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Baseball
Buckeye Season Ends on a Low Note and a High One
By John Porentas

The last weekend of baseball this year reflected almost perfectly the season that it was ending. To some degree, it also reflected an illustrious career that was also ending.

Alex Wimmers in his last appearance as a Buckeye.
Photo by Dan Harker

Friday's game with Minnesota was suspended in the top of the second inning when thunderstorms blew into the Columbus area. The Buckeyes were up 1-0 when the suspension occurred, and there was reason for optimism. For the first time since the Michigan series ace right handed pitcher Alex Wimmers was on the mound, dealing his 94 mile an hour fastball, nasty curve ball and absolutely filthy changeup. Wimmer's, despite pitching on a bad hamstring in his left (landing) leg, was in control, and it made all the difference in the world for the Buckeyes.

"Every start he does is magical. He really set the tone for the team," said senior outfielder Mike Stephens.

Then the rains came. Wimmers had retired one hitter in the second when the game was halted. The question on everybody's mind went immediately to whether he could possibly take the mound again on Saturday.

"Before we left the ball park last might I said 'You just take care of yourself'" said OSU Head Coach Bob Todd.

"I said 'You tell me how you feel and then we will agree as to what we are doing.'

"Then when I saw him in pre-game meal I said 'Go get loose, then you tell me.'

"To be honest we had another pitcher warming up. We had Alex and Wolosianski both warming up. It was Alex' decision the minute he went to the bullpen. He was the one that was going to tell us 'Yeah, I think I can go,' or 'No, I can't.'"

Wimmers opted to return to the mound despite a leg that quite honestly didn't want to be out there with the rest of him.

"Today was just about the team. I did the best I could to try and get us into the tournament,' said Wimmers.

His return to the mound was inspirational for his teammates.

"It just shows you how much of a competitor he is and how much he cares about this team," said catcher Dan Burkhart.

"He knew what we had to do this weekend and he wasn't going to let anything stop him from going out there and pitching.

"He was pitching on pain today, but we needed a win and he gave us the best chance to get it."

There was also the consideration of a lucrative pro career that lies in front of him. Pitching on a bad leg is tough, but pitching on a bad leg when there is so much money involved for the sure-fire first-round draft choice is a whole other thing. In spite of it all, it was not a tough decision for Wimmers.

"There were multiple things that could have happened but I didn't think about that," said Wimmers.

The pain coupled with the night off impacted his effectiveness, but it didn't matter. Wimmers at less-than 100 percent was better than anything else the Buckeyes had going.

"I was hurting pretty bad," said Wimmers.

Alex Wimmers

It was clear to those watching that he wasn't quite up to par, but he was still out there giving it his all.

"He wasn't as good as he normally is. He was still pumping 94 yesterday. He came out with a little less velocity today," said Burkhart.

"You can't win with a messed up hamstring like that. He did the best that he could. I thought he did a great job today."

Alex Wimmes throws what was most likely his last pitch as a Buckeye.
Photo by Jim Davidson

Wimmers went six full innings before running out of gas. He struggled in the sixth but got through it, though he took a vicious line drive in the thigh of his injured left leg in the process of getting through the inning. The screaming liner got him full in the flesh on the inside of his thigh. The smack of the ball into his leg was so loud it could be clearly heard in the press box. Wimmers had every reason to call it a day. He didn't.

"I went out there and said 'Are you all right?' and he said 'Just gimme the ball. Lets go,'" said Burkahrt.

"I said 'Did it hit you in the hammy?' and he said 'Just gimme the ball and lets go.'"

"At the moment my adrenaline was going and I didn't really feel it," said Wimmers after the game.

Wimmers finished the inning and left the mound with his team leading 3-1. He also knew that he was not going to be able to return in the seventh.

"I was tired. I did the best I could to go as long as I could. I was out for a while so my stamina is way down," Wimmers said.

"I started to get really fatigued. I told the coach if I go out there any more I'm going to be tired and not going to be able to give my best effort any more."

Wimmers was relieved in the seventh. When he left the game so did the magic that he brought so often to the Buckeyes this season. What returned was the dark cloud that seemed to follow them from the day Wimmers was injured right up to the end of the season.

The Gophers tied the game with a two-run homerun in the seventh, then put the winning run on the board in the eighth to hand the Buckeyes a bitter 4-3 defeat in a game that was nearly in the bag for them then got away. The loss assured that OSU would finish out of the top-six in the Big Ten standing and put them out of the Big Ten tournament.

"I took my team into consideration and did the best I could to put a W up on the board, but unfortunately it didn't work out. It sucks because we came so close, but came up a game short," said Wimmers.

Between games the Buckeyes conducted senior day. They also conducted a ceremony to retire the number of Head Coach Bob Todd who, as it turned out, was coaching the last game of his career afterward.

Todd's final team has struggled, but struggling is a relative word. Todd has set the bar so high for OSU baseball that a season with 28 wins and 23 losses is considered horribly sub par. Todd's teams, after all, had won 30 games or more 22-consecutive years. His teams won 40 or more in nine of the years covered by that span. Twice the Buckeyes won 50 or more under him, going 52-13 in 1991 and 50-14 in 1999. There has been plenty of winning in the Bob Todd era, but there has more, much more, than just victories.

Throughout his career Todd has stressed doing your best at all times, mental toughness, and respect for the game. Though his final season will, by the lofty standards he set, be disappointing in terms of wins and losses, this team, like all the others Todd has coached, continued to exhibit the characteristics their coach has espoused, right up to the last out of the season. It was his message right up until the last game he coached in his Buckeye career, the second game on Saturday. He said it to his team one last time between games.

"I said 'Don't mail it in. You owe it to this program and this university to give it a good effort.'

The Buckeyes had nothing left to play for in game two on Saturday except the expectations of their coach. They were out of the tournament. There was nothing they could do about it, but true to the Bob Todd philosophy, they went out there and gave it their all, did their best.

The result was a 9-6 win in a game in which it would have been easy to just go through the motions. Like all the rest of teams in the Todd era however, they didn't do that. They stayed true to the game, fought, clawed, and competed. They took a lead, lost it, got it back, then held on for the win to send their coach out on winning note.

It would have been nice if Bob Todd's last team could have made the Big Ten tournament. The fact that they didn't, however, cannot detract from the fact that Todd and his teams have been consistent winners over the long haul. Todd's overall winning percentage of .650 and Big Ten winning percentage of .628 coming into this season speak for themselves.

What isn't so clear from the outside looking in are the values he has taught and lived by. In a way, the sub par season this year allowed those values to shine through. The Buckeyes had one obstacle after another this season, obstacles which eventually cost them wins. The obvious one was the Wimmers' injury, but there were more, mostly centered around the pitching staff.

Prospects that were counted on simply didn't pan out this year for one reason or another, and it cost Todd and his team in the win column. Along with Wimmers, Drew Rucinski battled blisters on his throwing hand that eventually impeded his effectiveness, and two other outstanding prospects never threw an inning due to off-season injury. Additionally, Jared Strayer underwent knee surgery and did not pitch until the season was winding down.

"It's been baffling," said Stephens.

"The best way I can describe it is a dark cloud over Columbus.

"Drew Rucinski with his finger, Ross Oltorick with his shoulder problems, he would have been our second starter.

"Drew Malley would have given us another pitcher coming out of the pen. A lot of it is just bad luck."

Despite it all, and the disappointment of not making the Big Ten tournament, the Buckeyes went out and battled in the last game and won it, just like their head coach wanted them to, like he always preached to them. Indeed, Wimmers' effort on Saturday was one more reflection of that philosophy. You do the best you can at all times, no matter what.

The Buckeyes took 23 losses this year, losses they and their coach wish were wins, but that last win, though it can't wash away the losses of the season, stands as a testimony that ultimately college sports really aren't about the wins and losses. They are about the life-lessons taught and learned.

Maybe the sub par season with a winning ending is a perfect backdrop for the ending for Todd's career. Wins and losses are important, but there was no doubt in the mind of anyone in the OSU clubhouse after the game that despite their record the team had done the best it could under the circumstances, and they were comfortable with that. So was their coach. They had battled to the end and went out on a winning note in a game that didn't matter to anybody else but them, because that game and that win were important to them for reasons that transend the obvious. There is a lesson in that for all of us, and much to be admired.

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