BATON ROUGE, La. — It was a scene that just didn't seem even remotely possible a month ago. One that, even as I write this, doesn't feel real.
Mike Martin, standing in front of the visiting dugout at Alex Box Stadium after a 5-4 win in 12 innings Sunday night, yelling to the Florida State fans who were deleriously celebrating in the stands, "See you in Omaha!"
I mean, never in a gazillion lifetimes was this supposed to happen. Not this year. Not with this FSU team.
But you know what? We're all believers now. We all saw it. With our own eyes.
A team that went 7-13 during a 20-game stretch, a team that was one of the "Last 4 in" to the NCAA Tournament, a team that was the first No. 3 seed ever for Mike Martin, a team that quite frankly just wasn't all that good for much of the season … is now in the College World Series.
Mike Martin is going to finish his career in Omaha, Nebraska.
Un. Believeable.
"This night will be etched in stone with me for the rest of my life," Martin said.
"It's exactly what he deserves," said junior Drew Mendoza, who had a pretty big hit in the win. "We are fortunate enough to do that for him. So we are really excited to get there and enjoy this with him."
On the field after the game, Carol Martin said it hadn't yet sunk in. Her husband, in his final season, after having to scratch and claw just to make the postseason, is now heading out west for one last ride into TD Ameritrade.
A fan leaned over the railing and yelled to her, "Congratulations, Miss Carol!”
She waved back. She hugged her husband. Her daughter. And couldn't have had a bigger smile on her face.
During the Saturday game, she said a female LSU fan threatened to have her thrown out of the stands for cheering too loudly.
"She wasn't here tonight," Carol said with a wide smile.
If she had been, she would've seen the First Lady of Florida State Baseball celebrating perhaps like she's never celebrated before when Mendoza drove in Mike Salvatore with the game-winning run in the bottom of the 12th inning.
Obviously, Carol and her husband are used to going to Omaha. The whole family is.
But this year was such a slog, such an abnormal season for Florida State, that many of us were only left to hope that Martin wouldn't miss the NCAA Tournament for the first time in his career. In his final season. That seemed like an indignity that would be terribly unfitting for a guy that has been consistently winning for 40 years now.
Well, we don't have to worry about that now.
Mike Martin is going back to Omaha.
And he's taking a team unlike any other in Florida State history with him.
"Now I'm not going to get all teary-eyed," Martin said as he paused for a moment in the press conference to gather his emotions. "But I wanted this so bad for our young men."
That's been his talking point all year. Truly, it's been his talking point his entire career.
This season has been uncomfortable for the 75-year-old because so much of it has been about him - reaching 2,000 wins, chasing the NCAA Tournament, chasing the 40-win plateau, knowing the last game of the year will be his last game wearing the uniform.
None of us thought that last game was going to be in Omaha. Not back in March. Not back in April. Not in May. Heck, even the incredible three-game sweep in Athens felt like a lightning-in-a-bottle moment that would be cracked over their head once they got to Baton Rouge.
But nope.
Florida State went out and swept LSU. At LSU.
In the first game, the Seminoles were no-hit through the first five innings and still won.
In the second game, they were no-hit for a six-inning stretch and still won.
Hey, nobody said this team was perfect!
But C.J. Van Eyk was terrific in a starting role and Antonio Velez morphed into Steve Carlton in relief, giving the Seminoles' offense enough time to finally … somehow … score another run and silence these insanely loud fans in this incredible venue.
As the players streamed out of the dugout to dogpile Mendoza at first base, as Mike Martin Jr. fired his fist into the air, as FSU athletic trainer Brandon Stone hugged Martin so tight he thought he had broken some ribs, I just sat back and watched. Just for a moment, I wanted to take it in.
It's the beauty of sports.
A team that nobody believed in - and we were well within our rights! - proving everyone wrong by getting hot at the absolute perfect time. A team that barely got into the tournament, a team that was kicked around all season and buried by most everyone in the FSU fan base and media, diving on top of each other in Baton Rouge.
"Unbelievable," Mendoza said.
While I was asking him a question on Sunday night, I brought up the 7-13 stretch earlier in the year. He seemed surprised by those numbers.
"Wow," he said.
I apologized for bringing up old news, but I wanted to ask him if he thought this was even possible when the team was scuffling so badly back in April.
He admitted that naturally he had some doubts, but always thought the potential was there for the 2019 Florida State baseball team to figure it out and turn it around.
He also knows he was in the minority.
"I don't think anyone in this room, let alone the country, would've put us in this place right now," Mendoza said. "We are all blessed. It has been an incredible ride. We have always believed in each other, and that started last August. That is really coming to fruition right now. We just got on a roll and we are going to keep it going."
I don't know if this team is the one that finally does it. I'm not saying I expect it, but heck, why not? They just went and swept a national seed in their own park and then followed that up by sweeping LSU at LSU. In front of almost 12,000 purple-wearing, insane, liquored-up, Carol-Martin-threatening Tiger fans.
As we have witnessed first-hand the last two weekends, anything is possible.
But either way, no matter how the games go in TD Ameritrade, Mike Martin gets to finish his career in the one city he has always wanted to finish his career in.
I'm not sure if Baseball Gods exist or not. I do know that if they're out there, they owe Mike Martin a few.
So maybe it was preordained that his final team, one that barely got into the tournament at all, would miracle itself to Omaha in the most impossible-to-believe way. I mean, how else to explain LSU running the bases all weekend like it didn't know the rules of the sport? Or pitching to Mendoza with a base open? Or Velez turning into Kershaw for five innings?
None of it is seems real.
And yet here we are. Florida State is going to the College World Series.
Mike Martin's final game will be in Omaha.
Un. Believable.
Contact senior writer Corey Clark at corey@warchant.com and follow @Corey_Clark on Twitter.
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Talk about this story with other Florida State football fans in the Tribal Council
