LOUISVILLE, Ky. (WDRB) – While his players dogpiled on the field in celebration, Dan McDonnell walked the other way.
He headed toward the losing dugout, spoke with Miami coach J.D. Arteaga. He hugged Hurricanes assistant Chris Dominguez, who as a player helped McDonnell and the Cardinals to the 2007 College World Series. The embrace was a long one.
McDonnell has been to Omaha before – five times as a head coach, in fact. But this time felt a bit more emotional.
His Louisville team had just edged Miami, 3-2, in the NCAA Super Regional, punching its ticket back to the College World Series. And once again, McDonnell followed his familiar routine: offering grace to the losing side, then embracing his wife, Julie, who'd helped him through the two toughest seasons of his career.
More hugs followed. A Powerade dousing. A moment of prayer with his team on the outfield turf.
It was some time before he made his way to the postgame press conference. More people to thank. More time around the Miami dugout — speaking with Dominguez, along with his wife and mother.
Louisville baseball coach Dan McDonnell embraces Miami assistant coach Chris Dominguez after the Cardinals 3-2 NCAA Super Regional victory. Dominguez played for the 2007 Louisville team that took McDonnell to his first College World Series as a head coach.
“I see JD in the corner of that dugout, and just, it hurts, man,” McDonnell said. “I've been there. It's so emotional. … To be that close to going to Omaha, I've been a part of it, so my heart does go out to JD and the coaching staff and the players, because they were so close, and you saw how tough they were.”
McDonnell, let it be said, knows how to win. He also knows how to lose.
But being disrespected? That was new. That was harder.
It's no fun when you feel like the world is moving on. When the big money and big facilities are going elsewhere. When some of your best players opt for bigger paydays. When recruits bail on you.
When, frankly, the media stops covering you and the fans stop snapping up season tickets, you notice. And when his program was snubbed for the NCAA Tournament last season, it stung.
“Just call it what it is,” McDonnell said. “We were disrespected as a program, players, coaches. Even commitments were just backing out and dropping like flies, as if we weren't the program that we built here. So, you wake up the next day ready to compete. You just start stacking days. Just start winning days. … Yes, there was a chip on my shoulder. There was a chip on our players’ shoulders. There was just a chip on this program’s shoulder.”
It would be one thing to say that the team nurtured that chip and fanned that flame and burned its way all the way to Omaha and the College World Series.
But that’s not how it works. Baseball seasons are long. And emotions aren’t always the best guides. In fact, McDonnell examined himself, and found some bitterness he didn’t like. He didn’t like where his spirit was headed.
Louisville baseball coach Dan McDonnell acknowledges Louisville fans after his team beat Miami 3-2 to earn the program's sixth trip to the College World Series.
And there may be some people who don’t want to hear where he turned, but if you want to know how he got through a lot of that, then you have little choice. McDonnell didn’t open the season with a lineup card. He opened it with a Bible.
For 159 straight days, through offseason bitterness and on-field battles, he made time for scripture. He didn’t read it to win baseball games — but it helped him recenter his mind.
And there was more.
There was a phone call from Ken Lolla, a friend and former soccer coach at Louisville, that sent him to his knees praying in gratitude. A text from a pastor he didn’t know, Bob Rodgers from Evangel Christian. Lots of support from Northeast Christian Church and its pastor, former college baseball player Tyler McKenzie. And there was a poem he memorized — a popular Christian reflection often attributed to an anonymous source: Two hearts beat within my chest. The one is foul, the one is blessed. The one I love, the one I hate. The one I feed will dominate.
“I just had to make a decision,” McDonnell said. “What was I feeding my heart? And for me, I had to start getting into the Word, into reading the Bible with my brother, with my wife, with the Gun Club - which is my New York buddies - with my pals from The Citadel - 159 days. And in one sense, you say, well, just because you read the Bible doesn't mean you go to Omaha. But for me, it does. For me, it's what's in my heart. It's how I can love others, and how I can treat others, and how I can coach others.”
His spiritual routine didn’t necessarily raise money, or improve facilities, or elevate the program’s standing in college baseball’s shifting landscape.
Louisville coach Dan McDonnell speaks to his players after they beat Miami 3-2 to earn a trip to the College World Series.
But it did allow McDonnell to be his best – no matter where the program stood. And as time and the years have shown, that’s awfully good.
McDonnell also expressed gratitude for the players who stayed, who could have left but didn’t. Eddie King Jr., who provided the game-winning RBI on Sunday.
“That was fitting,” McDonnell said.
He's had to tell players that if it’s about the biggest offer, they needed to move on. But if it’s about what he offers – baseball development, team culture, life foundation – his program can provide it. (And money, too, lest anyone think they’ve taken a vow of poverty.)
It can do all those things, and, it turns out, go to the College World Series. Even now, in the age of Moneyball.
As it happens, it didn’t matter who lost faith in McDonnell, as long as he didn’t lose his own.
No, you can’t get to Omaha just by reading the Bible. But McDonnell is convinced he probably couldn’t have led a team back there without it.
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