In the endearing baseball movie Bull Durham, the character Annie Savoy says when the team gets on a hot streak, “For one extraordinary June and July, the Durham Bulls began playing baseball with joy and verve and poetry.”
And so it is now for the West Virginia University baseball team. The Mountaineers are riding a historic hot streak right into Omaha for their first-ever appearance in the College Baseball World Series, beginning with a game tomorrow against Troy.
The last few weeks have been remarkable as the Mountaineers have hit, bunted, pitched, slid and stolen their way into the upper echelon of college baseball. Long-time Mountaineer fans and observers agree— not long ago this would have been a fantasy.
However, a new ballpark, the foundational build of Randy Mazey, the tireless recruiting and preparation of Steve Sabins and his staff and the singular purpose of the players have elevated the program to previously unimaginable heights.
Well, maybe unimaginable for most, but not for Sabins and his team. At the lead-off banquet for the team prior to the season, Sabins laid out the expectation clearly and confidently: Get to Omaha.
That goal was at risk in the regional when Kentucky took a three-run lead into the ninth inning of an elimination game. However, in what is now a game that takes its place in WVU sports history books, WVU rallied for five runs for the win to force a seventh and deciding game, which WVU went on to win.
The dream was still alive.
Through the Regional and the Super Regional, Mountaineer fans did what play-by-play announcer Tony Caridi says Mountaineer fans always do. They showed up. And boy did they. They bought all the seats and standing room at Kendrick Family Ballpark, they crowded onto the hillside nicknamed Randy’s Ridge. They were engaged with every pitch, every play.
They made a difference.
There is a risk in following your team with so much devotion. Sports inevitably bring disappointment. Most seasons end with a defeat, and the higher the stakes, the more crushing that defeat can be.
However, the devotion and loyalty also bring the joy that comes with being part of something larger than themselves. Fans feel a personal connection with the team and individual players. When the players, coaches, and fans join together to sing Country Roads, there is no other place anyone would rather be.
Now the Mountaineers have arrived at a destination set out so many months ago by playing with joy and verve and poetry.