By comparison, warm-weather places like Texas A&M and Fresno State — even UNLV and San Diego State — have large, clean, functional facilities, and usually strong teams. For that matter, so does BYU.

But the Utes' overall problem is money — or lack thereof. It takes cash to build stadiums, recruit players, pay scholarships. Without money, you can't build a foundation. And without a foundation, you can't sustain success.

In years past, Utah baseball has been told it will just have to get by with what it has. Considering athletic budgets are already stretched, the odds of beefing up the program are slim.

Sadly for the Utes, the surge these last two weeks was probably just a blip on the radar screen, not a step in a new direction. Still, they deserve congratulations. The whole shock-the-world thing has been sort of cool and interesting.

I'm just hoping they got some nice pictures for their scrapbooks.

A half-century is a long time to go between photo shoots.

E-mail: rock@desnews.com