No Clear-Cut Answer For Miami Baseball

This piece has been brewing for a while now. A few years, actually.

I’ve done all I could to not ‘go there’, sitting back, waiting and hoping that things would turn around, but unfortunately it’s been a steady dose of more of the same.

Every spring for the past half decade Miami baseball reaches this familiar point of erosion. Seasons that start with promise, ebb and flow, only to wind up dying a slow death, sputtering towards the finish line.

Omaha, once a gimmie, hasn’t been a reality since the 2008 season. Hosting a home regional? Also a rarity and even when awarded the opportunity last year, Miami was run out of their own house by the likes of Stony Brook and Missouri State in embarrassing fashion.

The skid has been so obvious and disastrous that the once beloved, two-time national champion head coach Jim Morris is now feeling the heat more than ever in his previous nineteen seasons at Miami. Something no one would’ve expected years back regarding a beloved local sports figure.

Those first eleven years as an Independent? Morris brought the Canes to Omaha nine of eleven times, including seven straight appearances starting his first season in 1994.

UM was crowned National Champions twice during that span, too – 1999 and 2001 – and were also one out away from a title in 1996, before that miracle shot by LSU’s don’t-even-want-to-mention-his-name.

Morris entered this season with an 850-344-3 and has without a doubt solidified himself as UM legend; the second-best baseball coach this program has seen behind the once-in-a-lifetime Ron Fraser.

Unfortunately the latter half of Morris’ career at UM has been more down than up.

Where Omaha was once synonymous with Miami baseball, there’s been an all-time drought for this program, with getting to the College World Series becoming almost as hard as winning the whole thing was, back in the day.

ACC play began in 2005 and Miami’s season ended in Lincoln, falling to Nebraska in the Super Regional. A year later, a gritty post-season run with two clutch wins at Mississippi, earned Miami a College World Series berth, albeit short-lived and over after three games.

2007 saw Miami hitting the road for the Missouri regional, and sent packing after two losses to Louisville, but it set the stage for what would prove to be the best run Morris and staff put together in a few years; the 2008 season with a loaded squad.

The Canes entered the College World Series as a one-seed but disaster struck in the top of the ninth against number eight Georgia. Up 4-3 and looking to close out, a throwing error took the wheels off and Miami couldn’t recover.

The Bulldogs wound up scoring four and a shell-shocked Hurricanes bunch entered the bottom of the ninth three down and unable to do anything, marking the first time in forty-six attempts that the Hurricanes lost a game with an eighth inning lead.

Miami beat Florida State in the losers’ bracket but fell to Stanford in the next round, while Georgia went on to reach the finale, falling to eventual champion Fresno State in three, and truth be told, Miami baseball hasn’t been the same since that errant throw by Chris Gutierrez, which led to an opening round upset.

Miami has made it to three regionals and one Super, twice getting sent home by the rival Florida Gators, as well as last season’s embarrassing lack-of-a-home-stand.

This year could turn even uglier. Should the Canes remain lackluster for the remainder of the season, a streak of forty-straight regional appearances could come to an end, with the collective sound being the true bottoming out of this program.

Twenty-one games remain and the schedule is somewhat favorable, but when Miami has already stumbled against the likes of Duke, Illinois State, Florida Atlantic and Bethune-Cookman, things could go either way between now and mid-May, proving that even the post-season itself can no longer be expected.

While it’s obvious there’s a problem with the state of Miami baseball, the answer for how to fix isn’t nearly as clear cut.

The knee-jerk reaction is to call for change regarding this coaching staff, which has failed to deliver for a while now, even with some recent tweaks over the past few seasons.

Riled up fans have been anti-Morris for a while now, which is understandable – and based on what looked like a two- or three-year skid now turning into a half decade of mediocre baseball, it gets harder annually to argue with their sentiment.

Still, Morris or no Morris, it doesn’t change the fact that Miami is feeling the pain of being a high-priced private school in an era where there’s so much parity in the game – proven by Stony Brook reaching the College World Series last year, or non-traditional baseball programs like Fresno State, Oregon State and South Carolina winning it all in recent years, both the Beavers and Gamecocks going back-to-back.

Look at the struggles of some other former baseball powers who also happen to be private schools? Where are Southern Cal and Stanford these days? Both have taken a noticeable step back and the only private schools in this week’s top 25 are third-ranked Vanderbilt, fourteenth-ranked Rice and number eighteen Notre Dame.

The ACC is well-represented, though. North Carolina at one, Virginia at five, Florida State at seven, North Carolina State at nineteen, Georgia Tech at twenty and Clemson at twenty-two. Virginia Tech just fell out and ACC-bound Louisville sits at eight.

Based on that, there’s some pretty simple math to do. Life as an Independent versus life in the ACC, as well as private school cost versus much more appealing public school options. There’s also that whole much-more-parity-than-ever thing.

Football can dole out 85 full scholarships annually, while baseball is limited to a paltry 11.7, with partial scholarships oft given.

Some more staggering numbers? A annual price tag of over $50K annually per student at the University of Miami covering tuition, books, room and board, et al.

Even with a partial scholarship, the family of a baseball player at UM can still be responsible for upwards of $30K annually to send their kid to school, versus state schools like Florida or Florida State at a fraction of that cost.

As a parent grinding it out in a down economy, which would you choose, orange and green blinders aside?

Shelving the Morris debate for a moment, there is a bigger situation at play here and a bitter pill to swallow; Miami will never be “Miami” again when it comes to college baseball.

Let that sink in.

‘The House That The Wizard Built’ was tailor-made for the 1980s, 1990s and even the early part of the 2000s, but in this current climate, where athletic budgets are over the moon and private school costs, combined with partial scholarships, are impossible-to-ignore stats, UM is going to fight this battle with an arm tied behind its back.

Of course none of that excuses lackluster effort and lesser baseball. This current squad should be performing better than it is and there is definitely a disconnect regarding what’s being taught and what’s absorbed.

Basic fundamentals. Hitting. Fielding. Clutch pitching. Even some good old fashioned heart and hustle would be welcomed, but instead another season where all the above come and go in spurts.

Entering this past weekend Miami’s overall team batting average sat at .261, only slightly better than last year’s .259 showing.

CaneSport’s Jim Martz also pointed out that these are the worst numbers the Hurricanes have put up at the plate in forty-two years. Martz also pointed out that UM as a team only has six home runs on the season.

Doesn’t it seem like Pat Burrell and Aubrey Huff were combining for at least six shots a weekend during UM’s heyday?

Martz’s piece proved rather lighthearted, opting to open and close with talk about the legendary Mark Light Milk-Shakes and the 250,000th frozen concoction sold this past weekend.

Sandwiched between dessert talk, some real talk regarding big money college athletics, scholarship woes, recruiting and scheduling, but like many, Martz stayed clear of any Morris-related talk, which is understandable as a long-time, closely-associated-with-the-program writer.

Morris is a legend. He’s won two titles. He’s coached-up a ton of kids and couldn’t have done a better job as Miami’s leader, taking over for a legend in Coach Fraser – winning as many titles as The Wizard and doing right by this program for two decades now.

Morris’ baseball knowledge is never in question. The man built a program at Georgia Tech and took Miami’s to another level. He will go down as one of the all-time greats, not just in Coral Gables, but regarding the game itself.

The million dollar question right now comes down to motivation; how much is his heart really in this thing at this stage of his career and having accomplished all that he has?

Up the road in Tallahassee, Florida State’s Mike Martin is still going strong at sixty-nine years old, but there’s a glaring difference between the Seminoles’ skipper and the sixty-three year old Morris; big time wins.

Thirty-three years with FSU and Martin remains ‘The Lord Of No Rings’ and is looking at thirty-four, unless the Noles can win it all this season.

That fire in Martin’s belly? It comes from the hunger of never having tasted ultimate victory. Morris has two rings and has seen the top of the mountain and at this stage of his career, hunger cannot be fabricated. He’s tasted that ultimate success.

In the past few years Morris has also gone through a hellish divorce, became a father and has dealt with some health issues – things that could rattle a thirty-three year old, let alone someone three decades older and wiser.

There’s no doubt Morris on the downside of his career arc, but only he knows if he’s truly done, or if there’s anything left in the tank.

Jim Larranaga, Miami’s basketball coach, showered with post-season awards for his team’s run this season, is also sixty-three and seems to be having the time of his life.

That said, Larranaga only has a fraction of the success on the hardwood that Morris earned on the diamond and only once truly came close to winning it all.

Miami was a perfect fit for Larranaga at this point of his career. Success was found at George Mason, and going into the final season of his life, Coral Gables was a perfect fit. ACC basketball. Unique program. Desirable location to reside and retire down the road.

Larranaga is having fun as he’s where he wants to be and is enjoying his final years chasing a championship at a major university.

A few hundred yards north, another Miami leader absolutely on the right side of his career arc and another perfect fit for UM in head football coach Al Golden.

Timing was also everything in Golden’s move to Coral Gables, entering his early forties when taking the job in December 2010, leaving a rebuilt Temple program for a bigger challenge and ideal gig at The U.

The New Jersey native has the energy and fire to build up the UM program, understands the strength of the brand, knows how fertile the recruiting soil is – and he too loves South Florida, proving to be a perfect fit as many northeastern snowbirds are.

Miami has two semi-new coaches who proved to be the right guys at the right time with the right resumes and right motivation. The city. The situations they both walked into. Scandal and NCAA investigation aside, both guys found dream jobs.

The Morris situation is a completely different beast. A long-time coach that’s been on board seven years longer than current president Donna Shalala.

Morris has run this baseball program since Dennis Erickson said goodbye, Butch Davis rebuilt, Larry Coker won and lost, Randy Shannon face-planted and Golden was handed the keys.

His Tad Foote era, two years post-Hurricane Andrew hiring almost seems like a lifetime ago and now two decades later – coupled with five years of bad baseball – it’s a logical time to start thinking about what comes next.

For those invested in this article, hoping for a crystal-clear answer, I hate to disappoint as there isn’t one that’s clear cut. Nor am I going to play a holier-than-thou role and call for anyone’s head. That’s not me. Maybe in the past, but not at this point.

The older I get, the more respect I have for life’s overall struggle. Answers aren’t as clear cut as we try to make them in times like these.

Calling for someone’s firing isn’t a practice I care to employ at this phase of life. There are simply too many layers to one’s story and journey for another to sit back and demand that such drastic actions are taken.

I also find it to be a pointless waste of time to rant and rave over things that aren’t going to happen, and the University of Miami canning a legend like ‘3’ — it’s not EVER going to be in the cards, much to the chagrin of some, so save yourself the aggravation.

Unfortunately, Miami baseball remain in an “it is what it is” situation. This game has somewhat passed this program by, for the time being, and while new blood could help bring things to life, there’s no guarantee that newer will necessarily be better.

Like both the Golden and Larranaga hirings, it will take the right guy at the right time to step in for Morris.

Change for the sake of change is never the answer and UM’s next baseball hire could be just as important as the Fraser or Morris hirings based on the current state of college baseball. The wrong hire could send the Canes into irrelevancy forever.

This season is over a month from playing itself out and that in itself will provide answers.

Based on how things have gone this year, does Miami miss the post-season for the first time since 1970 and if so, then what?

As mentioned, Miami will never drive Morris out. Fans don’t have to agree with that, but they do have to accept it (or raise more hell than passive-aggressive message board posts and social media rants).

The nineteen-year veteran is under contract through 2015 and while two more seasons sounds like an eternity to outsiders, the powers that be aren’t going to ruffle feathers when what appears to be the end is near.

Real talk, opposed to just shaking a fist at the sky? These are your only scenarios, Hurricane baseball enthusiasts:

– Two more years of the Morris era, which will play out one of two ways; with a rejuvenated coach making two final runs at Omaha before hanging it up, or one who coasts until 2015, changing nothing, hoping for some lucky breaks and good chemistry over the next two seasons.

– Safe to say, based on recent play, that even if Miami makes the post-season, this team lacks the consistency to make much of a run, so based on that, maybe Morris decides to call it quits after yet another disappointing season.

Other than that, anything else is wishful thinking, so prepare yourselves as this season winds down – or stop going to games, mass-blast the administration, form your army, take to the streets and demand serious change. Online rants aren’t going to cut it.

Christian Bello has been covering Miami Hurricanes athletics since the mid-1990s. After spending almost a decade as a columnist for CanesTime, he launched allCanesBlog.com. – the official blog for allCanes.com : The #1 Canes Shop Since 1959. Bello has joined up with XOFan.com and will be a guest columnist at CaneInsider.com this fall. Follow him on Twitter @ChristianRBello.

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