University of North Carolina Athletics
Lucas: What's Good For The Kids
June 25, 2006 | Baseball
June 25, 2006
By Adam Lucas
OMAHA--North Carolina won perhaps the biggest game in the history of the baseball program Saturday night. They did it with hitting, they did it with pitching, they did it with baserunning, and they did it with defense.
But this story is not about what North Carolina did on Saturday night. It's about what they didn't do.
More specifically, what Mike Fox didn't do.
He coached in one of the biggest games of his life. He is on a stage that could catapult him to national prominence, that could fulfill a professional dream. If his Tar Heels win two out of three games from Oregon State, his life will never be the same.
Most of us don't get to recognize those types of moments ahead of time. This week, he has. He has had time to sit for almost three full days and ponder what this weekend means to him, what it means to his family, what it means to the University of North Carolina.
With three days of build-up, with a national title in the balance, he didn't flinch at all. Fox runs his program on one bedrock principle: what's good for the kids.
How would you handle this? Your team is two wins from a national title. Your offense is pounding the ball into the ground against the opposing starting pitcher and the other team just took what seems like an enormous 3-2 lead on a two-run homer against your ace. Then the rains come. It rains and it thunders and maybe it even hails a little.
It lasts 71 minutes.
What do you do?
You can't yank the ace, can you? He's only thrown 77 pitches, so he's nowhere close to his pitch limit. He's your best arm. He is, at times, completely unhittable. And he gives you--er, your team--the best chance for a national title.
Fox pulled him. He sat down Andrew Miller after just five innings and went to his bullpen.
In the glow of a 4-3 win, of course, it feels like the right move. What's more impressive about it is the way Fox made it even when it didn't much feel right to anyone but him. He took himself out of the moment, out of the spotlight, out of the biggest crowd to ever see a College World Series championship series game, and based his decision on one simple thing: what's good for the kids.
"After 70 minutes I felt like that was too long," Fox said. "Andrew wanted to go back out but we decided it wasn't in his best interests. He has a very bright future and I have great confidence in our bullpen."
"I was a little disappointed when I wasn't able to go back out," Miller said. "But I appreciate the coaches basically taking care of me. I've seen a lot of pitchers get abused in the postseason. They have my best interests at heart."
Cut out that quote, frame it, and hang it above your door. You'll never find a better endorsement of Carolina baseball than that.
Consider this from Oregon State starter Dallas Buck, a player who has battled troublesome arm pain all season: "I don't think I've felt good all year...My arm hasn't been what it used to be all season. That's no excuse. I've gotten through it."
Buck has thrown over 120 innings this season.
Some people say you can measure character by what someone does when no one is looking. Maybe so. But it's equally impressive when it's done when everyone is looking. Mike Fox stared down Carolina's first-ever championship series game and treated it like little more than a fall intrasquad scrimmage with a predetermined pitch count. It's no surprise that it worked. Everything Fox has done in Omaha has worked. He plays a hunch and inserts Garrett Gore into the lineup despite Gore's bobbles in Tuscaloosa, and Gore has played with his typical wizardry, being in the middle of several key Tar Heel defensive plays and contributing an occasional hit. He makes pitching changes, juggling who he wants to face right- and left-handed hitters, and the bullpen throws four scoreless innings of relief. He orders an intentional walk to lefty Bill Rowe in the eighth to put runners at first and second with two outs and Jonathan Hovis promptly induces Shea McFeely to tap out to end the inning.
It was the fourth time Carolina has issued an intentional pass in Omaha. All four have worked out perfectly.
A fun team is now one win from something most of them have dreamed about. That's good for the kids, something Fox was quick to mention.
"To be doing this for North Carolina is great but it's about these 29 kids we have out here," the head coach said. "This is something they'll remember for the rest of their lives."
Good for the kids.
And here's something he would never say himself, something he'd prefer to be whispered:
Good for Mike Fox.
Adam Lucas is the publisher of Tar Heel Monthly and can be reached at alucas@tarheelmonthly.com. He is the coauthor of the official book of the 2005 championship season, Led By Their Dreams, and his book on Roy Williams's first season at Carolina, Going Home Again, is now available in bookstores. To subscribe to Tar Heel Monthly or learn more about Going Home Again, click here.
