Some observations about Big Ten baseball awards…and off-the-beaten path encounters with people you meet at the tournament.
Omaha, NE – The Big Ten announced its post-season baseball awards this week, selecting Rutgers shortstop Josh Kuroda-Grauer as its player of the year, Nebraska righthander Brett Sears as its pitcher of the year, and Purdue first baseman Luke Gaffney as its freshman of the year.
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In addition, Illinois coach Dan Hartleb was tabbed as the conference coach of the year after leading the Illini to an 18-6 record in conference play.
Columnist Sonny Fulks writes Buckeye sports for Press Pros Magazine.com.
From my own observations all the above are worthy honorees, and in particular Dan Hartleb, who won his second conference coach of the award in his 19 seasons at Illinois. He previously took the honors in 2015, and is one of college baseball’s truly good guys among head coaches.
Ohio State placed no one on the conference 1st team, with shortstop Henry Kaczmar being tabbed for the 2nd team, and reliever Blaine Wynk got some attention as a reliever on the 3rd team.
Freshman pitcher Gavin DeVooght was recognized on the league All-Freshman team.
And, graduate outfielder Mitchell Okuley was Ohio State’s recipient of the conference Sportstmanship Award, given to a deserving member from each of the 13 schools. No one is more worthy than Okuley.
Tyler Pettorini currently stands at .318, with 9 home runs and 49 RBIs…but not good enough to make the All-Big Ten teams?
But I thought there was one conspicuous omission from the list, – 1st, 2nd, and 3rd team – when Buckeye third baseman Tyler Pettorini was snubbed altogether, either as an every day player, a designated hitter, or as the utility player selected. He was the rhetorical tree that falls in the forest. Does it make any difference about how much noise you make…if no one’s there to hear it?
In the case for designated hitter the award went to Illinois’ Jacob Schroeder, who hit .315 with 14 homers and 41 RBIs.
Pettorini hit .318 (presently), with 9 homers and 49 RBIs.
The utility player selection went to Mitch Voit, from Michigan, who hit .280 with 11 homers and 40 RBIs.
I saw them all, and can tell you that Pettorini is the toughest out of the three…because he slashes the ball to all fields, is a totally unpredictable hitter, and while he isn’t built like Schroeder and Voit, he had juice enough to pull the ball out of the park nine times this year.
I get it…that the all-league teams are highly subjective, picked by the head coaches, and there’s an attempt at more inclusiveness, otherwise there’s be no position called utility player.
And like the high school all-state teams, I’m sure there’s some you-scratch-my-back-and-I’ll-scratch-yours going on.
But Nebraska’s first baseman, Tyler Stone, got the nod as the second team DH (.307, 8, and 33) over Pettorini, and that stinks to high heavens!
A compliment is a compliment, is a compliment…or is it?
Waiting for the start of Tuesday’s Ohio State-Nebraska game, a total stranger from Nebraska walked up to me and stuck out his hand.
“Hey, you gave me your business card when you guys were in Lincoln, and I’ve been reading your Buckeyes coverage on the Press Pros site. Very interesting,” he said.
I drew a total blank, trying to remember him, but I give out a lot of those business cards…and he may have found the one he had in the trash. But I thanked him, anyway, for the kind words he had for the site.
Hall of fame Reds writer Hal McCoy on the question of him being called a homer. “Who cares,” he answered.
“I didn’t say it was good,” he added. “I said it was interesting. You know, you’re really a homer.”
If that’s the case…then I wish every Big Ten baseball team had one, because there’s not much media attention here, outside of the Big Ten Network and respective sports information directors from the participating schools.
In fact, you could have driven all the writers present for Tuesday’s post-game press conferences in a single Yellow Cab, particularly those who bothered to question Ohio State’s Bill Mosiello, Joseph Mershon, and Landon Beidelschies.
There is no other Ohio media source here, of course, especially from Columbus, and it’s never lost on me that if this was about football or basketball they’d be so many of them they’d be car-pooling to and from the game.
In part, this is why amateur baseball in America is losing athletes at such an alarming rate. The game, especially at the adolescent levels, simply gets ignored…and kids pick up on it.
But there’s no excuse for it at the Division I college level. Some schools (those in the SEC, for instance) do a pretty good job of highlighting baseball and its athletes. But more than one Big Ten coach has shared with me that the sport operates in virtual anonymity at his school, despite having players who sign professional contracts and the occasional individual who makes to the big leagues.
Are we homers? I’m not so sure what he meant, except to say that it’s just rare for someone to actually travel and invest resources to write about college baseball, so maybe we are conspicuous.
But Press Pros hall of fame columnist Hal McCoy wrote the Cincinnati Reds for 52 years, was highly conspicuous…and see where it got him! I asked him once if anyone had ever called him a ‘homer’.
“Who cares,” he answered. And he meant it.
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