OLE MISS BASEBALL 2014: THIS IS NOT THE END
It is said that every good thing must end. That every journey has a destination.
In 2014, this Ole Miss ball club reached the highest point of any Ole Miss baseball team in the program’s history. But it’s not over.
The 2014 season is over but this is just another shot by Mike Bianco at winning a National Championship. And he may eventually knock down the wall and get there.
Fans are very aware of the struggles this team has had trying to get to Omaha, and while a top 4 finish at the CWS is certainly respectable, it is not enough for Bianco.
From the very beginning, Bianco had plans for his program to follow in the footsteps of his mentor and former coach Skip Bertman at LSU. When Mike was a player and a young coach at LSU, going to Omaha was a given. LSU went to Omaha every year he was an assistant coach in the early 90s. He took it for granted.
Coach Bertman had a plan. He did everything correctly and Mike thought if he followed the same plan, he would get similar results. Of course, it’s not quite that simple.
I had the chance to hear Coach Bertman speak a few years ago and he mentioned that when he arrived at LSU in the early 80s, baseball was not a big deal in Baton Rouge. The guys were sloppy and undisciplined. He had to instill a sense of pride in the team and in the players.
Skip had to endure small baseball crowds made up mainly of football fans. He said, “they didn’t know a point from a run, or a referee from an umpire.”
But he knew that winning games and presenting a positive image for the fans would pay off. Skip even made sure the concession stands were filled and running well.
When Mike Bianco started in Oxford 20 years after Skip, he probably found a similar situation, but there was much more competition as other SEC schools started investing in baseball. He just went down the same path, he got the guys to start working a lot harder than they ever had before. He also had to get the guys to take ownership of the program. There were many times the players helped clean up the stadium after games. Not out of punishment necessarily but to learn to take ownership and pride in their stadium, their field and themselves.
Like Bertman, Bianco had quick success and fielded what may still be the most talented team Ole Miss has had to-date in 2005. A team that finished with an all-time high 48 wins but were unfortunately matched up with a hot Texas team and would not advance to Omaha.
Other seasons yielded other opportunities, but Omaha continued to elude Ole Miss. Bianco kept working and believing in his system. He knew it worked. It was pretty easy in Baton Rouge. You recruit well, coach well, put guys in the right situation to be successful and more often than not they will be successful.
Coach Bianco found it was a little harder than he thought. He discussed this during press conferences in Omaha.
"“I joked about that my days as an assistant at LSU in the 90’s how easy Skip Bertman made it look to get here and all those great LSU teams. When I got to Ole Miss, I thought I had the blueprint. Once you get to Omaha, this is what you do. Unfortunately, it took 14 years, and heck they don’t even play in the same stadium. The blueprint isn’t as good as it once was. We used to stay in the same hotel, in the same room every year. Embassy suites, second floor. That hotel isn’t available now. When you get a taste of the reality of how difficult it is just to get (to Omaha), you have a new appreciation for it.”"
If anyone appreciates the trip to Omaha, it would be Mike Bianco. He and his family have put everything they have into the program, this school and the community. Mike has been a victim of hind sight so frequently but there was only one solution to the critics, and getting to the CWS and winning two games should feel pretty sweet for a guy who has paid his dues and then some.
He gave all the credit to this 2014 team, as saying that this group will “go down as the best team that ever played at Ole Miss,” and he was “sad that these guys won’t ever wear (the red and blue uniforms) again.
But the key cog in this program is returning. He is the all-time winningest baseball coach at Ole Miss with 557 wins and a .633 winning percentage. He has 229 SEC wins (38 wins above .500) but the greatest thing about the 2014 season is how this team responded under increasing pressure. The Rebels haven’t made it to a super regional since 2009 and this team was picked to finish 5th in the division. There were lots of fans thinking of who the next baseball coach would be.
With a team of talented freshman and a few experienced juniors and seniors, they put together a team that matched the 2005 record in wins (48) and surpassed them by getting to Omaha.
The road may have ended but the journey is not over, Bianco will have 100% support of the fans and administration going forward. The atmosphere at Swayze field (Bianco Stadium?) will only get louder and harder for opposing teams, recruiting will get easier and success will continue in Oxford.
Even though Bianco wants to give all the credit to this team, by saying they are the “best ever,” I would just add one thing to the end of his quote, and that would be – “so far.”