College Baseball 360 » Nick Swisher

College Baseball 360 Fall Notebook – Nov. 7

Sean Stires — Mon, 07 Nov 2011 20:23:56 +0000

www.simplesharebuttons.com

Sun Devil Suspension Tops Recent News…

The big news of the week is the NCAA’s decision to uphold penalties against the Arizona State baseball program. The long and short of it is, the Division I Infractions Appeals Committee has upheld a one year NCAA postseason ban for the Sun Devils, meaning ASU will not be allowed to participate in the 2012 NCAA Baseball Tournament.

The decision stems from violations of “lack of institutional control” when Pat Murphy was still the head coach in Tempe.

The NCAA handed down its initial decision earlier this year and before the 2011 NCAA Tournament. A lot of college baseball fans were miffed that ASU was still allowed to participate in this year’s tournament. However, the Sun Devils were allowed to do so, because they appealed the NCAA’s ruling.

That appeals process that allowed them to participate in this year’s tournament is really no different than the appeals process for professional sports. If an MLB player receives a 10-game suspension for a fight he is allowed to appeal that suspension and he is still allowed to play during the appeals process. If he loses he sits. If he wins he plays.

ASU lost, and now Tim Esmay’s Sun Devils must sit during the 2012 NCAA Tournament.

No Holding The Tigers…

Missouri baseball coach Tim Jamieson

The SEC and Missouri formally announced one of the worst kept secrets in college sports over the weekend. The Tigers are leaving the Big 12 after a 104 year affiliation with the conference (most of it as the Big 8).

Mizzou baseball coach, Tim Jamieson, has led the Tigers to great success during his 17 seasons in Columbia, with eight NCAA Regional berths in that span. He has also sent players like Detroit Tigers pitcher Max Scherzer and Texas Rangers second baseman Ian Kinsler to the big leagues.

Things will get tougher for the Tigers in the SEC though. Missouri will compete in the SEC’s Eastern division, along with two-time defending national champion South Carolina (which calls the “other” Columbia home). Other schools in the division are Florida (two straight CWS appearances), Vanderbilt (2011 CWS), Georgia (national runner-up in ’09), Kentucky, and Tennessee.

Texas A&M is joining the SEC along with Missouri for the 2012-2013 academic year. The Aggies will be in the SEC West with LSU, Alabama, Arkansas, Auburn, Mississippi State, and Ole Miss.

The Will of A Bulldog…

Former Fresno State baseball player, Dan Gladden, was recently inducted into the Fresno Athletic Hall of Fame. Gladden was undrafted by any Major League team after his last year at FSU in 1979, but he convinced the San Francisco Giants to give him a tryout and went on to an 11-year MLB career with the Giants, Twins and Tigers. He helped Minnesota win the World Series in 1987 and 1991 and is currently a Twins broadcaster.

Sunny Shines On Giese…

It didn’t take Oklahoma long to fill the vacancy filled by the departure of Tim Tadlock. Sunny Golloway has hired Jack Giese as pitching coach to fill the void that was created when Tadlock left recently to become the Associate Head Coach at his alma mater, Texas Tech.

Giese has been a pitching coach for the last two years in the Tampa Bay Rays minor league organization. His previous collegiate coaching experience was at Howard College in Big Spring, Texas, which won the 2009 NJCAA national championship. He recruited six Sooners who played for Howard.

Brian Wilson in LSU gear before going on the Gameday set Saturday. He tweeted this pic @BrianWilson38

The Beard Lives On…

Did you catch San Francisco Giants closer, Brian Wilson, Saturday on ESPN’s College Gameday in Tuscaloosa? Wilson made a guest appearance on the set to make predictions for Saturday’s game. No surprise, the former LSU pitcher picked his team to beat Alabama. Taking a page from Lee Corso, Wilson donned a tiger head with a beard to make his pick known.

Holland Going Bluegrass…

Texas Rangers pitcher Derek Holland will hit the banquet circuit this winter. The quirky left, who did Harry Caray and Arnold Schwarzenager impersonations for FOX during the World Series, will be the keynote speaker at the Eastern Kentucky University Diamond dinner on Jan. 29. Holland played junior college ball at Wallace State in Alabama.

Swishalicious…

Ohio State alum, Nick Swisher, just donated $500,000 to his alma mater to help the school install field turf at Bill Davis Stadium. The New York Yankee outfielder was recognized over the weekend at halftime of the Ohio State-Indiana football game.

Swisher was the 2000 Big Ten Freshman of the Year. He was the 16th overall pick in the 2002 MLB Draft and was featured prominently in the book Moneyball, which spawned the current Brad Pitt movie.

Speaking of Stadiums…

We mentioned in our last Notebook installment that UC Irvine head coach, Mike Gillespie, has a cameo as an Oakland A’s coach in Moneyball. Long Beach State’s Blair Field had a cameo as well. The field was used to double as Oakland’s spring training facility in the movie.

Speaking of Stadiums II…

Texas A&M – Corpus Christi is getting a face lift to both its baseball and softball facilities. Chapman Field will have the surfaces of both the softball and baseball fields will be completely rebuilt, with new dirt and sod being brought in to replace the current surface along with new irrigation systems. The bullpens for softball and baseball will also be rebuilt, with baseball’s to be enclosed within the field. Both fields will also get new windscreens around the perimeter of the fence.

The baseball facility will also add an eight-pole lighting system to allow the Islanders to play home night games on campus. In conjunction with this, new seating will be brought in to expand baseball’s bleacher seating capacity to nearly 700 at Chapman Field (not including available berm seating), with the existing baseball bleacher seating being moved over to softball.

www.simplesharebuttons.com

Analysis: Bob Todd’s Time Had Come At OSU

Sean Stires — Wed, 26 May 2010 12:19:30 +0000

www.simplesharebuttons.com

Collegebaseball360.com contributor Chris Webb runs the blog Buckeyestatebaseball.com. He lives in Columbus, OH, and provides his thoughts on Bob Todd’s recent retirement as well as the current state of the Ohio State baseball program.

By Chris Webb

The spring of 2010 has been a bit of a struggle for me. While I could go on at great length at how much it sucks that my car was totaled while I was not driving it, life happens. The upper resporitory turned viral eye infection has not been overly pleasant, but again those things happen. What has caused me the most disdain and provided the most discomfort is what has transpired on the baseball diamond.

Ken Griffey Jr. isn’t Ken Griffey Jr.

Junior is reason number one as to why I am a baseball fan, writer, ex-player, junkie, nut, whatever. As a kid in the early 90s none captured my imagination like the Kid. So much is the fact I thought he name was King Griffey Jr. and he automatically was the best baseball player by being the King. As I now watch Baseball Tonight or SportsCenter I cringe whenever I see a Mariners highlight knowing Junior is a shell of the greatness he once possessed.

The same can be said of Ohio State baseball.

When the calendar changed to 2010 for Buckeye baseball faithful the resounding thought was “our year”. The players would say they practiced and prepped harder than before in hopes that the season would take Ohio State baseball to a place they last saw 42 seasons ago. Instead of taking a step towards Omaha the members of the Ohio State baseball team are walking through the Oval as conference tournaments are underway across the country.

It is easy to say the season was a bust. It was, there is no way around it. It is one thing for Michigan to go from first to seventh from 2008 to 2009, they lost a handful of extremely talented underclassmen to the MLB Draft and returned little from their championship team. Ohio State? This was a team that lost three players to graduation, returned eight starters in the field, the entire weekend rotation. Instead of being the toast of Columbus the Bucks are the butt of jokes around college baseball.

Bob Todd retired after winning 1,024 games in his Hall of Fame career. (OSU photo)

Which is unfortunate because the student-athletes and program deserve better, and this fall from grace was a longtime coming.

As Bob Todd retires as head coach of the baseball team at Ohio State there is no denying that the program is better for his time. With 901 wins, seven Big Ten titles, another eight tournament crowns, and never a losing season, Coach Todd has done more than any coach in Ohio State baseball history.

Yet his resume is void of one major accomplishment, a trip to Omaha, and he leaves a program that needs rebuilding.

I am fully aware of the context and the difficulty of such a task. A trip to Omaha is a major achievement for any program and many fail to come close to the final field of eight. However it is hard to bleed Scarlet & Gray while having baseball in your blood and not have a bitter taste for Coach Todd’s tenure.

While Ohio State was dominating the Big Ten in the early 90s, they were hardly more than a blip on the radar screen. In racking up five-consecutive 40 win seasons from 1991-1995 Ohio State twice went 0-2 in NCAA Regional play, advancing just once to a Regional final in 1993. The string of great seasons was capped with a 49-9 mark in 1995 which was the best record in the nation, yet the Bucks were blown out 20-6 by Kansas in game one of the Regional before falling 6-5 to Jacksonville to end the season.

Regardless of national shortcomings, Ohio State was the premier program in the Big Ten. The Buckeyes dominated the diamonds across the Big Ten just as football powered through the gridiron. Coach Todd had made Ohio State a conference powerhouse after being a cellar-dweller in the season leading to his arrival.

Riding the wave of momentum, construction was set forth for a new baseball stadium, one that became Bill Davis Stadium. The stadium which will host the Big Ten Tournament this week ironically, now in its 14th season cost $4.7 million to construct. While Ohio State was showing an interest in upgrading facilities throughout its Department of Athletics, soon after the Schottenstein Center and Jesse Owens Stadium were constructed as well as renovations to Ohio Stadium, Coach Todd provided Ohio State a program to pour money into.

Bill Davis Stadium hosts the Big Ten Tournament this week, but the Buckeyes won't be playing in it. (OSU photo)

With a decade of conference and regional success and a state-of-the-art facility in his back pocket, Coach Todd was primed to take Ohio State to the next level.

Initially it appeared the Buckeyes were there.

In just year three of Bill Davis, the stadium would be home to a NCAA Regional and Super Regional. At 50-14, 25-3 in the Big Ten, the 1999 season provided Coach Todd with his shining moment. Sweeping through the Regional field, Ohio State hosted Cal-State Fullerton with a shot to advance to Omaha. For a team that rattled off winning streaks of 14 and 21 games during the course of the season, winning two would seem to be not a problem.

Unfortunately Ohio State would again be exposed on the national level. A 23-3 loss at Miami early in the season, coupled with Ohio State being outscored 24-7 by the Titans after taking game one of the Super Regional, left many wondering if Ohio State could truly compete on a national level. While the future would answer that question, the first 11 years of Todd’s tenure provided optimism for Buckeye baseball in the new millenium.

The optimism would turn into misery.

Ohio State would again host a Regional, doing so in 2001, but in doing so Ohio State would begin to be exposed to a changing collegiate baseball environment.

Perhaps victims of their own success, Ohio State began to see programs across the Big Ten show a renewed interest in a once-proud sport. Interest and, more importantly, money began to stream into the baseball programs across the Midwest. Where Ohio State had done so five years prior, discussion to increase facilities were soon heard around the Big Ten.

Though easily the top dog in the Big Ten still, was Ohio State starting to lose grip on an Ohio stranglehold? The rising program at Kent State would reach a program high as the Flashes were the team to knock off Ohio State in the Columbus Regional, ending the 2001 season with yet another 0-and-2 Regional showing.

Either unknowing of the changing environment or steadfast in set ways, little changed for Coach Todd in the early 2000s compared to the 1990s. While the Bucks continued their conference supremacy, failing to finish out of the top two in the Big Ten from 2001-2004, the program already had four 20-loss seasons in the decade’s first five years, a number that topped the three such seasons in the 1990s.

Beyond the diamond, college baseball itself was undergoing changes.

A sport that once received little notice was finding a home and voice on the internet. With the likes of Eric Sorenson and Mark Etheridge those who loved the game started to fill the college baseball void. Though small in product, with the internet an infinite audience could be reached as attention was slowly turning towards the college game. Online blogs and sites began to creep up providing analysis and opinions on the game that once were falling on deaf ears were being heard.

This would be a wave Ohio State failed to jump on. Relying on the raw number of wins, Coach Todd neglected building a RPI-favorable schedule for his teams. With the idea of reaching 40 wins to secure a Regional at-large berth, pushovers would line the schedule. Instead of facing stiffer competition to prep for an improving Big Ten or Regional field, the fascination with obtaining as many wins as possible was there.

Not only did Ohio State lose touch of what an elite program needed to do, the grip on the Big Ten continued to lessen. Four of the decade’s first five seasons yielded 12 or more conference losses, just twice in the 1990s did this happen. Yet by winning the Big Ten Tournament Ohio State would still advance to Regional play in 2002 and 2003, with the 2003 season joining the 2001 campaign as a season Ohio State hosted a Super Regional. Yet again the Bucks fell short as Southwest Missouri State swept the Super Regional.

The last half of the decade would prove that the game had indeed passed Coach Todd and a once dominate Ohio State program quickly became middle-of-the-pack.

The run of 12 or more conference losses would extend through the 2000s, ending at eight seasons with an 18-6 mark in 2009. Equally as long was the drought Ohio State suffered in winning a Big Ten championship, compared to how Ohio State won five-consecutive titles from 91-95. The run in the mid-90s ended with a 6th place 15-13 Big Ten mark. In 2007 and 2008 Ohio State fell to a .500 conference program going 15-15 each season finishing sixth and fifth, respectively.

Getting hot at the right time was needed in 2005 and 2007 as Ohio State won the conference’s automatic bid, even though they finished the conference season tied for fourth and sixth respectively, while having seasons the RPI rated to be well beyond those of the contending at-large teams.

New York Yankee Nick Swisher starred at Ohio St. from 2000-2002. (Courtesy Getty Images)

Along with the ongoing issues on the field, resentment off of the field began to invade the Buckeye clubhouse. While his players of the 1990s speak fondly of Coach Todd, a different sentiment is struck with those of the latter half of his career. While notable alumni of various Big Ten and Midwest schools openly give back and speak of their time at such and such U in favor, Ohio State’s biggest star, Nick Swisher is silent and nowhere to be found.

For those who would travel to Bill Davis Stadium in the late-2000s, you would think the stadium was little more than an extension of Union Cemetary found up the street on Olentangy River Road. The exuberance and passion that separates the collegiate game from the professional world could be found everywhere but Columbus. Winning cures all, yet the bottom-feeders of the Big Ten would show more fire and joy of donning their uniform than those who wore the Scarlet & Gray. Not only was Ohio State not winning, the Buckeyes at times seemed to want to be anywhere but on the diamond.

The little pomp on the field was matched by declining fanfare in the stands.

A program that boasted attendance figures that once rivaled elite programs in the nation saw a steady decline in those who entered the Bill Davis gates. In 2005 Ohio State was 23rd in the nation in average attendance with an average crowd of 2,570 per game. The number would fall to 2,260 in 2006 a mark that finished 26th. The slide continued in 2007 with 27th best average attendance of 2,073. In 2008 Ohio State fell out of the top 30, down to 32 at 1,863. Then in 2009 the number would shrink to 1,768, 35th best.

A prolonged drought in championship seasons, disdain in the clubhouse, and now a shrinking fanbase or more importantly, a decline in support and money into the program. The were ills abound with Ohio State baseball as Coach Todd entered the final season of his contract. The program was appearing to be in shambles.

All of that seemed to change after 2009.

A year after the championship drought was ended, 40-wins put down in the record books, and a trip to a Regional, Ohio State baseball was supposed to be back. Yeah it was back, back to be a middle of the road team again.

2010 saw Ohio State fail to win 30 games for the first time under Coach Todd. Another first was the Buckeyes finished below .500 in the Big Ten at 11-13. Yet another first was Ohio State closing the season dropping their last five conference series. Before 2010 Ohio State never lost more than two series in a row.

From a conference powerhouse, to conference elite, to middle of the road, to out of the picture, the bottom had fallen out of Ohio State baseball. For the first time ever, Ohio State’s expected operating budget for the baseball program topped the $1 million mark. A million dollar program was now being passed by Northwestern, a school which does not fulfill the allotted 11.7 scholarships. Providing the program’s biggest black eye were back-to-back losses to Webber International, and Rollins. Institutions that are respectively NAIA and DII, with enrollments smaller than one freshman dorm at Ohio State.

Ironically Coach Todd’s lowest of moments might save the future of Ohio State baseball.

After dropping a pair of midweek games to nationally ranked Louisville, a team in-region which has risen to national prominence including a trip to Omaha in the last five seasons, Coach Todd announced he was retiring at season’s end. Citing the lack of desire and passion for the game Coach Todd stated he wanted to get out before it was too late, the thought of retiring and spending more time with his family had come to him during the spring trip.

In missing the Big Ten Tournament for just the second time in 20 years, while finishing with a conference losing record for the first time since 1987, a season that started with no current Buckeye yet born. Energy, time, and passion is needed to return Ohio State to where it once was, while then taking the final step that eluded Coach Todd.

While myself, and hopefully every Buckeye alum, fan, parent, and player is thankful for what Coach Todd has done for Ohio State in his 23 years. Instead of forcing Ohio State to not renew his contract, Coach Todd knew he no longer had it in him to be the coach at Ohio State. While the memories of the 1990s are great, like Junior, Ohio State is a shell of what it once was.

Coach Bob Todd by the numbers

1,052-559-2 overall
413-236 in the Big Ten
Seven Big Ten Championships (1991-95, 99, 2001, 09)
Eight Big Ten Tournament Championships (1991, 94, 95, 97, 2002, 03, 05, 07)
13 NCAA Regional Appearances (1991-95, 97, 99, 2001-2003, 05, 07, 09)
2 Super Regional Appearance (2001, 2003)
22 years of 30 or more victories (1987-2009)
Never a losing season
72 professional signed players
19 All-Americans
Eight Academic All-Americans