If they don’t have enough issues already, there was no broadcast of the Buckeyes games with Indiana on Friday…and those who listen for such things were the first to notice.
Bloomington, IN – As bad as Friday’s double-header with Indiana turned out to be for the Buckeyes, apparently it wasn’t so bad that some expectant fans were still listening for the action on WBNS, AM 1460, the long-time radio voice of Ohio State baseball with Matt Andrews and Bob Spears.
Listening, and it wasn’t there.
Publisher Sonny Fulks writes OHSAA sports and Buckeyes baseball for Press Pros Magazine.
“Is someone sick, or what,” wrote Don Motz, an 87-year-old Buckeye baseball fan from southwest Indiana, who listens via streaming on WBNS. “Why weren’t [Friday’s] games on the radio?”
I have no answer for that other than conversations over the winter floating the rumor that apparently some, but not all, Big Ten games would be broadcast. As to which ones, no one seems to know.
“Why no radio? If this is a money thing, who has more of it than Ohio State?” added an irritated writer who identified himself as Damon, from Upper Arlington.
And if it is an Ohio State decision it would be in conjunction with Learfield radio, who operates the Ohio State sports network.
If you want to know more your concerns would be directed, I assume, to the Ohio State athletics department and Skip Mosic, who’s the producer of Ohio State sports on WBNS and 97.1 FM, The Fan.
Mosic is the actual message. We…are just a messenger.
How things are shaking out at the quarter pole…..
The Buckeyes are not the only Big Ten baseball program that are struggling to gain footing at the quarter mark of the season.
In fact, if you go back and read some of the posts from early February I touted Indiana (10-9), Nebraska (7-9), Maryland (10-8), and Iowa (9-8) as teams that would compete for the upper seeds some Big Ten Tournament time. Like the Buckeyes, they’ve all had their head-scratching moments.
But I wrote this, too. Pitching is thin across the conference in 2025, as a lot of programs are in the development stage with both high school recruits and transfers from other programs…just like the Buckeyes!
If you’re blaming 5-11 on coaching? Don’t.
If you’re blaming it on Bill Mosiello? Don’t. It was Mosiello’s schedule to play all those top 50 teams – Arizona State, Oregon State, Baylor, Auburn, NC State, Alabama and Coastal Carolina – but he did it to impress upon someone that if he was coach it would be more a priority than playing Wisconsin-Milwaukee, or Iona. Mosiello was poking the bear.
And when the realities of baseball priorities in the Big Ten became manifest, at least to him, Mosiello decided to move on. It is what it is.
As for Haire, he is what I’ve heard countless baseball critics ask for…an Ohio guy who understands the significance of the Ohio State brand, amateur baseball in the state, and the relationship with amateur baseball coaches. Haire would be a perfect fit.
But it’s an important thing to recognize that the culture of amateur baseball coaches has changed, and is changing, from that veteran culture of men that you grew up knowing and quoting – Jim Hardman, Rick Gold, Tom Held, Tom Randall, Tim Engleka, and Bruce Cahill, all hall of fame Ohio high school coaches.
It will take some time, and it’s going to take a commitment from Ohio State, and ultimately, from the Big Ten Conference.
Ultimately, the season has to be pushed back to April, and teams will play until mid-July – warm weather, and the opportunity to market college baseball to where it can attract attendance and pay for itself. Proportionately, it has to be given the opportunity to be as popular as football.
Move the season back you actually save money – trips to the south and west for the first four weeks to find weather warm enough to play baseball.
Do that and you begin to impact the culture of community amateur baseball in Ohio to where kids see meaningful opportunity to play beyond high school – that college baseball can have a positive impact on their future regardless of where it leads.
And that the experience of playing more meaningful baseball is something you’re committed to pass on.
So how are things shaking out at the quarter pole?
Glass half full, there’s 40 games yet to play, and all you can ask for is opportunity. There will be twelve teams make the Big Ten Tournament this year, and college baseball, like any sport, is a fluid operation. You’re always looking forward.
All you can ask for is go to the ballpark tomorrow…and win!
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