greater than just you.”
Read more from UCLA Magazine’s Spring 2026 issue.
