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Wake Forest 2023 baseball season thread (Deacs end historic season with extra inning loss to LSU: Final record 54-12 and top 4 finish nationally)

Kudos. Well deserved. Hang it.

Distinguished list of WF winners:

Lowder joins exclusive Demon Deacon company to be selected for the award, as Tim Duncan (1997), Randolph Childress (1995), Brian Piccolo (1965), Len Chappell (1962) and Dickie Hemric (1955) are the other Wake Forest recipients.

Link to other winners

The other baseball player only winners:

1985 - BJ Surhoff
1996 - Kris Benson
 
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That is quite the list to be a part of and he absolutely deserves it. What a year.
 
Pilchard said:
Glanced through the media guide and didn't see any section for retired jersey numbers. If not, Lowder should be the first.
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Do you also retire Brock’s? All time ACC HR leader?

Retired jerseys are a tricky, slippery slope. Especially in a sport where no one worthy of it stays more than 3 yrs.
 
WindyCityDeac said:
Do you also retire Brock’s? All time ACC HR leader?

Retired jerseys are a tricky, slippery slope. Especially in a sport where no one worthy of it stays more than 3 yrs.
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I'd make the argument (and this cuts across all sports, not just baseball), but winning ACC Athlete of the Year (Male or Female) should be cause for retiring a number. There's two of these each year - one male, one female. That's a very high bar to clear - to be the best of all sports throughout the conference in that one particular year.
 
WindyCityDeac said:
Do you also retire Brock’s? All time ACC HR leader?

Retired jerseys are a tricky, slippery slope. Especially in a sport where no one worthy of it stays more than 3 yrs.
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I think you could easily make that argument. At the very least, some sort of ring of honor would be worthwhile.
 
CONeill said:
No retired jerseys for baseball; checked on it for a column and it wound up on editing room floor sometime in May.

If it were me, nobody would wear 4 or 25 for at least a few years while the decision is finalized.
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So to retire those numbers you’d be saying they are the 2 greatest baseball players in Wake history.

Don’t know if that’s the case one way or the other.
 
WindyCityDeac said:
So to retire those numbers you’d be saying they are the 2 greatest baseball players in Wake history.

Don’t know if that’s the case one way or the other.
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I actually like DeacFreak07's idea of a Ring of Honor (or similar). We've had some greats in our program, would love to see us honor those who have come and made a positive impact on the program. I still think ACC POY deserves considering retirement of a number, but a Ring of Honor could be a nice second step to recognize those greats (including a guy like Wilken).
 
WindyCityDeac said:
So to retire those numbers you’d be saying they are the 2 greatest baseball players in Wake history.

Don’t know if that’s the case one way or the other.
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Rhett was the ACC Male Athlete of the Year and is the only Wake baseball player to ever get that honor. On top of that he’s a first team All American and the ACC Scholar Athlete of the Year.

I’d be hard pressed to find another player who is more deserving of the honor.
 
DeaconCav06 said:
Rhett was the ACC Male Athlete of the Year and is the only Wake baseball player to ever get that honor. On top of that he’s a first team All American and the ACC Scholar Athlete of the Year.

I’d be hard pressed to find another player who is more deserving of the honor.
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Rhett is absolutely one of the best Diamond Deacs ever. He’s almost certainly THE best. He checks all the boxes. By almost any metric, he’s likely one of the top 10 (minimum) Deacons overall. You could certainly make the argument that he’s on the Mt. Rushmore with Duncan, Palmer, and Piccolo.

Wilken is likely worthy of jersey retirement too by the records, but he’s likely hurt by sharing a roster with Rhett.

At the end of the day, like half of this roster will likely find themselves in the HOF one day.
 
Without falling down the rabbit hole and doing a deep dive on Wake baseball players from the 1950s-1990s I think Lowder is clearly a top 3 player in Wake history and it’s pretty likely he ain’t number 2 or 3. Back to back ACC pitcher of the year, Third Team and First Team All American his last two years, most single season wins in school history, most Ks in a single season in school history, went undefeated his last season with the only loss in a game he pitched the last against LSU where he threw 8 shutout innings, ACC male athlete of the year, and to top it all off an academic all American while leading the team to the College World Series for the first time in 68 years
 
Wakeforest22890 said:
Without falling down the rabbit hole and doing a deep dive on Wake baseball players from the 1950s-1990s I think Lowder is clearly a top 3 player in Wake history and it’s pretty likely he ain’t number 2 or 3
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I also think there’s so much to be said for what you represent about Wake Forest. Under the radar, scrappy, high academic achievement, etc. I honestly think you would be pulling a Donald Ross to find some reason not to.
 
What's tricky about it is there's no precedent. If you retire Rhett's number (and Brock's), do you then go back and retire numbers from the '49 and '55 teams? How about the late-90s, early 00s teams that won ACC championships? That's the conundrum I found myself in when trying to write about it.

Probably what makes @mersk862's suggestion for a ring of honor the likely outcome. A nice, clean way of honoring both past and present without any overstepping of bounds or history.

But IDK. Part of me understands the need for some baseline/groundwork; part of me thinks it'd be an awesome gesture to honor players who changed the program's trajectory.
 
Yeah ring of honor makes the most sense. Put anybody in who has been first team all American or won an ACC player/pitcher of the year to start and then evaluate other cases. I totally forgot Bobby Seymour won ACC POY in 2019
 
Deacfreak07 said:
I also think there’s so much to be said for what you represent about Wake Forest. Under the radar, scrappy, high academic achievement, etc. I honestly think you would be pulling a Donald Ross to find some reason not to.
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pretty sure donaldross would say let's honor Rhett before he gets that sweet signing bonus, hoping he'll stroke a check in return.
 
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