FSU: Just messin' with history

Alex Lodise's grand slam was a "take that!"

If you have watched enough baseball over the years, particularly Florida State baseball, you know that often, it doesn’t make sense. Last night’s 8-4 win in Jacksonville was just the most recent case in point.

For a skidding Florida baseball team embarrassingly held to a single hit through 8 innings after going 0-for-6 in the vaunted, sainted (in Gainesville and Tuscaloosa) SEC, to find a way to actually get down to a last strike, then snark their way to a wholly undeserved 4-3 lead, I mean, what kind of Baseball Gods would let a crap thing like that happen?

BTW, I’m not speaking as an FSU fan here, I’m speaking as a baseball fan. I mean, you have eight innings and how many at bats to do something, anything and you pick on FSU’s third reliever to get your ass in gear? Come on!

Then, almost more swiftly than you could choke on a pretzel, the Seminoles roared right back without even an out, when shortstop Alex Lodise decided it was time to, pardon the expression here, give the finger to history. Lodise walloped a first-pitch grand slam home run into the night in deep right center field, perhaps, just maybe, saying that it is indeed time for Florida State and the Seminole baseball team to rise up and offer a belated correction to the historical record and win EVERYTHING.

FSU’s Alex Lodise: Put him on the Golden Spikes watch list, now!

It is going to take a hero to do that, to turn the tide of history. And the way he is playing in the field, at the plate, probably on the bus and maybe even in class, it may well be Alex Lodise, who may lead the way. What the hell is the kid hitting now, .470? Who does he think he is, J.D. Drew? (Actually, it’s .475 with 8 home runs, 30 RBIs and let’s just hope he doesn’t get in trouble with his coach by DOUBLING his old coach’s batting average.)

We are not quite at the halfway point; the Noles are 21-3 headed for South Bend and with the exception of the Mercer horror show and Jamie Arnold’s Miami mugging (not the first time that’s happened down there), even Link Jarrett, who is particular about the particulars, has to be pleased. While he wasn’t exactly rebuilding from scratch starting with Arnold and several returners, he did lose two first-rounders, one of whom (Cam Smith) is good enough to begin the season in a major-league lineup. (Why did the Cubs trade him?)

There is no reason for FSU to be this good for this long without a national collegiate baseball title. Maybe it’s in the water here. Oddly enough, this was just about the way things went for Bobby Bowden and the FSU footballers who, if Fate had been a little kinder and his kickers a little less wobbly, could have had a handful of titles instead of his matched set six years apart. But an Omaha 0-for-18?

As I noted in my new book “Diamond Duels,” Hank Aaron started his career against the Dodgers’ nasty sidearmer Don Drysdale 1-for-23. Then he hit 17 home runs off him. So maybe there are good things ahead for Link and the Linkettes. If so, it’s about time, right, Animals?

Messrs. John Abraham and Joe Charles — both look more like bouncers than pitchers to me (and I say that from a respectful distance) — threw brilliantly last night and totally shut down what had to be a demoralized Gator team. But then, they often look demoralized, don’t they? Coach Kevin O’Sullivan has been very successful in his 18-year stay there but why does he remind of the kid in math class who borrows your pencil, then returns it all chewed up?

To go 0 and 6 in the SEC, the last three in Gainesville where the temperate climate always seems to shrink the opposition’s strike zone - “I had nothing to do with it.” coach swears — must make living a bit uneasy. To see your ace reliever Alex Philpott slice and dice the Seminoles so effortlessly in the 8th, then get routed in the 9th, after he had a lead, well, no wonder those pencils will get chewed.

There are concerns, of course. It would be nice if FSU catchers stopped pitches in the dirt and, from time to time, threw runners out. It would also be nice if the pitchers did a better job of holding runners on. It would also be nice to see Cam Fisher get a chance to get back in the lineup at some point. And I’m grateful that Brody Delamielleure doesn’t have one of those hyphenated names or he’d have to wear two uniforms. But the kid can hit! And if a rumble breaks out, he ought to be able to lay a block - isn’t his cousin the former Buffalo Bills’ Hall of Fame lineman? Didn’t I hear last night’s announcer, when he wasn’t openly rooting for the Gators, say that? Let’s hope we don’t have to find out.

So, this history thing, you have to address it, Seminoles. And at this point, if there’s a player in college baseball better suited to turn the tide of history than Alex Lodise, I ain’t seen him. Whattya say, Seminole Nation? Ain’t it about time?

And finally, I would like to be able to describe just how exciting, insane, unpredictable, wild, goofy, improbable Lodise’s grand slam actually was last night but I was on my couch. And when I opened up my phone this morning, I saw this on Facebook, from, I suspect, The Colonel (Chip Baker) who seems to be many places at once. (You can do that if you’re under 5-5.)

I suspect Mr. LuAllen’s call will bring the moment back to you pretty well. (Bet he was speeding all the way home on I-10.)

Eric LuAllen’s call of Alex Lodise’s home run last night in Jacksonville. Turn it up!