There’s an electronic ‘stack’ of responses on my desk over Ohio State’s hire of Justin Haire on Friday, and our interview with him becoming the 13th head baseball coach of the Buckeyes.

I love the interaction with an audience of the most anonymous of all ‘Buckeye Nation’, those who care about baseball.  Lost in the din of college football, they’re the least-heard (or never heard) and we’re pleased to share their voice whenever time dictates.  Such is that time, now.

Notably, there’s not been one question over Haire, himself.  In fact, quite the contrary.  Optimism is high, as it was with the Mosiello hire.

“They should have hired him two years ago,”  wrote someone from Hamilton, Ohio, his hometown.

“Great hire…solid,”  came another from the state of Florida.

“We move on from the day he moves in,”  wrote another.  “We can be… SO…MUCH…BETTER.”

Hmmm!  Mosiello used the term frequently…we’ve got to get better.  He just didn’t have the button to push to make it happen, albeit his sample size was kinda’ short.

So it seems, through comments from the caring – along with realities of the past – that Justin Haire is just the first step to whatever good comes next for Buckeye baseball.  Great a leader as Julius Caesar was, however, he had other, bigger, issues that he simply couldn’t beat.

Quoting Haire and a comment from athletic director Ross Bjork about the hire:  “[He] wanted a coach excited about the program, how it is, and has a vision of how we can grow it organically and sustainably.’”

Reading further:  “A big piece of knowing who you are is knowing who you’re not,” Haire said. “Mr. Bjork’s been at Texas A&M and Ole Miss. He’s been in some of those SEC places. And he was just very honest, like, ‘Hey, we’re wanting to compete and be at that highest level. But the NIL capability for baseball is not the same as it is in those SEC places.’”

I didn’t read the post in the Dispatch, itself, but it was forwarded to me by those who follow college baseball, along with the following:

From Jim in Arizona:  “If the goal is to win the Big Ten Tournament, that’s always been sustainable. ”

From Tom in central Ohio:  “No one talks ‘organic’ when it’s football.”

And this from Doug in Scioto County:  “What’s sustainable with Big Ten baseball is accepting what you might never be.”

They’re out there, and you’ll find them from every decade of Buckeye and Big Ten baseball since the 70s – former players who’ve witnessed the inequities of baseball due to money.  In fact, ask a former player from any Big Ten school and they’ll share with you that there are two kinds of athletes.  There’s football, and everyone else.  The resources – sustainability –  about which Bjork cautions, just aren’t there for baseball.

They never have been, since the days of my Ohio State coach, Marty Karow, going from table to table at Denny’s and telling players what to order from the menu, according to their performance on the field that day.  If you played well you could get a steak.  If you went 0 for 4 you got grilled cheese.

They eat better now, but what’s sustainable is the reality that not much else has changed with baseball played above the Mason-Dixon line in the past 50 years.  It was not Greg Beals’ fault.  It was not Bill Mosiello’s fault.  It won’t be Justin Haire’s fault.  Trust it, ask all the Big Ten coaches and their story is similar.  They’d love to compete at the highest level, but there is that matter of dealing with what you’re not.