It’s every kid’s dream scenario. Bottom of the 9th, a 3-2 count, and you need a base hit. That’s the experience you want to see at the state tournament…and it all starts at home. (Press Pros Feature Photos)
Fresh back from the state baseball tournament, here’s some observations on what we saw, what we heard, and thoughts on the future of this and the rest of the OHSAA tournaments.
Probably the most gratifying thing I heard at last weekend’s state baseball tournament came from a man from Shelby County who told me, “Now that baseball is over what are you going to write about?”
Gratifying, because he obviously reads and understands that there are those who think community baseball – high school baseball – as something of greater priority than just an obligation in the spring. I’d like to reach a few more.
Publisher and editor Sonny Fulks writes OHSAA sports and Buckeyes baseball.
The fact is, I know we’ve reached hearts and souls who simply choose to keep their opinions to themselves. In this day, why make waves?
And the reason I know there are those who pay attention comes from the number of responses received since last Friday’s posting of the Craig Stammen interview on community baseball, and his dedication to enhance the baseball culture in his hometown of Versailles. We’ll share some of those emails and FB responses in the next TRS post (The Reader Speaks), but the overwhelming sentiment was this: What a great way to give back to the next generation…to share his own experience with ten-year-olds who dream of living his experience.
Stammen, of course, has the platform as a major leaguer to be heard above the nay-sayers, and those who simply claim…there’s more to do now than there once was!
It takes time, and a commitment…to fly home from the west coast for the weekend just to observe and encourage kids to keep playing, keep working, and keep getting better. But the example is that any dad, or adult, can do it if he takes the time to simply play catch with a ten-year-old.
And that’s what’s missing in our new and progressive culture now. There aren’t as many dads in the house as there used to be, and if they are there…there’s more to do now than there was back then! Obviously, men like Stammen grew up in a culture of dads in Versailles who passed baseball on to the next generation…a culture that’s still alive and well.
It’s interesting, too, that at the state tournament I observed people in the stands who had a rooting interest in a particular participant on the field. And if you asked them they were quick to say…”We’ve grown up at the baseball field. It was a priority at our house.”
Or, “I played,” said one dad. “…because my dad played with me, and I played with my own son.”
And there he was, out there on the field at Canal Park participating on the biggest stage of his yet-young life, making memories, as Stammen said, that will last a lifetime…greater shelf life than “there’s more to do now than there was back then!”
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I think baseball, like football and basketball, has its cycles and from time to time you see that cycle emerge with the play you observe at the state tournament. And I came home this year believing that the tournament was evidence of a developmental phase in baseball across Ohio. Because…a lot of traditional tournament teams sat this one out – Ottawa Hills, Walsh Jesuit, Moeller, Newark Catholic, and Ignatius, among others. The cycle comes and goes.
A West Brnch fan leads the baseball crowd in a Warrior chant.
There were some gaudy batting averages, sure.
But you didn’t see as many fastballs in the 90s, either. There were kids who could pitch, sure enough, but they did it with average stuff and above-average command. They knew ‘how’ to pitch.
There were standouts, but maybe not as many as in tournaments past. Jake Hanley, from Mason High School, was one, for instance, headed to play at Indiana University in the fall. And on that same Mason team there were a handful of players already committed to play as some level of college baseball, the most of any school participating. And not surprising, they emerged as the Division I champion.
The next level was there – Ohio State, along with Marshall, Toledo, and Kent State – but there weren’t as many D-I colleges as in years past. Or, they might have been there, but they weren’t conspicuous. And I didn’t see as many pro scouts as in the past, which tells me that what they were looking for wasn’t there.
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Was it a good tournament? Sure, it’s always good to see kids play under the stress of having to be good enough, or better than the opponent, to win. And hence, it was good to see a school like Lake High School compete for the title…what would have been the first in the school’s history, in any sport. It didn’t happen.
Veteran coaches, like Coldwater’s Lou Brunswick (who won five state titles) know that quality wins are more memorable than the quantity of wins.
What’s the future hold, starting in 2024-’25 when the OHSAA expands the field to seven divisions?
Interesting enough, the OHSAA says that member schools asked for seven divisions…but I haven’t personally found one that said that they were asked.
My overwhelming concern is whether more divisions actually make the competitive experience better. And judging from what I’ve seen over the years I don’t know if having seven divisions in baseball can make ‘it’ (baseball) better. It just makes the trophy business better.
I know there are coaches, like Vandalia’s Trent Dues, who openly advocate for more divisions, saying, “You can’t have too many champions.”
Another sign of the times, perhaps, because when Dues played at Coldwater and I played at Piqua we both played for men who cared about the quality of wins as much as they did quantity. And I know from my own experience as an athlete that I never cared much about beating Otterbein. I wanted to beat Minnesota, or Michigan.
I never did win a state championship in high school, and I was never part of a Big Ten title team at Ohio State; and I don’t think I was scarred by that. I just know that I was programmed back then to believe that championships come from beating the best.
Again, I don’t know what’s to come from this. I don’t think anyone does, or whether it makes anything better.
Just more of it.
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