NORFOLK, Va. – Old Dominion head baseball coach Chris Finwood believes time is mankind's most precious commodity. So, instead of turning on a Netflix movie before going to bed, he settles down with a good book. Why waste time on the boob tube when you can read a classic?
Sunday night, he laid back and cracked open "The Wise Heart: A guide to the Universal Teachings of Buddhist Psychology," which counsels patience and love for your fellow human beings.
It turned out to be an appropriate choice given the circumstances.
It seems that every year his Monarchs have a "road trip from hades," as Finwood said. Last year the Monarchs had a nightmarish return home from a trip to Miami that, because of flight cancelations, ended with an 18-hour bus trip to Norfolk.
This year's nightmare began Sunday afternoon. After winning two of three games at Arkansas State, the Monarchs flew to Chicago Midway Airport for a connecting flight to Norfolk. But thunderstorms delayed most flights, and Sunday evening, the flight to Norfolk was canceled.
Finwood didn't bother asking for hotel vouchers because, he said, "we weren't going to find a hotel with room for 42 people at midnight."
So, he and his players hunkered down in baggage claim and slept wherever they could. Finwood slept on a bench. Others slept on the floor and even in their suitcases.
Such is the life of a college coach or athlete. Storms happen, flights get canceled, and you roll with the punches.
"There are times when I sometimes wonder why I'm still doing this at my age," Finwood said with a laugh.
Fortunately, those times are few and far between.
Finwood, who is 57, claimed his 600th career victory Saturday when the Monarchs defeated Arkansas State, 3-0. Given that milestone, this is a good time to reflect upon just how fortunate ODU is to have Finwood.
Now in his 12th season in Norfolk, Finwood is 328-253 at ODU (and 600-521 overall) and two years ago, took the Monarchs farther than they've ever been in the NCAA Tournament.
ODU won the 2021 Conference USA Tournament and was the first team in Monarch history to be named a No. 1 seed in the NCAA Tournament. ODU upended South Carolina in the Columbia Regional before losing a heartbreaker to Virginia, 4-3, in extra innings on a walk-off home run.
The Monarchs were ranked 16th in the final Division I Baseball poll.
Last season ODU was 41-17, was ranked as high as 18th and clearly deserved an at-large bid to the NCAA Tournament but was left out of the field.
WOOD SELIG PERPLEXED ODU ISN'T IN NCAA TOURNAMENT
Finwood took the 2014 team to the NCAA Tournament, and again, almost made the cut in 2017. The Monarchs were listed among the last four teams eliminated by the NCAA Tournament committee.
ODU is 30-17 this season, and while Finwood is disappointed that this team hasn't won more, ODU is on the best three-year streak in almost four decades. ODU has gone 44-16, 41-17 and, so far, 30-17, respectively (115-50).
The last time ODU was this successful was 1985 through 1987, when the Monarchs went 50-11, 43-16 and 34-18 (127-45) under the late Mark Newman.
The Monarchs play again on Wednesday when they host No. 14 East Carolina at 3 p.m. at Bud Metheny Ballpark. The game was moved from Tuesday night at Harbor Park because of the ODU's flight delays and weather concerns.
What's remarkable about this run is that Finwood continues to win even though the Monarchs play in a stadium that was state of the art when it opened in 1983 but is badly in need of an overhaul. Almost every school that Finwood and his staff recruit against have better facilities and that's markedly so among ODU's Sun Belt rivals.
ODU would have hosted the NCAA Regional in 2021 had The Bud been modernized, but it fell far short of NCAA expectations for its press box, locker rooms and other facilities.
Fortunately, ODU alumni were galvanized when they learned the Monarchs would have to go to Columbia, South Carolina to play, and a fundraising effort began. To date, $18.4 million has been raised for a $20 million makeover. The stadium renovation is in the design phase and the fundraising numbers continue to grow.
"We've gotten good players" in spite of the Bud's aging infrastructure, Finwood said.
"We've sold players on the university and relationships. We don't run away from our facility. We bulldoze right through it. We tell kids you're not gonna see the best locker room or stadium or anything like that.
"If that's what you're looking for, then don't even visit us. We don't have it. We're moving in that direction, but we don't have it. Not yet.
"If you're looking for a place where guys are going to care about you, work with you to help you develop as a person, and as a ballplayer, then this is a place you'll be interested in visiting.
"Kids that do come here for the right reasons. As we get a much better facility, I don't ever want to change that. I want that same kid."
Finwood hopes the new stadium will help ODU take the next step. He hopes it becomes the impetus that leads ODU to a run to Super Regional and the College World Series.
And he points to what happened at Coastal Carolina as to what could happen at ODU.
Coastal has traditionally had a strong program. The Chanticleers have gone to the NCAA Tournament 18 times since 1991.
But in 2013, the program took a giant step forward when work began on a $15.2 million makeover of Spring Brooks Stadium, a move Finwood said helped Coastal become a national power.
The Chanticleers played two seasons at the home of the Myrtle Beach Pelicans Class A team while the stadium was renovated. Just the anticipation of a new stadium allowed Coastal to recruit more talented players.
In 2015, when the new stadium opened, the Chanticleers upset both South Carolina and Clemson at home, went to the NCAA Tournament and won 39 games.
The next season Coastal went on what was an inspirational run for any mid-major program with aspirations of winning a national championship.
The Chanticleers defeated N.C. State two out of three games in the Raleigh Regional, swept two games from LSU in the Baton Rouge Super Regional, then beat No. 1 Florida, won two of three against TCU, defeated Texas Tech and then claimed two of three games against Arizona to win the national title in Omaha, Nebraska.
"It's not that much different here than where Coastal Carolina was 10 or 12 years ago," Finwood said. "They were a good program that was winning a lot of games, but their facility was just OK.
"And then they finally did something about it and suddenly everyone cared. It was like a perfect storm."
Curiously, ODU was Coastal's first opponent in the new stadium. Coastal won, 4-0, on Friday, Feb. 13, 2015. And while Finwood doesn't recall a lot about the game, he does recall a lot about the stadium.
"It's an incredible facility," he said. "It's beautiful. And their fans love it."
Coastal saw an attendance boom in the new stadium, and Finwood expects the same to happen at ODU.
"You give our fans better seats, premium seating, better concessions, better everything, and they're going to turn out," he said.
ODU Athletic Director Dr. Wood Selig said the university's recent move to the Sun Belt was a major boost for Finwood's program. The Sun Belt has eight teams among the top 100 in the NCAA RPI rankings. Only the ACC and SEC have more.
"In baseball, the Sun Belt is a power conference," Dr. Selig said. "We're going to send four or five teams regularly to the NCAA Tournament.
"We recruit nationally and we've got a great history, both long-term and recently. We have a fantastic staff of coaches. Throw in a brand-new, $20 million stadium into the mix and I think the sky is the limit."
Finwood's office underneath the first-base bleachers is packed with memorabilia. When he looks above the door to his office, he sees a framed column written by then Daily Press columnist David Teel on June 28, 2011.
Teel extolled Finwood's virtues as a coach but said he won't be able to build a winner without a new stadium.
CLICK TO READ DAVID TEEL COLUMN
"Every day, I look up and see it," Finwood said. "That was almost 12 years ago and we were talking about a new field then.
"It's taken us so long to get here. We're almost there. The new facility is going to do great things for our program."
Finwood isn't your typical baseball coach. The Hampton native described himself as a "bit of a hellion" at Hampton High School, but in the tenth grade, an English teacher got him hooked on reading. And he hasn't stopped since.
His Larchmont house overflows with books of all kids. Fiction, history, religion and philosophy are some of his favorite topics, especially ancient Greek philosophy. When he goes on road trips he carries three or four books with him.
Wherever he goes, there's a dog-eared copy of "Meditations," a Stoic Philosophy book written nearly 1,800 years ago by Roman Emperor Marcus Aurelius.
He majored in English at VMI, where he graduated with honors. And when he chose coaching as a career, he was determined to pass on his love of reading to his players.
He reads an entire book aloud to his team throughout fall practice.
ODU alum Vinnie Pasquantino, who plays for the Kansas City Royals, recalls Finwood reading "Legacy," a book about the All-Blacks rugby team in New Zealand, to the team one fall. During the season, he often reads inspirational quotes to his players.
"I never heard him give us a quote that didn't help the team," Pasquantino said.
When told about Finwood's reading choice in the Chicago airport, Selig said he was not surprised.
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"How many coaches or athletes would dare pick that book up, much less open it and read it?" Selig said.
"If there's such a thing, Finny is a simple but very complex person. By that I mean he doesn't require a whole lot. He's mild mannered most of the time. He likes the simple pleasures. He's not materialistic. He's not egotistical.
"He's also well-read. He's a scholar and that makes him a little different from most baseball coaches or managers.
"He's a smart guy who's driven to be successful but doesn't need the largest budget or biggest stadium to achieve success. He's such a grinder and a hard worker. He's set an outstanding culture of academic and athletic success."
Finwood tries to draw lessons for his players from everyday occurrences. Sunday night, the ODU entourage was joined by a dozen or so homeless people in baggage claim. They walked into the airport to get out of the cold for an evening, with some settling among the players.
For them, sleeping on the hard floor in a warm building was something to savor.
"A humbling experience," Finwood called it. "I think it gave our players a sense of perspective.
"It was warm here and there were bathrooms. If they can sleep in here, why not?"
Finwood said he's proud of having won 600 games, but it's something he wants to share with the hundreds of people, from fans to players to coaches and administrators, who have helped him along the way.
"The people that supported the program, that helped you get those victories, that's what it's really about," he said. "Nobody does anything on their own. If they're smart, they recognize that.
"I'm grateful for all of the wonderful people who have been a part of our success."
Especially Dr. Selig, who hired Finwood when he was at Western Kentucky, then hired him again shortly after he came to ODU.
"I can't even begin to quantify how important Wood Selig has been to my career," Finwood said.
ODU officials will present Finwood with a baseball commemorating his 600th victory prior to Wednesday's game with ECU.
Carolyn Crutchfield, ODU's executive senior associate athletic director, who heads the university's sports marketing, knows that Finwood doesn't like surprises. So, she emailed him to ask if it was OK to do the presentation.
"If you must," Finwood replied.
"Yes, we must," she responded.
Last season Finwood moved past Tony Guzzo (303 victories) and Newman (321) on the career victories list at ODU. His 358 victories are second only to Bud Metheny, the former New York Yankee who was 423-363-6 in 35 seasons at ODU.
"I never met Bud Metheny and I wish I had," Finwood said. "I've heard the stories that guys who played for him have told.
ODU Baseball players snooze in the Chicago Airport.
"It's amazing to think that he was the athletic director and baseball and basketball coach at the same time."
It likely will take him at least four and perhaps five seaons for him to catch Metheny. Asked if he he will stick around that long, he said. "That's up to Wood but I would like to."
"Six hundred, that's a lot of wins. I've lost a lot too, but thankfully, I've won a few more than I lost.
"So many tangible things have come out of those wins. Like a new stadium. That comes from winning.
"The new stadium, if we lose, we don't get it. That team in 2021, that was the tipping point.
"Yes, I'd like to hang around here a while. There's so much still left for us to accomplish."
Contact Minium at hminium@odu.edu or follow him on Twitter, Facebook or Instagram
Minium: Chris Finwood, a Simple But Complex Man, Has Led ODU Baseball to its Most Successful Run in Decades
