This could very well be the last weekend of Mike Martin's coaching career.
After 40 seasons -- and 40 NCAA tournaments -- the Florida State legend might take off his uniform for the final time up in Athens, Ga.
If that happens, of course, he will get another rousing ovation from the fans in the stands for what he's meant to the game. It will be much like all of the other ones he's received on the road during a regular season that amounted to a Farewell Tour for 11.
He'll smile. He'll wave. He'll tip his cap. And he'll answer questions in the postgame press conference like he always has: With class. Always crediting the other team, always thanking the media for what they do in promoting college baseball.
But ignore all that for now. The column about what he's meant to Florida State baseball and the sport in general is for another time.
This one is different.
This column is about a man, who after 40 years, is still so competitive that he gets into shouting matches with his son in coaches' meetings. It's about a man who can still make his players feel his wrath with a simple look. Or just a pointed word or two.
It's about a man who, to steal a baseball term I've always loved, is still a bit of a "red ass."
"Oh gosh, yes," Mike Martin Jr. said with a chuckle. "It's definitely still in there. I bet you can ask 80 percent of (his former players) what's it like when he gets going. And, you know, it's for the right reasons. Because of a lack of effort or the attitude's not there or the focus is not there. Those are three staples in this program -- focus, attitude and effort.
"When you cross him on one of those three, you better look out."
Tyler Holt is in his first year on the Florida State coaching staff. The former All-American and major-leaguer remembers the first time he saw THAT side of Martin.
It was during his freshman year. He still remembers it like it happened 11 minutes ago, not 11 years ago.
"Oh, it's scary at first," Holt said.
Partly because it was coming from a legend. Partly because it was coming from a man who has a voice that can go from a whisper to a shotgun blast in a millisecond.
Seriously, when Mike Martin gets fired up about something, the volume in his voice can almost knock your head back.
"Yeah, of course, I was scared," Holt said. "But two days later it was, 'Hey, I love you. Hey, don't forget this is just a game.'"
So this season, when Martin has had a one-on-one with a player, Holt has reminded that player that he's not the first to see that side of the legend. Those one-sided conversations have been as much a part of Florida State baseball over the years as the screen in right field and the Animals in Section B.
"He's done that to me, too," Holt tells the players. "He's going to be hard on you because we're all after one goal: To win."
That's always been the goal. And it will be the same this weekend. Martin is not up in Athens to retire. He's up there to win. And keep playing. And keep chasing Omaha. That's how he's wired. That's how he'll always be wired.
I asked Holt if he thought Martin had a lot of friends in college coaching. Because I assumed it would be hard for someone who is so competitive to not eventually sever those friendly ties with the guys in the other dugouts. And while that has happened to a few, of course, Holt said this one year as a volunteer assistant has shown him just how many friends 11 truly has in the coaching profession.
"He is such a gentleman off the field," Holt said. "Now if you aren't kind of nasty on the field, if you're willing to be a pushover, you're not going to win as much as he has. But off the field? It's crazy how competitive he can be, but then still hold those relationships off the field."
The one coaching relationship that means more to 11 than any other is, of course, the one he has with the guy in his dugout who shares his name. And yet, we all know how fathers and sons can be. Especially when they work together.
You get two baseball guys, with ultra-competitive streaks, sharing the same DNA and the same locker room for over 20 years, well, you're going to have some disagreements that aren't exactly mild.
"Tyler and Clyde (Keller, FSU's pitching coach) and anybody that's come into this program (as an assistant), that first time they've all said the same thing when we have our blowouts, 'Wow, is it always like this?'" Martin Jr. said with a laugh. "It's in hotel rooms during meetings, it's down in the coaches' area … but the players never see that.
"It is funny, though, that first time they're like, 'Are you guys always like this?' And I say, 'Yeah, that's why he's on one end of the (coaches') locker room and I'm on the other end. … The more guys in between us the better."
Over the last decade and a half, Martin has become almost like a grandfatherly figure for college baseball. All of the national writers and broadcasters love him because he's a great quote. Always polite. Always quick with a smile.
Fans and media almost always have polite interactions with him. Even when he doesn't like a question, even if he might be seething inside while he answers, he does it with a big ol' smile on his face.
This isn't to say that Mike Martin puts on a facade when he deals with the media and fans. I believe he truly is a nice man. A genuine man. A gentleman. There are probably thousands of fans who have met him over the years who would say the same thing.
He IS a great ambassador for Florida State and college baseball. He does care immensely about both. And there is a certain part of him, I'm sure, that has enjoyed the Farewell Tour of 2019 and all the adulation he's received on the road from opposing fans and coaches.
Deep down, though, that 'red ass' coach from the '80s and '90s is still in there. Let's not forget that here in the final stages of his Farewell Tour. That competitive streak doesn't disappear with age. That fire doesn't just extinguish itself. Losses still crush him like they did in 1982.
And if you're in his dugout and he doesn't think you care as much as he does, well, partner, the 75-year-old still has no qualms about using that shotgun-blast of a voice to set you straight.
He's told me countless times over the years that he sometimes wishes he could turn that off, that he could appreciate the journey more, appreciate the accomplishments.
But then that wouldn't really be him, would it?
So this weekend in Athens, in what might be his last NCAA Regional, you can applaud him all you want. You can shower him with praise and you can thank him for what he's done for college baseball.
But as long as he's still wearing that uniform, there's only one thing he truly cares about: Beating the guys in the other dugout.
Forty years and some 2,000 wins later, on the cusp of his last NCAA Tournament, and not much has changed about Mike Martin.
Contact senior writer Corey Clark at corey@warchant.com and follow @corey_clark on twitter.
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FSU's NCAA Regional opener vs. Florida Atlantic is scheduled for today at noon. The game will be streamed on ESPN3. Also follow along and chat with Corey Clark, who is in Athens covering the game, on our Seminole Baseball Message Board.
