It’s baseball’s time of year.
The NFL is well into its offseason. The draft is long since passed and offseason workouts and minicamps will conclude this week. College football is done as well and spring practices are over. Camps for both the NFL and college teams won’t start until late July and early August.
The NHL season will be completed soon. The Stanley Cup finals may be over tonight. If not, the last possible game – if the Florida Panthers somehow win two in a row – will be next Monday.
By the time you read this the NBA Finals may already be over (If the Denver Nuggets won last night). As with the NHL finals, if the Miami Heat are somehow able to win two in a row, the last possible game will be this Sunday.
Granted, the MLS season is in full swing but most people don’t yet consider Major League Soccer the equal of the Big Four pro leagues in this country: football, basketball, baseball and hockey. Although, average attendance at MLS games is pretty similar to MLB games. But there are many more baseball games played, so overall attendance in MLB is much higher.
Meaning it’s baseball’s time to shine and reign supreme over the professional sporting world. Locally, both the State College Spikes and the Altoona Curve have started to play, and ballpark promotions are in full swing (pun intended). But one local baseball team has a question mark surrounding it.
Penn State’s baseball team is without a head coach. Rob Cooper, who was hired in August 2013 as the 14th head coach in Penn State baseball history, resigned a little less than a month ago at the end of this past season.
During the 10 years that Cooper was head coach, Penn State baseball posted a 198-270-0 record for a .423 winning percentage. The Nittany Lions reached the Big Ten Tournament once during his tenure, in 2022, and never made it to the NCAA tournament. He did, however, have the highest position player draft selection in PSU baseball history when catcher Matt Wood was picked in the fourth round last year by the Milwaukee Brewers.
I will admit to not being a big baseball fan in general, but I’ve been alive long enough to remember that Penn State’s baseball team did alright at one time. I attended Penn State from 1977 to 1982, which coincided with the last year of Chuck Medlar’s 19-year stint as head coach – 1981. Nineteen seasons when the team went 312-141-6 for a .686 winning percentage.
In fact, from the time in 1875 when Penn State played its first baseball game, through the last game of Chuck Medlar’s coaching in 1981, Penn State baseball’s record was 1,098-517-18 for a .672 win rate. That’s better than two wins for every loss! But since then, things have dropped off a bit. Shorty Stoner coached PSU for nine years at a .558 clip. Then Joe Hindelang for 14 years at a .523 clip. Next was Robbie Wine for nine seasons at a .466 rate. Lastly, Rob Cooper for 10 years and a .423 percentage.
I think we can see things have been going in a not-positive direction – at least as far as winning is concerned. So, what’s the issue?
Well, from a historical perspective Pennsylvania has a long and storied history with baseball. Pennsylvania ranks third in the country for states with the most members enshrined in the National Baseball Hall of Fame in Cooperstown, New York. The commonwealth has 25 natives in the Hall, behind New York at 34 and California at 26. According to Baseball Reference, for all the known birthplaces of major league players, Pennsylvania ranks second in the country behind California.
Specifically related to Penn State, again according to Baseball Reference, there have been 138 guys who attended Penn State who went on to play some pro ball – although most of that is minor league play.
In terms of World Series history, since the beginning of American League vs. National League play in 1903, Pennsylvania ranks fourth in the country in states with the most World Series titles. The Athletics, Phillies and Pirates have combined for 12. This is behind New York with 35 (Yankees, Dodgers, Giants and Mets), California with 14 (Angels, Dodgers, Athletics and Giants) and Missouri with 13 (Cardinals, Royals).
Not to mention, Little League baseball was founded in central Pennsylvania on fields near Lycoming Creek in Williamsport by the present day site of Bowman Field – the home of the Williamsport Crosscutters, current rival of the State College Spikes. And the Little League World Series is held every year in South Williamsport, on fields that are just 62 miles from Medlar Field.
Now, that’s all well and good from a historical perspective, and might justify those lofty Penn State winning records in season’s past, but what about now? How are Pennsylvania’s baseball chops these days?
At the high school level things seem to be good. According to the National Federation of State High School Associations, based on competition at the high school level in the 2021-22 school year, there were 20,704 boys playing high school baseball in Pennsylvania. That ranks fourth in the country behind Texas, California and Ohio. So there are plenty of young players coming up to the college ranks.
Right now, the NCAA Division I Baseball Championship is ongoing. Sixty-four teams made it to regional competition and played round-robin pools to cut the field to 16 teams. The Super Regional competition to cut it to the eight teams who will play in the College World Series finished yesterday. If we just randomly pick from some of the top teams that made it to the Super Regional field, we find that No. 1-ranked Wake Forest shows five players on its roster who are from Pennsylvania. No. 7-ranked Virginia has four players from the Keystone State. As does Duke. Even No. 16-ranked Alabama shows two Pa. players on its roster (one from Mill Hall!). So Pennsylvania players are populating some of the better teams at the collegiate level.
Hmmm…. It appears Pennsylvania has a long baseball history, and it seems to be creating plenty of young prospects, so, what is Penn State to do to turn the ship around and get back to that historical .672 winning rate?
I think many of you would agree that it starts with the head coach. But since it doesn’t appear that a baseball version of Cael Sanderson exists, Pat Kraft has some work to do. In that case, is there a trait Kraft might look for in a coach that might help Penn State’s cause?
I think there is.
If we look back at the history of two of the best baseball coaches in Penn State history – according to their win-loss record – they were from non-Philadelphia areas of Pennsylvania. Joe Bendenk coached for 32 years from 1931-1962 and was born in Williamsport. His record? 380-159-3 for a .704 winning percentage. The aforementioned Chuck Medlar coached for 19 years from 1963-1981 and was born in Allentown. His record as noted above was 312-141-6 for a .686 winning percentage.
Now, both Joe Hindelang and Robbie Wine were born in Pennsylvania, but they were from the Philly area. Hindelang was born in Philadelphia and Wine in Norristown. After extensive searching, I haven’t been able to find where Rob Cooper was born – but he played his college baseball in Sacramento, California and Miami, Florida.
The point is, Pennsylvania seems to have plenty of young baseball talent. It certainly seems to have a positive history with the game. Penn State just needs the right head coach. And to quote from the character Tia Dalma at the end of the movie “Pirates of the Caribbean: Dead Man’s Chest,” “…then you will need a captain who knows those waters.” Perhaps a Pennsylvania born-and-bred coach who knows the leagues, coaches and talent throughout the less-densely-populated parts of the state, might be just the key.
Here’s to hoping Pat Kraft finds him!