“That team was done, they were done, they couldn’t find their identity and they didn’t really believe in each other,” Rector said in a phone interview with the Panthers, who were 13-10 and in full free fall. when the Birmingham-Southern Board of Trustees voted unanimously in March to close the liberal arts institution at the end of the school year due to financial instability. “They went 19-4 and won a super regional since then. I can not explain it. It was as if the weight of the world had been lifted from them. »
Rector became the baseball team’s athletic liaison a few years after arriving at the Alabama school in 2007. In this role, he introduces himself to the team’s freshmen and transfer players every fall and is a regular at practices and home games in the spring. He leads breathing exercises and offers muscle relaxation and visualization techniques to help the Panthers perform at their best on the field, and he is available to support players who are falling behind in their studies.
On Tuesday, as Birmingham-Southern held its final practice at Striplin Field before a farewell party at a local restaurant, longtime Panthers coach Jan Weisberg invited Rector to speak to the players, as he had before their trip to the super-regionals. and countless times before. As Rector considered his message to the team, he worried about the proverbial weight returning to the Panthers’ shoulders.
“Everyone is pulling for them, it’s the American team, and I was afraid that they would suddenly carry too heavy a burden,” he said. “I told them, ‘I speak for all of us – faculty, staff, coaches, students, alumni – and you don’t owe us anything. Last weekend was for us. You gave us a gift, and it was a gift. The last memories of Birmingham-Southern will be positive, after the last two months. SO sad and SO negative.’ I told them: “You changed the narrative and the outcome of this story. Now you just have to go play one more day.
The magical run of the Birmingham-Southern baseball team, which became a national story and attracted the attention of a documentary film crew, brought a much-deserved measure of joy to the city and the teachers, grieving students and alumni of the school during a difficult time. .
“It’s a bright little light in the middle of all this darkness,” Rector said.
While Rector grew up in Virginia and earned his undergraduate degree at U-Va. Before moving to Birmingham, Rod Moss grew up just blocks from BSC’s campus, where his mother worked in various administrative positions for the school. In 1968, Moss served as a batboy for the Panthers baseball team, coming up the hill for games after his nearby elementary school closed.
Moss’ older sister attended Birmingham-Southern, and when it came time for him to choose a college, the familiarity of home — and the discount on tuition that his mother’s position offered the family — was too hard to pass up. He counted several members of the baseball team as fraternity brothers and graduated in 1976 with a degree in elementary education.
After teaching for four years in Birmingham city schools, Moss transitioned to a career in hospital administration. His various jobs took him around the East Coast, but he kept an eye on his beloved alma mater from afar. Moss, who attended a bittersweet closing ceremony on campus last week, recently joined other alumni in changing his Facebook profile picture to an image of a baseball with the logo Birmingham-Southern and the slogan: “We’ll let you know when we’re ready to close.” He has fond memories of his school’s second-place finish in the 2019 College World Series and was moved by the determination of this year’s team.
“To do what they’ve done, especially with the announcement that the school is closing, it’s just phenomenal,” Moss said in a phone interview, fighting back tears. “It shows the rest of the world what it means to be a Southern (Birmingham) person. It’s a special place and everyone is so proud of these guys.
Support for the team extended far beyond Birmingham.
At last weekend’s super regionals in Granville, Ohio, Birmingham South athletic director Kyndall Waters, a former volleyball player at the school, was inundated with questions about how people could support the program in its final days. After speaking with the parents of some Panthers players, Waters’ sister, Kristin Sullivan, organized a GoFundMe campaign on behalf of the Hulse Patio Social Club, an informal supporters group founded in 2008 by the Panthers assistant coach’s father. Birmingham-Southern and former player JD Hulse. The group was a fixture at BSC home games, where parents would grill on a patio beyond the first base dugout to feed fans, the Panthers and even the opposing team.
As of Friday morning, the GoFundMe campaign had raised more than $107,000, which will go toward travel expenses and rings commemorating the school’s second trip to the College World Series. The remaining funds will be returned to the coaching staff.
“It’s hard to imagine Birmingham without Birmingham-Southern College,” Sullivan said. “It was a gut punch, and it’s going to feel really weird after next week, but it brought so much joy during a really difficult time. It was beautiful to see the community, and really the country, rally behind the team.
In retirement, Moss works part-time as an usher at home games for the Rocket City Trash Pandas, the Class AA affiliate of the Los Angeles Angels. He’s brought up the Birmingham-Southern story to his colleagues at the stadium over the past few weeks, and their response has generally been the same.
“They’re like, ‘Well, the school’s not going to happen, so who are they playing for?'” Moss said. “And I tell them, ‘They represent a school that no longer exists, that’s true, but I guess in their hearts and in their minds it still exists.’ You would have to go to Birmingham-Southern to understand that.
Both Rector and Sullivan will travel to the College World Series in Eastlake, Ohio, where the Panthers will open their double-elimination tournament play Friday at 4:45 p.m. Eastern against Salve Regina. With any luck, Birmingham-Southern will avoid another norovirus outbreak like the one that left about half the team hooked up to IVs behind the dugout and sent two players to the hospital before the second game of its sweep super regional.
Rector, who has received a credential that will grant him access to the dugout, will be on call in case Weisberg decides the team could benefit from his expertise. Otherwise, he plans to soak up the experience as a fan.
“It’s the icing on the cake at this point,” he said. “I don’t say that to the guys, because they’re competitive and they want to win. But for us, they have already won.
Many of Rector’s best memories from his 17 years at Birmingham-Southern involve the baseball team, including how Weisberg and the program embraced his son Ross, who is autistic. The player who caught Ross’ ceremonial first pitch before a game in 2014 still keeps in touch. After thinking about it, Rector returned to the question of how the team was able to turn around its season in the face of unusual adversity.
“Basically, it all starts with Jan,” he said. “His ability to navigate these waters is nothing short of inspiring. Players buy in because they know he has their best interests at heart, and that’s the biggest factor in how they’ve been able to hold on.