While watching the NCAA baseball tournament selection show I couldn't help but think back to the old days within the Mountain State.
There was a young man named Jerry Retton of Fairmont - yes, the brother of America's Sweetheart Mary Lou - who landed a baseball scholarship to power Oklahoma State. It was stunning. The year was 1986 and baseball at that level seemed worlds away.
Today, though, that is not the case.
The reason: Via Tuesday's ESPN2 selection show, we saw WVU's team join the Big 12's party as one of seven conference teams included in the field.
"The No. 2 seed," we heard, "is West Virginia. Their first tournament appearance in 21 years. 1996. Blackstreet was singing 'No Diggity.' West Virginia will be taking on Maryland, the No. 3 regional seed."
And somewhere above, I thought, the Rammer was smiling.
You see, building a baseball program worthy of NCAA tournament inclusion hasn't been easy. Not for WVU. Not for the athletic department. Not for the coaches - including Randy Mazey of the current bunch.
As was mentioned, the Mountaineers haven't made the grade since 1996. It's just the 12th appearance in 125 years of the program's history. Overall, well, not a lot of fireworks.
Oh, coaches tried. Longtime coach Steve Harrick tried for 20 years and took the Mountaineers to their first NCAA tournament in 1955. And then along came Dale "Rammer" Ramsburg, who fought the good fight for 27 years.
"Two legends," said former WVU athletic director Ed Pastilong on Monday. "They affected a lot of people - and not only through coaching. They taught classes and were counselors. They molded a lot of lives."
There just wasn't a lot of overwhelming baseball success. Ramsburg did get WVU to the NCAA tournament four times in those 27 years. His best team might have been in 1994 when the Mountaineers posted a school-record 40 wins against 21 losses. Greg Van Zant took over for Ramsburg and took WVU to the NCAAs in his first season, that 1996 team. In Van Zant's next 17 seasons, though, WVU was blanked.
West Virginia was simply more known for its baseball personalities. There was "Rammer," who Pastilong said, "would always hold court." Ex-WVU president Gene Budig went on to Major League Baseball as the American League's president. Ex-football player Darrell Whitmore played in the big show. Otherwise, you had new school athletic hall of fame selection Charlie Hickman as well as pitcher Steve Kline, infielder Paul Popovich and current St. Louis Cardinal Jedd Gyorko. Nice, but...
Why? Well, let's face it, the Morgantown weather isn't a drawing card. Even back in 1986 then OSU coach Gary Ward was speaking about Retton when he said, "Coming from West Virginia, where they've got about eight inches of snow this [late February] time of year, he's about a year away with the bat."
Today, though, there aren't as many obstacles. And Mazey is taking advantage. Yes, the weather is the same. But the current coach has much more recruiting leeway.
"You can travel all over these days," Pastilong said. "Back then [recruiting was] regionalized. Rammer's recruiting was done by car, locally."
And then there's the glaring difference: WVU's sweet Monongalia County Ballpark has taken the place of old Hawley Field, which opened in 1971. Pastilong took up for Hawley, calling it "pretty good" and praised those in charge of its maintenance.
Yet the field didn't seem to help with on-field success and the Big 12 deemed it sub-standard, which led to the new ballpark.
Of course, there's also the conference affiliation. The best players want to play against the best. And WVU can now offer that. Is it not cool to tell recruits 78 percent of your league's teams made the NCAA tournament? (Remember, oddly, Iowa State doesn't have a baseball program.)
And now Mazey can push headlines like these in front of recruits:
"Four Mountaineers earn Big 12 all-tournament honors."
"WVU rallies in ninth, beats No. 3 Texas Tech."
He can point out the Mountaineers are a No. 2 seed in its regional, while - hey! --Oklahoma State is No. 3 in its group.
And he can play sound of Monday's ESPN2 selection show.
"Randy Mazey gets West Virginia to the regionals," said the ESPN2 voice. "You gotta love it."
Indeed, no diggity?
In regard to WVU these days, it's hot diggity.