(9th and final day of blogs looking back on Fresno State athletics in 2007-08.)

For an hour after the June 26 rally at Beiden Field, fans wandered out to the center-field fence, near the 400-foot sign. A huge photo of the Bulldogs celebrating after the national championship baseball game was hung high on the dark screen that serves as a hitter's backdrop.

Dads and sons posed under the photo, with moms working the camera. Families posed, with strangers doing the snapping. One young man, his face painted red, jumped atop the fence and posed for a friend.

Groups came and went, but there were always dozens of people around the site.

Larry Vasquez of Reedley had a homemade sign: "Dear Pete Beiden and Cathy Wetzel, thanks for the Heavenly Help!!!"

Beiden is the late Bulldogs coach who, in 1959, guided Fresno State to the College World Series for the first time. Cathy Wetzel, mother of Bulldogs second baseman Erik Wetzel, died in August 2006.

Said Vasquez: "So many people overlook some of the miraculous things that happen right in front of our faces."