Old Dominion’s 2021 baseball team has changed the future of athletics thanks to historic season
NORFOLK, Va. — Chris Finwood knew that his baseball team’s unprecedented success this season generated a ton of interest among Old Dominion University fans. He didn’t quite appreciate how much until he attended a recent ODU alumni gathering. Many at the event shook his hand and offered their congratulations. Yet, he was particularly surprised when two women approached and confided to him that as they sat at their desks at work, they watched the Monarchs play in the National Collegiate Athletic Association (NCAA) tournament on their phones.
Dozens of others have told him a similar story. “We created a lot of baseball fans this year,” Finwood said. This included thousands online. Social media lit up with comments about the Monarchs, and earlier this season, 12,400 fans visited the school’s website when the Monarchs advanced to the Columbia Regional NCAA tournament final — enough fans to fill Harbor Park Stadium.
For a myriad of reasons, ODU baseball became the biggest team in town for a few weeks this spring. The Monarchs won 44 games, their first Conference USA title and advanced to their first NCAA regional. They were seeded 11th nationally in the NCAA tournament and number one in their region, and they advanced as high as 7th in the NCAA rating percentage index (RPI). They led the nation in home runs with 105 when their season ended and are 11th in scoring with 7.8 runs per game. Yet, this team proudly called itself blue-collar, one that didn’t always have the same talent as their opponents but was never outworked.
Tragedy struck the team in April when Finwood’s wife died. The team dedicated the rest of the season to its coach, and then reeled off six victories in a row. Nationally, college baseball fans began to follow the team playing for its coach, and that attention amped up when the Monarchs became the first team in a decade to be seeded number 1 in an NCAA regional region and yet were forced to play on the road.
The Monarchs traveled nearly 400 miles to Columbia, SC, where on their second night in the regional, they were forced to take on the home-standing Gamecocks before a hostile, booing and hissing crowd of over 7,000. Ryne Moore pitched seven brilliant innings, and Aaron Holiday pitched two shutout innings to get the 2-1 victory on national television. Sadly, it would be the last victory of ODU’s season as the Monarchs lost two games to the University of Virginia, including a 4-3, tenth-inning defeat in the championship game.
UVA Coach Brian O’Connor put ODU’s season in perspective. “They have an incredible team, they had a fantastic year,” he said. “Certainly, it took our best to beat them twice. And I know how it feels, them walking off the field. We’ve been there before. But I hope as time passes, they realize what a special year they had and what they accomplished.”
Coming off a pandemic that kept us isolated for more than a year, this team was a feel-good story that everyone could appreciate. Fans want to embrace individuals or teams who have overcome great obstacles and succeeded, and that, in a nutshell, was ODU baseball. Finwood said, “We were able to be the stewards, the segue, for people to get back to normal. There have been some years where you worry about how many people care about baseball. You never had to worry about that this year.”
The team also generated a movement to improve the Bud Metheny Baseball Stadium (the Bud) to meet the standards needed to host NCAA tournament games. The Bud was one of the finest stadiums in the Mid-Atlantic when it was brand new, but it hasn’t had a major upgrade since its opening in 1983. While the stadium’s field, dugouts, scoreboard and indoor hitting facility are adequate, the stadium lacks other necessary amenities, such as a sports medicine facility, space for players to sit out rain delays, upgraded stands and modernized concessions facility.
ODU has instituted a feasibility study to “provide a detailed scope of work, and cost estimate, for a stadium upgrade to compete at their level,” said David Robichaud, ODU’s director of design and construction. The feasibility study will include trips to other Conference USA stadiums for inspiration. “We need to get to the best places in our league so people can see what we’re competing with,” Finwood said. “We don’t want the best facility in the league. We don’t need that. But we want something that’s better than what we have now.”
Meanwhile, the Old Dominion Athletic Foundation has quietly been soliciting funds behind the scenes and has had encouraging results so far. Yet, even before ODU announced the study or fundraising effort, a grassroots movement began on Twitter to help raise money for the baseball program. Aaron Zielinski, who goes by “Big Blue’s Bulging Biceps” on Twitter, got the ball rolling along with 15 other members of a Twitter group called “The Monarchists.” Zielinski got a big helping hand from Monarch fan Mike Langston. Together, they challenged fans to donate $1 for every home run the Monarchs hit this season, which ultimately totalled $105. Many fans took him up on this, including football coach Ricky Rahne. They used the hashtag #DollarsForDingers. While the $105 contributions won’t get the job done by themselves, it’s an indication of how passionate ODU baseball fans are about their program.
The huge show of support is in part due to the guys who took ODU farther into postseason play than any team in the University’s 90 years.
Finwood said, “I wanted them [the players] to understand just how important and how historic this season was and what it’s going to do for our program. All the good things that happen to our program moving forward, recruiting, facilities, national recognition, are going to be standing on their shoulders. That’s what winning does. We’re really proud of that, proud of our boys and our coaching staff.”
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