Real small piece
Mike Martin, who has announced that he’s retiring after completing his 40th season as Florida State’s coach, is a sentimental favorite to win the College World Series.
This is the 17th time Martin has brought a team to Omaha, but his Seminoles have yet to win a national championship. The closest they’ve come is finishing second in 1986 to Arizona and second in 1999 to Miami.
Even the opposing coaches in FSU’s bracket were asked at a Friday news conference that if their team was eliminated, if a little piece of them was rooting for Martin, 75, to win it all in his final season.
“A real small piece,” Arkansas Coach Dave Van Horn said, drawing laughter.
Van Horn’s Razorbacks play FSU tonight.
Michigan and Texas Tech are on the same side of the bracket as Arkansas and FSU.
“I’ll agree with Dave, a very small piece as far as on the winning deal,” Texas Tech Coach Tim Tadlock said of rooting for Martin and the Seminoles. “All of us are competitors, and believe me, if we weren’t here, yeah, absolutely.”
Martin is known by his coaching peers as “11” for his uniform number.
“There was a time where absolutely you’re thinking about it being 11’s last year and until you qualify, you’re going, ‘It would be really cool if he could win this deal,’ ” Tadlock said. “Then you qualify, and you’re like, ‘No, that wouldn’t be cool.’ ”
Van Horn, 58, and Tadlock, 50, both said they won’t still be coaching when they’re 75 as Martin has done.
“I hope I’m alive at 75,” Van Horn said with a laugh.
Van Horn called it amazing that Martin has been FSU’s coach since 1980.
“For someone to stay at one university as long as he’s been, I think those days are gone,” Van Horn said. “He’s done a tremendous job.
“I think the key, he’s always had great coaches and good people around him, a lot of support.”
Said Tadlock of Martin’s longevity, “I don’t even know where I’m going next week, much less at 75.”