Friday is the 40th anniversary of Florida State's close-but-no-cigar CWS trophy.
The year was 1970 and the Noles had breezed through the regional tournament, winning three out of three.
Then when it was on to Omaha, where they blanked both Arizona (4-0) and Dartmouth (6-0) before losing to Texas, 5-1. But the Longhorns would get their comeuppance two nights later as FSU wore out Texas pitchers, 11-2, and earned a spot in the championship game.
It was David and Goliath, college baseball style. The Noles were up against Southern Cal, winners of five CWS trophies and loaded with future major leaguers, including Dave Kingman, Jim Barr and Steve Busby.
FSU struck first with a run in the fifth, but it would be a long night against the Trojans.
"It was a heartbreaker," said Johnny Grubb, an honorable mention All-American for the Noles who went on to play 15 years in the majors. "We were leading 1 - 0 and had Pat
Osburn pitching for us, a real good lefthanded pitcher. We just battled all the way through, and they happened to tie the game up and brought in Jim Barr, and we had our relief pitcher, Mac Scarce -- both of whom went on to pitch in the majors. And we hooked up 1 - 1 until the 15th inning."
The Noles might have pulled off a shocker had Scarce not been knocked out of the game in the 15th inning -- not by USC bats, but by a blister on the index finger of his throwing hand.
Scarce was relieved by Carl Gromek and more bad mojo struck. With the bases loaded, Gromek fielded a chopper to the right of the mound, but slipped and fell, allowing the winning run home.
"They made a lot of good plays and we made a lot of good plays, but they ended up beating us 2 - 1," recalls Grubb. "I remember standing on the first base line receiving the awards for second place and none of us were very happy about it. I think we should have won it, but we gave it a good battle.
"We got a fantastic reception when we came back, with a police escort and everything. As a young kid it was quite impressive."
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