Garnet & Old

FSU Baseball

By Jim Joanos

5/2001

Make no mistake about it. FSU baseball has been about winning. The team has never had a losing season. There have been fifty-four consecutive winning seasons. Over its history, the FSU baseball team has won more than seven out of every ten games. FSU has competed in post season NCAA championship play, thirty-eight times. FSU has advanced to the College World Series, every college team's dream, eighteen times.

However, FSU baseball is about a lot more than winning. It is about people and places and traditions.

FSU Baseball is about good coaching. It is about Charlie Armstrong who began the program in 1948 and Ralph Mattherly who followed him. It is about Danny Litwhiler, the first FSU coach to take the team into NCAA post-season play (1956) and the first to take the team to the College World Series (1957). He was the coach who began FSU's tenure as a national powerhouse. It is about Fred Hatfield, Jack Stallings, and Woody Woodward who also made positive contributions to the program.

FSU Baseball is about a special man named, Dick Howser, and a Stadium with the same name. As a Seminole shortstop, Dick Howser was FSU Baseball's first All-American in 1957. He went on to professional baseball and the major leagues. He was the 1961 American League Rookie of the Year and played for a number of years. He became a coach with the New York Yankees. In 1979 he returned to FSU to be its head coach for one year. From FSU he became the Yankees' Manager for one year and led them to a divisional title. He later became Manager of the Kansas City Royals and in 1985 led the Royals to the World Series Championship. The following year, just after he had served as Manager for the American League All-Stars, he was diagnosed with cancer. After a courageous battle, he died in June of 1987. Shortly after his death, John Schuerholz, then General Manger of the Royals, wrote a poem about Dick. In the poem, Schuerholz included Howser among the historically great managers and referred to him as "the classy one". The label definitely fit the man that has meant so much to the history of FSU Baseball.

FSU Baseball is also about a Stadium named, "Dick Howser". In 1988, FSU's baseball stadium was named for the former player and coach. At the dedication, George Brett and Bo Jackson and the rest of the Kansas City Royals came to Tallahassee for a symbolic dedication game in the stadium between Dick's two special teams, the Seminoles and the Royals. The game was cut short by rain but not before the fans were treated to a wonderful show. Those of us who attended have memories of a very special day in the history of FSU baseball.

Dick Howser Stadium has served FSU Baseball well. Major innovations are planned for the near future that will help keep the facility worthy of the legendary team that it houses.

FSU Baseball is about a man called, "Eleven". Coach Mike Martin has been a part of twenty-nine of Florida State's fifty-four seasons: two as a player, five as an assistant coach and twenty-two as head coach. His accomplishments as head coach include well over eleven hundred victories, twenty fifty-win seasons, twenty-one consecutive NCAA Regional Appearances, twelve trips to the College World Series and a host of other honors.

FSU Baseball is about a lot of professional baseball players that played for the Seminoles during their college days. A few became very successful and played in the majors for a long time. Among the well known catchers have been Terry Kennedy and Ken Suarez. Infielders have included Woody Woodward, Luis Alicia, Paul Sorrento, and Jody Reed. Among the outfielders have been Jim Lyttle, Deion Sanders and Johnny Grubb. Pitchers have included Richie Lewis, Rick Lankford and Mac Scarce. Current major league rosters include a number of former FSU players and lots more are in Triple A and Double A, waiting for their calls to come up to the "Big Show". FSU Baseball is about nearly two hundred players that have been drafted by the professional teams. One of them, Paul Wilson, was the very first pick in all of baseball in the 1994 draft. Thirteen others have been drafted in the first round.

FSU Baseball is about some great college players. It is about three Golden Spikes Award winners. The Golden Spikes Award is given annually to the top amateur baseball player in the country. FSU's Mike Fuentes (1981 outfielder), Mike Loynd (1986 pitcher), and J.D. Drew (1997 outfielder) all received the award for their play as Seminoles. FSU Baseball is about eighteen other first team All-Americans including Jeff Ledbetter who led the college world in homeruns (42) in 1982. We well remember some of those shots that cleared the trees in right field on their way to the Circus Tent. FSU Baseball is about at least twelve players who have worn the Red, White and Blue, as members of Team USA. Several have been on Olympic Teams. Doug Mientkiweicz helped lead the USA to its first ever Baseball Olympic Gold Medal in the year 2000.

Just as importantly, FSU Baseball is about a lot of other players who never got to play professional baseball. Instead, they made it to the "Bigs" in their professions as businessmen, lawyers and teachers. FSU Baseball is about a dentist in Ocala, who cherishes the memory of himself on the mound pitching against the New York Yankees in an exhibition game and getting Reggie Jackson to pop up. FSU Baseball is about an investment executive in Atlanta who once as an FSU catcher stood on the dugout and led the fans in the "Noles Cheer" just after his team had won a tournament. FSU Baseball is about a retired insurance professional who still holds the record for strikeouts in a game (24) set way back in 1956.

FSU Baseball is about the present team. It is about a guy batting nearly .450 and a gutsy pitcher who once pitched a national championship game with his knee immobile in a heavy cast. It is about a bunch of first year players and very few old hands who were not supposed to do a whole lot but who have already managed to win the ACC regular season championship and are headed into postseason play.

FSU Baseball is about the never ending quest to win the National Championship. It is about cold afternoons in March, pleasant breezy evenings in April, and sticky hot afternoons in May. It is about bright gold or neat tan uniforms on Sunday and green ball caps on St. Patrick's Day. It is about short plane flights and long bus trips. It is about assistant coaches like Chip, "Meat" and Jamie and trainers, scholastic mentors and study halls. It is about places like Raleigh, Miami, Fort Mill, and Omaha.

FSU Baseball is about celebration pile-ons following some tournaments and the early checking-out of hotels following early elimination in other ones.

FSU Baseball is about the parents who go to every game, home and away and live or die on every pitch. It is about pride when their child makes the winning pitch or disappointment when he strikes out or unbelievable fear when he lies writhing in pain after a collision at the plate. It is about seeing young people grow into adulthood.

FSU Baseball is about the "Meatloaf Fan Club" and the Section B "Animals", the "Star Spangled Banner", "Take Me Out to the Ball Game", The Canadian National Anthem, "Louie-Louie", and "Happy Trails to You". It is about ape masks, Viking horns, and the "Noles Cheer".

FSU Baseball is about little kids who emulate their heroes. It is about ten-year-olds out back of the stadium playing catch while the Noles are on the main field playing Clemson. It is about a little girl in pigtails standing next to J.D. Drew on Kids' Day. It is about a toddler playing in an aisle near her mother who keeps an eye on her while watching the game.

FSU Baseball is about the fans who love their team...the ones who shell peanuts and disagree with the umpire...the ones who say nothing but frown or smile after every pitch...the ones who wear earphones so that they do not have to miss what Lee Bowen and Jim Crosby have to say about the game. It is about the million dollar donor in the booster box, the tanned coeds, the elderly gent in the fifth row, the bleacher folks, and the young girl in the wheelchair.

But most of all, FSU Baseball is about life in its finest sense.


This was originally printed in the May, 2001 Seminole Boosters Report To Boosters newspaper. The author and the Seminole Boosters have given their permission to reprint this article.