John Anderson, the soon-to-be-retiring coach of the University of Minnesota baseball team, was one of the guests of honor last month at a popular off-season baseball banquet in West St. Paul. The Old Timers Hot Stove League soiree, in a 1970s-era ballroom at Southview Country Club, featured Anderson on a dais along with Twins executive Derek Falvey, manager Rocco Baldelli, former MLB umpire Tim Tschida and other notables.
Some of the speeches went on a little long, which tends to happen at these things, and the program was already running behind when it came time for Anderson to speak. (Not that it mattered. The bar was still open, and no one seemed eager to venture out into the sleet and cold.) Former college umpire André Lanoue introduced Anderson, a delightful twist since Lanoue was responsible for three of Anderson’s five career ejections at the Gophers helm. Anderson smiled mischievously as Lanoue slipped on reading glasses to refer to his notes.
“Glad to see André finally got some glasses,” Anderson said. “He needed them 20 years ago.”
Once the laughter subsided, Anderson made clear he was kidding and complimented Lanoue’s skills as an arbiter, the kind of classy touch that makes Anderson one of the most respected figures in college coaching. Then Anderson spoke for a bit about why he’s making this season, his 43rd in Dinkytown, his last.
Anderson picked up the topic again last week during a press conference at the Bierman Athletic Building on campus, touching on the same points.
Anderson will be 69 in May. He’s spent his whole adult life at the U as a player, student assistant, assistant coach and head coach. He arrived as a walk-on pitcher for Coach Dick Siebert in 1974 and never left, succeeding George Thomas as head coach at age 26, the youngest ever in the Big Ten. He’ll depart as the conference leader in career victories (1,367 and counting at the time of this writing).
A rugged Iron Ranger whose mother wanted him to be a priest, Anderson has been remarkably adaptable to decades of changes in college baseball – some of which he championed.
While on the NCAA Division I baseball committee in the 2000s, Anderson successfully pushed to deaden metal bats after one of his pitchers, Ben Birk, took a line drive in the face during a game and needed reconstructive surgery – the third college pitcher struck in the head by a batted ball in Minnesota in less than a year. The more restrictive bat standards made the game safer and less of a home run derby. (Several years later, the NCAA switched to baseballs with slightly lower seams to restore some offense.)
But two recent developments – the transfer portal, and the proliferation of name, image and likeness (NIL) deals – made coaching any NCAA Division I sport exponentially harder.
More than 1,800 baseball players entered the portal after last season, Anderson said, and programs like the U with negligible NIL money struggle to compete with better-funded schools in the South. (The NCAA permits only 11.7 scholarships for baseball, spread among 30 or so players.)
Supporters of defending national champion Louisiana State, for one, funnel so much NIL money to baseball that Coach Jay Johnson claimed one player gave back his scholarship. That led Johnson to boldly announce at last year’s College World Series, “If you’re one of the best players in the transfer portal, there’s only one place to come,” per the Omaha World-Herald.
“We’re in the transfer portal,” Anderson said at the press conference. “You call kids up, they say, `Great, we’d love to come to your program. How much NIL money do you have for me?’ That’s the first question. You can find guys, but you’ve got to have the resources.
“How do you maintain your team and keep a team together unless you have the resources to do that? That to me is going to one of the big challenges going forward as they figure out the NIL piece, and how to get some guardrails back on this thing so everyone has a competitive chance.”
Anderson quickly added he isn’t complaining. It’s just the way things are. And the next coach better be ready to deal with it.
Recruiting kids to Minnesota, where winter usually lingers into April, has never been easy. Anderson did it well enough to win 10 Big Ten Tournament titles (most recently in 2018), reach 19 NCAA Tournaments and see more than 100 players drafted by Major League Baseball, with 23 making it to the bigs. But Anderson says he’s most proud of the program’s graduation rate (well over 90 percent), and how it prepares players for lives as workers, husbands and fathers.
“I’ve always tried to preach, let’s have a balanced experience,” he said. “Everybody gets told to take the uniform off and go home at some point in your life. You’ve got to be prepared for that day.
“We’ve had guys go out and make a living at the game and be successful at the game, and that’s good, too. It shows we did some things right from a player development standpoint.”
The U’s longest-tenured coach, Anderson has been thinking about retiring for a while, even before the pandemic and its aftermath left the program reeling. The Gophs haven’t had a winning season since 2019, the year after a formidable squad with future major leaguers Max Meyer and Terrin Vavra reached the NCAA Super Regionals. Anderson didn’t want to leave until things improved.
“I’ve seen (coaches) stay too long,” he said. “I didn’t want to be one of those.
“The pandemic tossed everything upside down. I didn’t want to walk away in the middle of that. I wanted to get us back to the baseline we had here for years and years and years. I liked the last few recruiting classes, the pieces we’ve added. I like where we’re at. I think there’s a baseline here to move forward.”
Last season, ravaged by injuries and shoddy defense, the Gophs finished 18-34 overall and 10-14 in the Big Ten – not great, but better than the previous three seasons. Anderson says the Gophs are healthier and deeper than last year, though injuries to key relievers Noah Rooney (arm problems) and Joe Hauser (off-season knee surgery) took a piece of his pitching depth.
He likes his weekend rotation with junior lefties Connor Wietgrefe (2-3, 3.76 ERA) and Tucker Novotny (4-5, 5.03), plus redshirt junior righty Will Semp, out injured all last season. “I’ve never seen him throw the ball better,” Anderson said of Semp.
Transfers Tommy Gross (Creighton), Justin Thorsteinson (Oregon State) and Nick Argento (North Carolina) bolster the pitching depth. The return of highly-regarded pitching coach Ty McDevitt, who took last season off to deal with the effects of Lyme disease, helps as well.
The everyday lineup features sophomore first baseman/catcher Weber Neels, who led the team with seven home runs; steady junior second baseman Brady Counsell, son of Chicago Cubs manager Craig Counsell, the only Gopher to play all 52 games last season and senior outfielder Boston Merila, son of former Gopher All-American Mark Merila, coming off a .303 season. The Gophs went 2-2 last weekend at the College Baseball Classic in Arizona to open the season, both losses to nationally-ranked Oregon State.
“If you want to win at this level, you’ve got to pitch, and you’ve got to play better defense than we did last year,” Anderson said. “We gave up too many free bases – wild pitches, passed balls, errors. Our whole point of emphasis since last fall has been on defense. I’ve seen great progress there.”
The unseasonable mild winter allowed to Gophs to practice outside six times on Siebert Field’s artificial turf, a first in Anderson’s tenure. That didn’t make up for the Minnesota Sports Facilities Authority’s untimely decision to replace the turf at U.S. Bank Stadium, displacing the U and dozens of other college teams from their usual February/March indoor home. The U is scheduled to play its first 22 games on the road before the April 2 home opener at Siebert.
Years ago, Anderson told me he never left the U for another job because he feared the athletic department would drop the program. Travel makes baseball an expensive proposition at Northern schools, and gate receipts don’t come close to covering costs.
In 2023 U baseball generated only about $395,000 in revenue against almost $2.5 million in expenses, according to the U’s annual NCAA Financial Report. (Shared revenue from football and men’s basketball makes up the difference.) Travel alone cost roughly $400,000, a number expected to rise this season with more road games. Baseball somehow avoided extinction when the U dropped men’s tennis, gymnastics and indoor track in 2021.
For now, baseball – the oldest sport in U athletics, dating to 1876 – appears safe, allowing Anderson to step away. He’s eager to spend more time with his wife Jan and daughter Erin, a U grad who lives in Denver. Traveling and seeing old friends are also on his agenda.
“I don’t think I’ll be bored for a second, to be honest with you,” he said.
