Coach Jim Brady and the University of Missouri-St. Louis baseball team is in the thrust of one of the most remarkable comeback stories since the Cardinals won the 2011 World Series.
Like former legendary big league manager Tony La Russa, Brady is considered one of the best baseball coaches in the country. The Tritons, formerly known as Rivermen and Riverwomen, are quietly making a stir in the NCAA Division II world. They have won 23 of their last 30 games, secured a spot in their conference's post-season tournament on the last day of the regular season (like the Cardinals) and are now two games away from an NCAA tournament berth.
But also like the 11 time World Series Champions, UMSL is one loss away from the clock striking midnight on their Cinderella story. If they lose this afternoon (2:30 PM central) to Great Lakes Valley Conference powerhouse and soon to be D-1 Northern Kentucky Norse their season could be in jeopardy.
Sound familiar?
There is so much more about this team that would make even the most experienced writer a little dizzy with information and sources material.
Brady does not sink under intense pressure. He revels in it and seems to enjoy the pitch by pitch challenge that is college baseball coaching, especially in one of the toughest conferences in the nation that annually fields a plethora of MLB prospects (about a dozen or more of Brady's player have been picked in the MLB amateur draft).
He has over 700 wins in his nearly 30 year coaching career, mostly with UMSL. The past several seasons were anything but noteworthy. As colleague Cedric Williams has mentioned, Brady and his players have not played in the post season in nearly a decade.
A lot of factors played into that. An age discrimination lawsuit against UMSL, a home baseball field torn down and many other factors resulted into the several season of losing campaigns. Despite those variables, the longest tenured coach at the mostly commuter school finally found a way to build another winning season, for the short term and in the future.
It hasn't always been an easy road to success for Brady. The lawsuit cost him his marriage, made him a pariah to the university's administration and almost ended his coaching career as reported in St. Louis' Riverfront Times.
With a new young coaching staff and a reunion with Brady's former coach, mentor and St. Louis college baseball's pitching guru Ric Lessman, UMSL is back to 2003 form, when they qualified for the NCAA D-2 College World Series. 2003 Rivermen Jay Barron and Greg Bierling with former Washington University in St. Louis and St. Louis Community College-Meramec legend Lessman molded the Tritons pitching staff into one of the best in Division II.
The coaching staff took a common baseball and D-2 philosophy of recruiting mostly junior college players. Despite brining in some of the best local 2-year talent from a top program, Southwest Illinois College in nearby Belleville, UMSL did not receive any first place votes in the GLVC pre-season poll. The league's baseball coaches picked UMSL to finish sixth in the west division thus missing the playoffs.
But the upstart and underrated squad manged to seal a sixth seed out of eight possible in one of the toughest conferences for baseball, basketball and soccer (at least for NCAA Division II).
Unlike La Russa, Brady does not seem to be slowing down with age. With a crop of mostly sophomores and juniors, including SWIC tansfer, right fielder and GLVC homerun leader John Pilackas, Brady will not be retiring after this season, or anytime soon.
He eventually won a multi-million dollar settlement against former UMSL Chancellor Blanche Touhil, the same woman whom the campus' large and expensive performing arts center is named after. With it, Brady won what appeared to be complete job security in a profession with little to none at best.
If this season is any indication that Brady is still as passionate as he was in 2007, which if you watch an UMSL baseball game you will understand he still is, Brady will most likely continue to coach until 1000 wins and beyond.
The 2011 Cardinals may be the best sports story in St. Louis, but the team playing on a small baseball field (newly built about three or four seasons ago) on Natural Bridge in St. Louis' north county have one of the best men to ever coach the game. However the University of Missouri-St. Louis still does not appreciate what he has done for both his players and the college.
Perhaps a national championship would change all that.
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