BG baseball safe: 'It's a great day to be a Falcon'

"It's a great day to be a Falcon," said Romie Schwieterman during a phone conversation on Tuesday night.

Many people close to the Bowling Green State University baseball program are echoing his message.

Bowling Green had been facing a $2 million athletic budget shortfall due to the coronavirus pandemic, and the baseball program was cut in hopes of saving other sports from the same fate. But Falcon baseball is safe thanks to a large group of program alums who committed $1.5 million over the next three years.

"You should be proud of your alma mater," said Bowling Green Director of Athletics Bob Moosbrugger, a 1990 Celina High School graduate who played baseball for the Falcons.

A number of local Bowling Green baseball alums played a part in helping revive the program.

Schwieterman (Coldwater), Eric Stachler (Coldwater), Trent Dues (Coldwater), Todd Dues (Coldwater), Bruce Boley (Celina), Greg Becker (Celina), Neil Schmitz (St. Henry) and Nick Bruns (St. Henry) were all Falcons at one point. Many of them were caught off guard when the news broke last month. They decided to join the cause, and it took them less than three weeks to raise enough funds and change the administration's mind.

"Very, very excited," said Schmitz, BG's all-time leader in saves. "I knew we had a chance to do it. I mean, once I heard that first conference call and the plan put together from the guys who were leading the way, I thought we had a decent chance because I knew how strong our alumni base feels. Very excited for the players, the incoming recruits and all the alumni and current coaching staff as well."

"To see it just die right at the spurt of the moment, it wasn't like they said you have two years to do something and nothing's done or nobody cares," Schwieterman added. "If that would have happened, well, you'd only have yourself to blame for the finances. … To bring (baseball) back after two weeks or whatever it was, it feels good to be part of that."

This isn't the first time university alums and community members stepped up to bat.

About a decade ago, the hockey program avoided a similar fate. The program was on the brink of being cut when a group of alums and community members intervened. The "Bring Back the Glory" campaign was an effort co-chaired by Garry Galley and Mike Pikul, members of BGSU's 1984 national championship team. Olympic gold medalist and BG native Scott Hamilton served as the honorary campaign chairman. The effort raised millions of dollars to help secure the program's future and make renovations to the ice arena.

"To my knowledge, hockey was only being discussed to be cut," Moosbrugger said. "It was leaked prior to it being cut. That started the process. So it wasn't officially cut, it was leaked that there were conversations going on. And before they made any decision on the hockey program, they went ahead and went through with (the campaign) to save hockey."

The hockey and baseball situations have provided a successful model for how to save a program. Moosbrugger said other sports in jeopardy of being cut during the COVID-19 pandemic were men's soccer, golf and men's cross country.

"This model has proven it can work," Moosbrugger said. "They want to take this model to other sports teams and say, 'Hey, listen, don't take this for granted. This can happen to you in the future.' Who knows what the future holds for us? Obviously, COVID-19 is not over."

The former players learned of the decision Tuesday afternoon during a conference call. The most famous Falcon baseball alum, Cy Young winner and World Series MVP Orel Hershiser, was on the line. Hershiser donated to the cause, Neil Schmitz confirmed.

"He came through with the final push, which was great to see," he said.

Players are welcome to remain with the program, Moosbrugger said. On Wednesday afternoon, longtime coach Danny Schmitz and Moosbrugger had a meeting set to discuss the future of the coach and BG baseball. Schmitz is a three-time MAC Coach of the Year and has won seven conference championships. He entered his 30th year as the conference's active leader in all-time wins.

"He spearheaded everything to get things turned around," said Stachler, a standout pitcher for BG in the 1990s who earned a pair of All-Mid-American Conference selections. "We won the MAC in 1995 and that led to a few more after that. So we started to get the right athletes in there. It's a huge shout out to coach Schmitz and (assistant coach Mark Nell). The players just bought into it and we worked our (butts) off."

And they're still working hard in 2020.

Stachler was exchanging messages with roughly two dozen former teammates on Tuesday. They still care greatly about each other and the program many years later.

"We've got each other's back," Stachler said. "If something was to happen to one of them, we'd all be there."