FSU Baseball: Mike Martin only gets final year due to Bowden fiasco

FSU baseball is going to have another year with their veteran head coach in the dugout thanks to a legendary football coach not getting his final season.

When the news broke Monday that longtime FSU baseball coach Mike Martin would be hanging up his No. 11 jersey for good after the 2019 season, like most people I was caught in a mixture of emotions that come with being both a FSU fan, an alum of the school and someone who has watched what takes place every season at the end of the year.

The fan and alum in me – an unapologetic FSU athletics homer – is sad to see the living legend of the baseball Seminoles go. There is no arguing that with 1,987 wins (and counting), 40+ victories each season to go along with being a 32-time conference champion (regular season and tournaments combined) and 16 time visitor to the College World Series puts him in the convo as best college baseball coach ever.

At the same time, it’s the fact that never once did FSU baseball leave Omaha as the champions of that eight team event that will put Martin in the conversation with other greats who never won a title if he is can’t do it during the 40th and final season he is the head coach of the Seminoles.

In reality, an argument could be made that even with the consistent winning seasons, Mike Martin should have left the dugout inside Dick Howser Stadium at Mike Martin Field seasons ago. Just three trips to Omaha in the last 10 seasons is evidence along with several questionable moves – like what took place in this year’s regional where the national seed Noles were swept to elimination.

So, why is Mike Martin getting a chance at another season to possibly fall short? Two words: Bobby Bowden.

For those who don’t remember about what took place during the 2009 FSU football season, the longtime coach made it clear that he wanted to coach one more season – what would have been his 35th at the school in 2010 – but was pretty much forced out the door by the former school president, athletic director and plenty others.

There were plenty of people that took the side of Bowden and thought FSU handled the end of an era the wrong way. FSU baseball, under the guidance of current school president John Thrasher and athletic director Stan Wilcox, were not about to have a PR issue with the removal of this legend and thus Martin gets one more year.

Does he deserve one more season? If the argument is his resume minus the postseason debate, of course he does. Now, include the postseason and one has to wonder why you would give someone a chance to go 0-40 in the national title department.

Mike Martin should be praised for turning FSU baseball from a good team into a national power – but that does not mean he should get a free pass for one more season just because. If the Seminoles fail this season to reach any of the milestones – a 40 win season, the NCAA tournament or the College World Series – he will be going out with a disappointment.

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But, thanks to a public relations uproar nearly a decade ago from some involving another longtime Noles leader, he will get a chance to do so.