A tale of two lefties: Arteaga and Arnold
FSU's ace has awful night in Miami; I've seen this act before
During Thursday night’s FSU six home run beatdown of the Miami Hurricanes, something happened that I could never have imagined. I felt sorry for Miami baseball coach J.D. Arteaga.
I saw his name out on the centerfield wall along with all the other Miami immortals, Pat Burrell, Ron Fraser and others; he was the school’s all-time winning pitcher, helped get them to four straight College World Series and was easily the most absolutely irritating pitcher I ever watched.
Some pitchers threw junk, he threw crap. Changeups off of changeups, curveballs that curved in impossible, unhittable ways, screwing with hitter’s minds in awful, ugly, frustrating ways.
I remember once him getting FSU’s great Doug Mienkiewicz, about as competitive a person as is legal in America, to hit a nubbing, barely moving, ground ball back to him, Mienkiewicz actually laughing at how pathetic it was, jogging towards first base. ] “How could you laugh at what he made you do?” I asked him later, shocked as I’d never seen Doug give quarter on a baseball field.
“Ah…that’s J.D.,” he said. “We go back.”
He took over the once-proud Miami program last year and, like Link Jarrett, had a miserable first year 29-31, canned almost his entire roster, also like Link, and in 2025, his program was off to an awful start. Here he was, facing archrival FSU, and his Hurricanes could not have looked worse. SIX home runs allowed? Really? With Jamie Arnold, the greatest pitcher in the collegiate world up next?
Well, don’t cry for me, Arteaga. What a spanking! The Hurricanes chased Arnold, Derek Williams had the nerve to hit a mammoth HR over the Miami scoreboard off of one of Arnold’s 95+ high fastballs, the kind of thing not supposed to be accomplished by mortal man, and J.D.’s program looked reborn after a resounding 9-6 victory over the Seminoles and Arnold. The Seminoles have themselves a series, all of a sudden.
\ Arnold, everybody’s future first-rounder, just didn’t seem himself all night. He gave up a hit — think of it, allowing a single to the first batter of the game! — didn’t seem to have his usual zip and in TV closeups, seemed to be wondering what in the world was happening to him like it was an episode of the Twilight Zone.
He had some tough breaks, dug himself a hole with a sort of lazy/careless throw to first on a nubber (one hit better than Mientkiewicz’s) and seemed stunned when Williams absolutely launched one over the Mark Light Scoreboard. Hitters didn’t do that sort of thing to Arnold, did they?
What happened? Well, TV cameras showed the row of MLB scouts standing behind home with their stop watches and radar guns and hungry eyes focused on Arnold as though he was the only person in the entire ballpark, someone they traveled many miles to lay their eyes upon in the flesh and geez… maybe the kid was nervous. With million-dollar contracts out there in front of him, all that talk and hype and chatter and expectation, maybe it simply got to him? Or maybe he had a bad night.
I’ve seen this act before. Seems to me I remember FSU’s Paul Wilson, who, like Arnold, everybody in the world thought was going to be the top pick in the MLB Draft (and he was!) pitching on a Saturday night at Howser against a Georgia Tech team that included Nomar Garciaparra, who had three hits, including a leadoff HR, Jason Varitek. who had two hits, and Jay Payton who clubbed a three-run shot off Wilson but FSU right fielder Randy Hodges (one of my favorite unsung Seminoles) faked that he was going to catch the ball and Varitek, on first, bought the fake and stood still. Payton passed him on the bases and was called out. At least that didn’t happen to Arnold.
Wilson threw 6.2 inn, allowed 11 hits and 6 runs, fanned 6, walked two, allowing three HRs, only two counted. Arnold threw 4 inn., 7 hits, 7 runs, 6 earned, 3 walks, 2 whiffs, one HR allowed. But this seemed more shocking, didn’t it?
This, friends, is the game of baseball. You can’t predict it, only that something will happen you didn’t expect and it’s how you handle all these things that determine what kind of team and season you’re going to have.
On Tuesday night, Link Jarrett’s Seminoles could not have played worse against a Mercer team that, let’s face it, will not leave its footprints on the sands of time.
On Thursday night, they looked like one of the greatest power-hitting teams in college baseball history, a match for Skip Bertman’s LSU softball-star-sized clubbers.
On Friday night, their ace got rocked, they left hundreds of men on base, let Miami steal bases at will and got themselves spanked.
Act III is tonight at 7. I wouldn’t miss it for the world.